Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

bloody cold here this morning, FT down to 9deg when i fed them (8 am)... needless to say the trout weren't too active

updated pics. off to get some lettuce seedlings tomorrow, and capsicum seeds are germinating in the GH at the moment..
the assistant

gb

fidh- 110 gramms

Nice looking fish! How many do you have in your FT?

thanks 15 at the moment, i will increase on that in summer when i put barramundi in

You find your numbers are OK with that amount of fish and only 1 GB?

I have a biofilter which i pump 1200 LPH through. its just cycled up in the last few days, and i cant seem to feed the fish enough to make my levels move from 0 to a very faint reading

theres a pic of it on page 2 of the thread
Ben

I forgot about the bio-filter!
Was just asking as I am looking at building something similar
as the next set in my system.
Thanks.

yeah if i did it again i would cut the GB deeper, at say 300mm, instead of 200mm. that would make it a 300L GB on about a 5-600L tank, a bit more realistic sizng. the biofilter is only 35L, but works a hell of alot better than i expected it to, more rates for the plants at the end of the day

if my rates get to high from the filters i'm looking at putting some polypipe up in the garden shed wall and growing lettuce/ leafy greens. ill have to see how it all goes though
Ben

It's not the nitrates that are, or could be a problem... with that amount of filtration...

But the ability to process/filter the wastes... particularly as your feed rate increases...

With the size and depth of your growbed... even with the external bio-filter... you're grossly under capacity... by at least 50%...

And I suspect nearing oxygen depletion as well.... (see the recent HSM thread)....

You're running the risk of both oxygen depletion... and overwealming your filtration capacity with wastes...

While you may be able to backflush your bio-filter... your growbeds will probably become clogged....

Get another growbed together... pronto...

i found this bad boy by the side of the road today . . . 600L FG pond with no leaks.
im going to turn this into another GB, so i will have 800Lt GB and 7-800LT FT. any reccomendations regarding the size of the sump? will 100L be enough?
and also is pea gravel (the stuff that looks like hydroton but isnt) ok for a gb?
cheers
ben

What a great find!

good score, pea gravel is fine for a media to grow in, it comes down to how much weight your GB stand can handle.
As to sump size, well that comes down to how you build/add to your system

ah finally a bit of a win i dodnt want to use bluestone because of compaction and $480 bucks for hydroton was a bit over the top

found a old live bait tank from a boat aswell, 130L so going to turn that into my sump. ill put some pics up as it happens

as it will be set up as a new gb . .
just need to make a better stand . .

hi freoboy i am starting an ibc system that will be very similar to yours i am booked into challenger tafe later in the month and as i am new to AP would very much like to take a look at your system possibly while i am down at freo doing the course if you have some spare time and are happy to show me your system drop me a msg