Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

OMG I cant believe it has been over a year since updating my system thread.
things are going well and I harvested my first trout of the season on the weekend. Some 1.2 kg fish but mostly 850 to 950 gms. Photos to come when I download them off the camera. It is the first season with my 2 roughly equal sized tanks that are interconnected (see earlier posts for the proposed plans). It works well and wish I had set up that way from the beginning. But learning is half the fun.

I have grown beans for the first time this season. I don't know why I haven't grown them before but they haven't disappointed.


The lettuces and capsicums are my main crops over summer as we use all I can produce. Oakleaf is the best lettuce variety under my conditions and in my experience the most resistant to pests.
below are a couple of shots I took on my phone

Fantastic,but not so long on the updates.. one question every thing looking so good whats your nutrient dosing regime for your system ?

Thanks Dasboot. I'll try and stay on top of things.
The nutrient dosing regime for the system depends on the crop and time of year but generally half a cup of seaweed extract each week or 2, nitrates are not a problem (too high if anything - 400+ppm during trout season) weekly to 2 weekly 4 or 5 teaspoons of iron chelates and potassium bicarbonate, 10 or more teaspoons of dolomite lime and 10 of calcium hydroxide weekly. All chemicals applied to the growbeds except for the dolomite lime and calcium hydroxide which I apply direct to the tanks.
The same type of plant can show deficiencies in one bed but not in another so there is more going on that simple application of trace and micro elements.

If I take out 2000l of water to put on my soil vegies and fruit trees (to keep the nitrates down) then I have to up the dose rate.

Occasionally I stop altogether in case the levels are getting too high for the fish and then keep an eye out for signs of deficiencies in the plants and then start dosing again.

The hardest crop to keep the deficiencies at bay is broccoli over winter but that has probably more to do with missing applications than any real problem.

Not real precise but it works for me.

Nice Marc....

Happy New Year to you all.
It is the end of the 2015 trout season for me with my last trout coming out on the 31st December. Last year water temps were cool enough to take them through to mid January but this year was a lot hotter.
Water temps had frequently been between 24 and 28C for the last month and at the high end over the last 2 weeks.

This was the first season with trout in my new system configuration, which worked flawlessly (more on that in my next post)

The fish were a lot harder to catch in the bigger tank but buying a much bigger net solved that problem and catching them was a breeze.

Most of the trout this season were in the high 900gms as we were away on holidays in winter and the trout were placed on short rations. There was a mix up in communications and instead of feeding them the 2kg bag for the month they only fed them 200gms.

The two biggest were 1186gms and 1290gms and about 430mm long.

Last year I changed my set up for a number of reasons. See 2 tanks- 2 pumps 7000l joined system for the background and the proposal.

Anyhow I had the system in place in time for the 2015 trout season and it has performed flawlessly.
The hardest issue was joining the tanks in situ and ensuring that the pipe size could deal with the flow rates. The 50mm pipe works a treat and inside the tank is about 1000mm of 50mm pipe with holes so that the fish don't go visiting.





There is only 1 float valve that connects to the power board for both pumps so if the water drops, both pumps go off.

I have had several float vales failing due to the plastic/rubber cable perishing and shorting out. Most fail within a year to 18 months. Real expensive when the float valve is part of a Grundfos pump. So now I tape the length of cable from the float to about 30cm out of the water with Tommy Tape. No probs so far. The float valves from Creative Pumps are cheap and do the job well.

I now have far fewer pumps and points of failure. If one pump fails I still have water circulation, at least sufficient to get the pump replaced. If there is a complete power failure, one of the 12v pumps cut in and move water between the tanks. I will modify this so that it pumps water to the nearest growbed so at least some ammonia will be removed in a situation when the power goes off and I'm not at home to start the generator.

One benefit I had not anticipated was the capacity to return most of the water to the trout tank. I have one tank full of silvers (approx 75 x 900+gm fish and the odd runt) and the other is the trout tank. Over winter the silvers don't need much water flow and seem happy to just see out the cold weather. One or more of the 3 returns to the silver's tank can be redirected to the trout tank giving a huge amount of water flowing through their tank keeping it well aerated and a lot of water movement.

The only significant problems I now have with my system is the buildup of solids especially in the blue barrels but the addition of a swirl filter or similar will resolve most of that.

Thanks for the update Marc, nice fish too, still feeding them Big Macs.
Great to see one of my AP Heros return to the forum.

Thunderstorms over the hills today. While I was outside there was an almighty flash and bang and yep you guessed it lightning struck our block. Not a big one thankfully but blew part of the tree apart and tore a strip down its side as it earthed itself. This was about 20m from the house and 15 from the aquaponics. But we get hit within a 100m of the house at least once a year. Everything has surge protectors on them to give some protection against lighting ... but not the aquaponics. A quick check showed everything was OK except for the fall over switch. This is one of those that Murray sells.
I quickly opened it up and saw how simple it was. The 10w LED light transformer had blown, so a quick trip to Jaycar and I had a new one. Easy fixed and I saved myself $145.



I'm not that good with electronics but will give 12v a good bash which has worked out fairly successfully for my caravan but anything involving 240v, particularly where it mixes with water and my fish i like to be sure. So I brought one of Murray's fall overswitches. Now I can see how they work they are a breeze to fix.

Its Trout time again!!!
It only seems like yesterday when the tank was full of trout but that was just over 3 months ago.

Troutman delivered this seasons trout yesterday. Thanks Troutman great fish and service as always.
No losses overnight and fish happily eating this morning.

It is amazing that you are able to get 9 months to grow out your trout Marc. With eating machines like trout in your system that long it is little wonder that your vegies are looking so good.

I have moved into the Perth hills myself now and i dont think I would get 9 months, although I dont have near the volume of water you do. Having said that, a few months ago i decided that it was too hard having a system with being away for work for half the year, so I told a mate he could have mine. Of course a few months later life makes a major pivot and I will find myself around home much more. I might have to get a couple of tanks like yours....

Perth Hills.

Looks like there is enough of us to have a Perth Hills AP club!

What does a fall over switch do?

Its device that switches from mains power to my backup power in the event that the power goes off. In my case it is 150amp hr AGM 12v battery which runs air and if necessary 12v pumps or if I connect to an inverter my 240v pumps for a time.
I can if I need to run the system off my backup generator.

It has saved my fish many times when the power goes out at night, when you are at work or away. A tank full of trout won't last very long without air.

Hi ya Rsevs it great to hear from you again.
There are a few of us aquaponicstas in the hills. We are different 'cos like Skeggley we can grow trout for most of the year or in Skeggley's case for the full year are you in the northern, middle or southern hills? Im in the southern Perth hills.

I can't believe you have got rid of your system. But on the positive side you ended up in the hills and time to build a great system.

There are a few second hand systems going so that may get you started again.