Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

So, where was I?

Started digging...

System as of tonight.

Have added bulkhead fittings to growbeds, cut holes into growbed supports, and corresponding holes in the FT tops for the water to drain back in.

Still a fair bit to do, but getting there. Managed to use the IBC lower tray as a support, just unbolted the bottom section.

Have two 1000L/hr pumps, one in each tank. Planning on having them pump into the opposite GB to keep the water circulating around. Need to sort out some aeration, as well as a proper tidy up of the back garden...

Oh, and a fair pile of gravel to wash.

7 posts in a row without reply. I was thinking it was time for moral support.

good work curly. Keep it up.

Haha, thanks!

Will look a bit better once there's plants, gravel and fish in there.

Looking good

It's probably an optical illusion... but is one of the inter-connected IBC's higher than the other??

Yeah, it happens every now and again.

It is looking good Curly - keep going.

What side of the house is the system on ? Curious about what sort of temps you can expect.

To the professional eye you can see the land slope down the the left.


p.s. looking good curly

Im a little concerned about the bases on your GB's, will you be supporting them? I know that mine bow like hell between each brace so I wouldnt trust it supporting the bed just on the edges. Just 3 simple cross beams will do the trick.

To my eye that looked to be the case as well...

with the tanks interconnected... that means the water level in the "higher" tank... will need to be kept lower than at least 100mm from the top of the lower IBC...

Good questions!

In one of the photos yes, one of the IBC FTs was a bit higher, but not now. Used a spirit level on a pipe between the two to confirm and everything!

The ground does slope down a bit from right to left.

As for supporting the IBC frames, they sit on some leftover sandstone pieces below ground. I was a bit worried about the frames sinking into the ground, and that seemed to be a reasonable solution. Left the GBs overnight almost full of water and they didn't sink at all, so we'll see how they go when they're full of gravel too.

With the support on the GBs - it's actually supported completely by the steel base of the IBC container. Shouldn't bow at all. I unscrewed the lower framework (that gives clearance for forklifts) just leaving the sheet metal base. Had to cut a hole in it for the standpipe drain (which I'm sure the neighbours loved hearing at 8pm last night).

The photos are facing west, so the system won't get much afternoon sun (unless some plants grow seriously tall). Not sure whether that will be a problem or a blessing at this point.

Yea that was my point curly, Removing the supporting base frame really weakens it. I cut the frames off the bottom of mine and left the sheet steel base (its really flimsy), I put three lengths of steel across the top of the FT then sat my GB on that and I noticed that it is bowing inbetween each beam as I filled with gravel. Ill get a photo this arvo for you. If your going to use hyrdoton you wont have this issue.

Oh, ok. Thanks for the tip - I'll see how it's handling it and look at bracing it a little better.

Am planning on running 18mm pea gravel with a few bags of hydroton on top.

Cheers.

Here's what I mean, you can see the weight has bowed it between the supports, I mean we are talking 400kg or so. In the last pic you can see I added more support to assist.