Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Ok. Not a system yet but here's the existing fish bowl with a old potting frame we found behind the shed.



I found a trough to be a grow bed in Cheap as Chips yesterday.
The trough will sit on the bottom bench of the frame, the tank slighly under and it will be continuous flow, except we will be using solar

solar pump I know that might be a problem with no O2 at night but it will be too dear to get electricity out there for this little prototype.

Not far off now!

a good start

The bug has bitten!

Is that an old copper?

are you thinking what I am thinking faye?

Yeah - not a good idea to have fish in copper.

I don't think its copper. Its metal though.
It has two comets in there that have survived a year so it must be OK right?
I'm sort of operating on the assumption that the tank has no aeration and no filtration so whatever I do is gonna be an improvement ... isn't it?

Sam, scratch it with a nail or sharp implement to check - certainly looks like one of those old copper tubs - nice pickup Faye

There is a thread talking about copper and toxic levels, trouble is being a closed system, the Cu levels will build up which could prove deadly for the fish and/or the ppl eating them

I just checked with DH and it is "a copper" but he doesn't think its made of copper.
We're not gonna eat the fish. What about the strawberries? Will they accumulate too much copper too?
DH can test Cu levels at work ... do you think that would be wise?

Thanks for picking this up!

Would be handy to know anyway Slane..... see if there's a measurable effect over a period of time immersed in an acidic environment.

Here's the growbed I got from cheap as chips.
We need to either cut off the wire at the back of the frame or cut the edge off the trough to get it to fit.

Would it be OK to put a right angle at the bottom of the stand pipe and have the water coming out the bottom of the side of bed? That way we wouldn't have to cut hole in the shelf wire.

I know many people have loop siphons that come out the side of the beds near the bottom. Doing a standpipe that way may work but will also probably leave a bit more water in the bottom of the bed than it would the other way.

as TC says, it is not critical where the outlet is - just that there may be more water left in after each drain, but it mixes with the next flood so it should not stagnate.

Is that the position on the frame for the GBs? - not much height for plants to grow...an alternative would be to cut off each vertical leg above the frames and instead of having one vertical frame holding 3 or 4 beds (not sure of the height), have 3/4 separate frames with GBs on each.

This would be dependent on space available I suppose

Hi ElkayBee,

we're only going to use the bottom shelf because the pump we're getting only has 85cm head (or something like that).
The second shelf i could get DH to cut out. The higher shelves I thought I might put pot plants on.

samantha

you know that an 85cm means zero flow at 85cms?

you might not have enough flow at even your height