Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I have previously posted my system on the Practical Aquaponics forum. I have decided to post it here as well because there seems to be more members from california.

So I almost have my system setup and running. I am using two outdoor ponds estimated at 250 gallons (946L) each. I cut in half one IBC to use as a grow bed, 275 gallons (1000L). My plan is to expand to 4 IBCs cut in half, which should give me a 2:1 GB:FT ratio. Right now the ratio is 1:2.

I had my first aquaponics mistake happen as I filled the IBC with gravel. I didn't wash any of the gravel and the pond on the left became so cloudy it was like milk. I left that cloudy water in the system for a couple days hoping it would settle or filter out through the grow bed. It didn't clear up so I decided to flush all of the water out.

I had imagined that anything in the fish pond had died, but when I drained the water I found 4 goldfish and one minnow, all seemingly fine. I transferred them to the other pond and filled with new city water (PH 8.2). I thought I had just exterminated all the biology that had been growing in there, but by the next day, there was new stuff growing in there again.

The grow beds are 20" (500mm) deep but I only filled them with gravel up to 16" (400mm). I am using the affnan bell siphon. The stand pipe starts at 2.5" (63.5mm) and using a bushing and coupling reduces down to 1.25" (31.75mm). It then 90's twice and empties into a 4" (101mm) drainage pipe, which drops the water back into the pond. The bell is 4" (101mm) pipe with a cap and holes cut on the bottom. I have it housed in a 6" (152mm) pipe to provide working room. I also put in a 6" (152mm) pipe on the opposite side of the grow bed for a worm feeder.

My pump is 800 GPH (3000 LPH). I will probably upgrade it at some point, and will have one for backup.

I started off with 20 feeder goldfish and 10 minnows. I will be putting in maybe trout, sacramento perch, or catfish once I am sure it is working well. My home is located near the Suisun Marsh, one of the largest wetlands in the US and a major stop for migrating birds. So this morning I caught a large pelican in my pond (it was a beautiful bird). Although I didn't see it, I am sure he was munching on some goldfish! I will need to put a cover on the ponds.

I have started some seedlings to transfer to my grow beds once everything is in order.

Hopefully the pictures come out right so you can see them. I will post more pictures once the weather clears up (Raining here right now).

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The bell is 4" and the stand pipe is 2.5" and reduces down to 1.25" as it exits the grow bed. It drains into a 4" pipe which returns the water to the pond. I used the 4" drainage pipe so that I wouldn't need to put in a vent and it would drain many beds just fine.

Here are some pictures of my grow beds, stand pipe and bell. I also show where the grow beds drain out the bottom. I had a problem with the bottom of the IBC. It is slanted and so the bell and stand pipe are slanted. So far the bell siphon has functioned fine though. I still need about 3 inches of gravel in each bed.

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So I've been dealing with some issues with my gravel. First off, I have two types of regular gravel (being sold as 3/4" drain rock) available to me (see the pics below). I don't know which one is better or even if it will make a difference.

Secondly, it was a big mistake not to wash the gravel THOROUGHLY before putting it in the grow bed. I thought the system would clear any dust out, which it still might over time, but in the mean time the dust has been causing me PH and other problems. In the pics below, the dirt on the water line of the growbed is dust and is also what is discoloring the pond. The dust in the pond has developed a greenish tint, perhaps due to algae latching onto it, but it is for sure dust.

The 5th pic I posted shows the dust that was in the bottom of my wheelbarrow. It had rained the day before, and now that dust turned into concrete. So there is concrete dust in my grow beds and pond.

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Nice work I love the old water pump and half wine barrels, it has given me a good idea for an asthetic mini aquaponics system for herbs

I added the last 3 inches of gravel my beds needed. This time I washed it off thoroughly. It was a pain. I had to sift through it shovel by shovel and hose it off. I considered removing the rock from the grow beds and washing it. Instead I am going to wait and see what happens.

Trying to get the PH under control. I have been adding phosphoric acid and citric acid. Yesterday I was down to around 7.5, today I am around 7.2. I am going to see what happens tomorrow, hopefully it doesn't keep rising.

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First off, I used the PH down (as seen in the pictures above, read the back carefully) and my system seemed to stabilize in the 6.5 area. I figured my gravel was fine and planted it.

I couldn't seem to find my fish. It is hard to see the bottom. Then I did an ammonia test and whoa! crazy high ammonia. I thought maybe I did something wrong so I checked it again and same thing. I couldn't figure out where it came from until I changed half the water in the system, added PH down and checked the ph and ammonia again. It was still high, which meant it was the PH down. Turns out it contains monoammonium phosphate. Killed all my feeder goldfish which had sunk to the bottom. Good thing they were only $0.10 each.

So I did a complete full system water change. Checked the ammonia, still 4.0. Two more full water changes and the ammonia was finally down to .50. This stuff was hard to get out. I am thinking maybe just a little bit goes a long way.

I got 30 new feeder goldfish. Overnight we had a storm which blew my liner back into the pond, which caused it to overflow and the pump ran it dry. I lost 13 of my new fish. After that I got motivated to secure the liner better.

I tried to find some pure phosphoric acid, but it was hard to locate. So I got hydrochloric acid sold as muriatic acid instead. So I adjusted the PH of the water to 6.5 and left it over night. Checked the next day and the PH was 7.8. I poured some more acid directly in the grow beds where the water pours in and the rocks started fizzing! So I guess the mono ammonium phosphate was acting as a stabilizer. Like I said, I already planted the beds.

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So today I went to the landscape rock suppliers and got samples of many different rocks. I brought them home, geared up with goggles and gloves and face mask, and poured acid all over them.

This was far from a scientific test, but four of them bubbled and smoke poured off of them.

We have two types of 3/4" gravel in our area, one from Syar in Vallejo and another from Cache Creek area. Every stone from Syar bubbled and only a few of the stones in the mix from Cache Creek bubbled. Either way, 3/4" gravel is no good to use as media here in northern California.

The other two that bubbled were 3/4" dolomite and 3/4" silver stone. In fact the silver stone bubbled the most of all.

All the other types had no bubbling, but the clear hydrochloric acid changed colors, from yellow to yellow-green.

The salt and pepper stone turned yellow-green. Lodi stone, River stone, red lava rock, black lava rock, and ginger rock turned yellow.

I am not sure what the color change indicates, but the fact that they don't bubble makes them worth trying.

The ginger rocks are the five rocks in the upper left corner of the tray. What do you think of using that for a grow media? It is kind of large, but I have a ton of it. I just removed about 5 cubic yards of it from my front yard. It is a white and rusty red color. I called it chalk rock when I was a kid because you can use it like a piece of chalk to draw on the concrete side walk. I don't think it has any actual chalk in it though.

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Did you ever get Sacramento perch? What temperatures do they tolerate?

What happened to the rest of the posts on this thread?