Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi Everyone.
I read an article about aquaponics almost a year ago and then found this fantastic forum. When I saw the system picture galleries I became kind of obsessed and I knew, when I took the plunge, my backyard would never be the same.
Started around Xmas time with a 5kl plastic water tank, 6 ibc's, 2 barrels, some sheets of mini-orb steel to wrap it in and 10 lengths of old pallet racking to support the growbeds. (thanks gumtree ) Then I started digging and digging and more digging, which wasn't really that bad because it gives you a lot of time to think.

the start
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well I'm not sure how the pics got mixed up, oh well.

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Hmmm, oh well I guess we start at the bottom of each set and work up.

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Are you going to have time to grow this summer before your winter hits? How bad are your winters?

Winter in Sydney is comparatively mild so I have planted peas, beans,cabbages etc. Hoping it will cool down soon so I can get some trout in and grown before summer.

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Hi all.
Set up the air pump today which I grabbed last year from a refurb, it was headed for the skip ! Waste not want not I thought, this will come in handy for my future AP system.
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I think its about 40 lm and very quiet, even with the water pump turned off I couldn't hear it over the faint hiss of the bubbles breaking the surface. To my untrained eye it looks like a lot of air ? ? ?, coming from only four airstones per tank. It certainly disturbed the steady circular water flow created by the water inlet, now it all just boils up and spreads out across the tank.[img][/img]

Hiya rendang, coming along nicely, nice work.
Are you running 2 separate systems?
Are you going to put covers over the sump and ft's?

Hi Skeggley, thanks, all in all I'm happy with it so far. I enjoyed following your build last year,(love your work) its where I got the idea of joining 2 ibc's for a bigger sump.
Yes I will put a cover over the sump, thinking of a couple of big hardwood hinged lids so it can be used as an outdoor table(might build a pergola over the whole system one day). Wish I had of cut smaller holes in them as I've got to have some sort of a plastic inner lid to stop any runoff leaking in. I want to get some trout soon so I also need a ft cover, thinking I can make a shallow dome from 25mm and 20mm electrical conduit and cover it with a plastic tarp/groundsheet, keep the fish in and sun out.
Was actually just thinking today, (thinking about ap, when doing something else, imagine ! ? ? ?) that I've posted a few pics but not actually explained anything about the system, so . . . its not two separate systems but chift pist with one pump 7.5kl laguna maxflo pumping to both tanks. Constant flood for simplicity but I may convert to timed flood and drain next year, I'm getting a little worried about anaerobic areas forming in the deep growbeds, will see how it goes.
cheers and thanks for checking out my system.

Thanks back at you, always glad to get some positive feed back, it's encouraging, nearly a year of ap for me and am enjoying the ride. I've kept the fish stocking levels low and have had a good buffer when I've made mistakes which is my tip, I see too many unnecessary fish deaths due to over exuberance.
I've been working on my expansion today and will be updating my system thread soon.
I'll often take the stand pipe out overnight to flush the gb out in an effort to keep the anaerobic zones to a minimum although cookie has a good argument for an-aerobics in the gb's with his system..
Keep the updates coming, always nice to see a system mature and grow.

Hi Everyone.
Yes I will keep stocks low this year and see how the system goes, it may be unrealistic but I really don't want to lose any fish, not even one fish. I read cookie's thread, very interesting, mostly above my head but, I did think he was talking about an anaerobic zone in a filter not the growbeds ?
Hey, really impressed that you can keep trout over summer, everytime I've been to Perth it was stinking hot ?

Turns out my airpump is so old there is no spare parts for it so I'm going to keep it as a spare/backup and get a similar reconditioned one but upgrade to 80lpm.
Also built a cover with a plastic groundsheet to keep the sun off and netting to stop any kamikaze trout, temps were all down around 20c these last few days so getting really impatient now.
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Wow, big day today, haven't been this excited since I picked up my Ducati a couple of years ago (yes, I know, need to get a life). Due to a very generous offer from Ben G I went to his place and picked up 23 very healthy, robust trout about 120 to 150 mm in length which he had raised over these hot months in his system. And I've got a bunch more on order thanks Ben. They survived the 45min drive in a half blue barrel with a small air pump ok and disappeared into the murky depths of the tank, eight hours later no suicides, no floaters and all appears well. Fingers crossed if these do ok, I'll be well happy with all the hard work over the last few months.
thanks Ben

Hi
So far so good but they don't seem too interested in food, and due to the dark brown algae stained water I can't see if they eat it after it starts sinking so I'm a bit reluctant to keep throwing it in. When they do swim up and around the surface and I can actually see them they do seem a bit lethargic more like fat complacent koi than energetic hungry trout. Hmmmmm, so I salted the water to about 1.5ppt and will hold off on feed for 24hrs and hope that its just a bit of stress from moving twice in three days. Tested yesterday and all seemed normal (well normal for my new system) PH 7.8, Ammo an trites 0 ,trates 20 to 40ppm. I will try a large dose of patience, cheers.

What suburb u in? I'm at camden now.