Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi all,

I am going to set myself up and aquaponics system with 2 aqua planters I picked up off ebay...



So far I have the planters and 2 pond pumps. So early days yet.

Looking at raising silver perch and am located in south east melbourne.

Suggestions on the best set up from the more seasoned aquaponics people ??
Suggestion on best media available in south est melbourne?

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Is there any reason a side stand pipe would not work? After reading all of the posts, this looks to be the easiest safest option is to use a timer on my pump and a stand pipe !
Very basically this is what im putting together!

I have some 7mm pea gravel on its way and some silver perch fingerlings on order.
I have some beetroot, mixed herbs, spinach and asian greens sprouting in anticipation.

This weekend ill dig the tanks into the ground a little ( I am very short !) and clean out the tanks, ready to plumb up.

Ready to fill up!! Now I'm getting excited!

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How do you get into the fish? Do you have to lift the top off

The holes on the side of the growbed are down into the tank underneath. One side has the pump in it and the other has the standpipe. Ill take a pic of what it looks like in there

Hope they are very sturdy plastic. Wouldnt like to see them buckle on a very hot summers day

I see the holes but Im concerned that if issues arise with fish or maybe a fatality could go easily unnoticed. Im not sure how you would net out a floater if it may occur. Catching dinner may also be problematic. Sorry not trying to damper you great work but just want you to be aware of system design and ease of operation.,

mmm good point. ill cut holes bigger and keep level low enough to see the top of the water. thx for the thought.

neat looking units, they look fairly solid.

sort of like a Rolls Royce version of the standard IBC system.

the cutaway drawing shows a hollow cone in the middle, is anything in there or is it for supporting the GB?

Assuming its there for support. Not sure what the manufacturer had in mind to stop garden falli g through hole. I stuck the plastic I cut out for the hole in the top. They do feel solid the plastic is quite thick. I also hope they don't decide to collapse! Now I'm trawling through forum on how many dish and how much to feed them each tank holds 800 l water and 0.3 m2 of gravel. The supplier suggested 30 fish per tank. Any thoughts?

It looks like it's a water culture system and not meant for fish, as Charlie said you'll have problems with the fish so you may need to modify the tanks to be more fish accessible.

is there any reason why it would not work as long as I have accesss to the fish which in my very inexperienced humble opinion would only involve making access holes big enough to fit a net in and keeping water level to where the surface is visible. I have put in too much work in the last 3 weeks to start over Without at least exploring the possibility it will work so any tips to make this work would be appreciated

should be fine, harvesting fish may be problematic but I'm sure you'll sort out a method.

barb-less hook on a fishing line maybe?

as long as you can see that the fish are ok.

Yes I think it will work well system wise, kinda cool that it comes as a package and I haven't seen these planter things before. The only issue as mentioned is the ability to see into and get access to the FT but you should be able to work around it. I just know after having a system for a while you spend less and less time with it and if you have a sick or dead fish it can easily go unnoticed, this can compound quickly as you could understand.

Hi all, my spinach is wilting and my asian greens are all bolting quite early. Fish are still healthy but not growing much, although i understand this is normal for winter. Would the wilting/bolting possibly be due to too low a nutrient load in the water? If this is the case is there a fish safe nutrient i can use? Or would adding a couple of larger fish help? TIA.