Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

After lots of research on a myriad of aquaponics systems, I took the plunge and designed my first system - 'The Fish Farm' (the previous project was 'The Chook Condo') - to fit under and on my west facing pergola. The IBC of Aquaponics was a great help along with the generous sharing of information, experiences and set ups by members of this forum and elsewhere.

I am very excited having just completed Stage 1 of 'The Fish Farm' today. Been having a ball constructing my CHIFT PIST system over the last few weeks from two IBCs, a 1/2 olive barrel and a lot of PVC pipe. One IBC is the fish tank in which I plan grow out trout over the cooler months, and the other is cut with the top 1/3 flipped as the ebb and flood grow bed and the bottom 2/3 as the sump tank which will contain yabbies. There is also a 1/2 olive barrel constant flood grow bed to provide flow adjustment for the main grow bed. I clad the beds and tanks with old fence palings to blend in with the garden and protect the IBCs from UV degradation.

Today, I finished off washing the 1/2 cubic metre of 10-20mm granite rocks and loading them into the grow beds, and planted out lettuce and spinach seedlings with beetroot seeds in the main bed, and watercress seeds in the barrel bed (its now been raining all afternoon - I wonder if it has flushed the watercress seeds through the whole system?!?). A 40w 2000 l/hr pump operating at around 1000 l/hr circulates water from the sump tank to the fish tank where it goes to the grow beds via the solids lift overflow. A bell siphon allows the main grow bed to fill in ~10 minutes and drains in around 2 minutes - was tricky to get it both firing and stopping, but it is working well now thanks to tips on the forum.

I filled the system a few days ago to test the set up - some revision was required, including upsizing the solids lift overflow so the fish tank didn't overfill. The water has been circulating since to gas off the chlorine. Today, I seeded the system with buckets of water from the old fish pond which the Labrador uses as a plunge pool - it has a thriving ecosystem approximating the primordial soup from which life first arose. I also added a bit of liquid seaweed and worm wee to kick it off and feed the seedlings. I will head down to the weir pool tomorrow with the yabby net and fishing rod. The yabbies should be fine in the sump tank (have put in a heap of PVC pipe offcuts for them to hide in) and a couple of big carp in the fish tank should cycle the system nicely over the next couple of weeks. As the system matures, I will put some compost worms from the worm farm into the main grow bed to take care of the solids from the fish tank.

Stage 2 will be 20 one metre 90mm PVC grow towers which I have been fabricating for strawberries and other yummy plants. These will hang on the outside of the pergola and the pump will fill a header pipe with taps to each tower, and a collection pipe will return the water from the grow towers to the fish tank. I will fill the towers with old bird netting to act as a substrate for the bacterial film - I have plenty of torn netting laying around to use, and it is similar to the orange bag filter I made for a past fish pond. The pump should do the job, but if it can't cope with the head (~1.9m), I will get the 75w 3000 l/hr pump and keep the smaller one as a backup.

I will add more as the system develops... Fingers crossed it all goes well

Welcome to the forum & AP addiction.
Your system looks great & I love the timber cladding - very neat!
Keep us up to date with pics,
Cheers.

Thought I would add some pics of the construction...
The towers are based on Gunnar Shaffer's design https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LmydJnqMBI - I use a heat gun for around 20 seconds to soften around the cuts and then use a rounded wooden wedge to shape the holes. I plan to fill them with old bird net or hay net as the medium and just poke in the strawberry runners in the holes.
Drilling the IBC frames and battening them off was a tedious job, but worth the effort. I used the plastic IBC base for the grow bed and made cut outs with a multi-tool (finally found a use for the silly thing) so it would sit firmly on the sump tank frame. The back of the grow bed is supported on off cuts of treated pine sleepers on large concrete pavers. Treated pine boards were added to the sump tank frame below ground level to take the weight of the soil off the IBC liner. The fish tank sits on the metal base of the IBC cage with the forklift platform removed.

All lookin' good JoC, and I just love those towers

I believe Glenmaggie is well stocked with Bass & Trout these days and will be a great spot to get your fish.

Hi joc,
The first part looks good so far.

To your Idea about trout: If you get a chiller heatpump you can keep trout all year round. A small one would be enough with good shade over your system.
I'd like to know how hot your water gets during the day,
what type of air pump you use
and why did you decide to use granite rocks?

Cheers Bastian

Hi Bastian,

Only filled the system last weekend, so not sure of temperature yet. Will start to monitor in the next few days when my test gear arrives. The towers will be in the afternoon sun, and even when shaded by their plantings are likely to heat up the water a bit due to the large exposure to the ambient air within the tower media. Will monitor temp before I hook in the towers to see if there is much of a difference.

I used granite because it was locally available at a good price in the right size and pH neutral. The clay balls are extremely expensive and there was no local supply. The local scoria was a bit small with too many fines for my liking. The granite seemed to have more texture than the blue metal, so I thought that would be better for the bacteria to colonise and it is a lovely pink colour :-).

At the moment, I don't plan to use an air pump as the water will be circulating through the 20 towers with lots of aeration before entering the fish tank through a distribution ring pipe with drill holes every few centimetres. Will see how that goes, and it may depend on how heavily I stock the fish tank.

Went yabbying today in the local weir pool - was too impatient to wait in the middle of the day, and went back this evening to find the baits gone, so there are hungry yabbies in there. Will try again first thing in the morning.

Stage 2 underway with painting of the grow towers. No luck with catching yabbies in the weir pool, it was long-necked turtles taking the bait. But I did get some duckweed for the sump tank and fish tank. Have sourced some yabbies through a local hobby farm 'buy, swap, sell' facebook group - will pick them up once the kids have gone yabbying on the weekend. Bulk strawberry plants are not available from the Diggers catalogue until May, but a member of the Gippsland Aquaponics facebook group has plenty of runners in her garden that I can get when the towers are ready. This social media stuff can be useful...

My system is now populated. There are 10 yabbies in the sump tank, and 3 large european carp in the fish tank. The carp will stay until the system has cycled and I can pick up some trout fingerlings. The yabbies will hopefully breed up in the sump tank for future harvest.

I finished off the fence paling trim around the top edges of the tanks and growbed. The boards are removable to give easy access to the tanks and plumbing. Planted out some more spinach seedlings and a black passionfruit to train along the pergola. There is a nice biological film developing on the surfaces. Last week I added a couple of buckets of murky pond water and a bit of liquid seaweed and worm wee from the worm farm to kick it off. The carp and yabbies should continue the process.

Heeding the warnings about rampant mint in grow beds, I planted some around the base of the fish tank where it is damp from occasional drips from the plumbing. I have not glued any of the fittings yet, and may not need to.

Now it is back to the grow towers for stage 2.

Three exciting things today:
- my water test kit arrived
- my beetroot seeds have germinated in the growbed
- yabbies eat zucchinis!

A quick update on 'The Fish Farm'. After checking some threads on nutrient levels and cycling, I decided up the ammonia levels to aid cycling. I figured that Seasol Powerfeed is just regular liquid seaweed with some fish emulsion added. I had some Charlie Carp fish emulsion, so added a few capfuls yesterday morning and tested the water in the evening. Its a bit stinky, so just as well I am a farm girl and quite like those 'earthy' aromas, especially since my system is right outside my bedroom window!

pH 7.6
ammonia 0.5 ppm
nitrite 0.5 ppm
nitrate 0-5 ppm (could be 0, but the colour seems a bit more intense than the 0 reading on the card)

Adding the Charlie Carp doubled the ammonia and nitrite, but I think I still need to get it up to around 2 ppm to cycle effectively. Although it would appear that the nitrosomonas bacteria are already establishing and converting ammonia to nitrite, so will keep a close eye on the nitrite and not worry too much about getting the ammonia level up. The Charlie Carp is a hose pack so it is already diluted 1:4 from the concentrate, so I added another couple of capfuls last night as my system contains around 1600 litres between the FT and ST. I will test again this evening and then leave it alone (if I can!) and concentrate on getting my Stage 2 towers set up.

While the yabbies did eat the zucchini, they prefer grated carrot which sinks beautifully. I can lose a lot of time watching the yabbies. The two really big ones have occupied opposite ends of the ST and all the others give them a wide berth. The little ones love the 25 mm PVC pipe hidey-holes and the large yabbies occupy the 32 & 50 mm ones. I found one of the big yabbies half out of the water climbing up the pump power cord - I don't think it can make it all the way out of the ST though.

The sacrificial fish that shall not be named in the FT are down to 2 now, and nearly down to 1. One did not survive the first night as it had been out on the bank too long and is now buried in the dirt garden as fertiliser. Another one decided to try flying and I found it on the gravel path covered in dirt and nearly dry - however it survived after some fishy resuscitation. I now have mesh over the FT! Then my Dad kindly pointed out that I cannot 'posses, transport or relocate' said fish as they are a declared noxious species - I knew that, but was so focused on cycling my AP system, that I didn't think about it! So they will shortly become fertiliser in the dirt garden along with the one that didn't make it. Back to yabby cycling with the help of Charlie Carp in a bottle (ironically made from 100% European Carp).

I REALLY want to get my trout fingerlings as soon as the system cycles! And some fish food too. Will check out Noojee Trout Farm first, then look further afield in the Yarra Valley if I have to.

The watercress seeds are now germinating in the CF GB - yay!

@joc - Hi and welcome, as for yabbies and power cords, you should look into getting the cord out of reach if possible. If not, look for ways to protect it. I do not keep yabbies, but i used to have red-claws, and the strip my power cord down to the copper wires and gave me a nasty shock when i reached in to tinker with the tank at night.

Regards

Yikes Curious!!! I didn't think of that. I will go put some split aggie pipe around the cord right away. A few years back I had to use it around the TV cables to stop the rabbit chewing them...

@joc - Heh, is the rabbit still around?? Yeah, now i don't tinker at night and always keep an eye on the cables before reaching into the tank even when i am no longer keeping red-claws.

Keep your thread updated in regards of the yabbies portion, i am interested to see your progress.

Regards

Okay, looks like Charlie Carp has done the job in raising ammonia & nitrite levels. Running at around 1ppm for each this afternoon. pH is still between 7.4 & 7.8, and nitrite is 0 to 5 ppm and remains unchanged. Should I keep adding more Charlie Carp or hold off for a few days and keep checking?





Had to throw in a photo of the watercress - they are so tiny I can hardly see them without my glasses (yup - the joys of middle age...)



Wow, I've just discovered how to place my photos within the text

Will have some questions about my grow tower set up in next post...

It was a preventative measure after my childhood rabbit, Thumper (how original ) survived blowing up the TV and my Dad's retribution However, my son did like to play computer with his rabbit on his lap and had his speaker cables chewed through. Sadly, the rabbit escaped after a couple years in easy street and rejoined its wild companions - it was a rescued baby wild rabbit that the cat had caught.

Back to the yabbies - I stuck a milk crate with some rocks in the ST to provide some cover for babies if the yabbies decide to do the deed. Some of them like hanging around on the edge of the crate or inside on the rocks - it is near where the CF GB outlet comes in and the siphon from the E&F GB.

Will keep the thread updated - its a great way to keep a running record of the journey