Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

After a good 3 months of hard graft ive finally got the first 4 growbeds online and with no leaks which is a bonus. Currently cycling with ammonia and using some seeding material from a small 60litre system ive had running, whilst I built it.











Just got a dwc trough to build on the fish tank side and maybe a few ibc growbeds/ wicking beds to finish it off

Very nice!

Gday Abes
Nice looking system & shade house you've got there !

Very nice looking system! Good job on your progress! Hoop houses always make me sometimes wish I lived in a colder climate so I could justify building one.... almost.

Correct me if I'm wrong but, judging from the pics, it looks as though the design of your grow beds is relying on the sheer strength of the screws or nails you've used to secure the 2x4 legs to the sides. Without a peek at the underside of your grow beds I can't help but feel anxious. The weight of the rocks and water may prove to be too much and may result in a very unwanted structural failure. I'd feel much better if you were to add an additional 2x4 leg on the inside of each leg extending from the ground to contact the underside of the grow bed floor. This way the stress is placed on the vertical axis of the added 2x4. The plywood floor panel should be supported vertically and not rely on sheer strength of materials. Also, some kind of joist support is also highly recommended along the span of the grow bed floor. I could be wrong because I can't see what's going on under there but I just wanted to throw out a word of caution and maybe avoid a problem down the road. But, if I'm right, a simple fix with a few added 2x4's are an easy remedy.

I was thinking the same think squatch was.

Fear not squatch and Chris there are 2x4" cross members supporting the 18mm osb board all held together with 90mm screws. Corners and centres are concreted into the ground and its rock solid.

Wow the pipes look like a marble game

Cool. I would still add some 2x4's as I described earlier just to be safe. An ounce of prevention...

See the red lines I've added to your pic.

Ahh see what you mean squatch, good idea think I might have to do that.

That's some crazy looking pipework, can you explain what you are trying to achieve there

Hi charlie, from pump the first tee goes straight back to the sump system so I can regulate flow to fish tank dependant upon how much that is open. Following pipe straight from pump up and past swirl filter half way up on left goes through valve and into FT. If I want to I can shut this valve to fish tank, shut valve back to sump system, shut valve that comes out of swirl (top right) and open valve below that which is tee off input to FT and pump. This enables me to power flush all the lines to the growbeds as the system is gravity fed. The other side of tee from swirl will eventually go to a moving bio filter and then onto dwc. The valve just above the white bucket allows me to drain water in pipe from FT input line when valve to FT is off so I can service, replace or clean a venturi that is next to swirl just prior to input FT. The small valve in swirl just above the drain on swirl is piped back to sump system so I can drain the majority of the water out if the swirl prior to cleaning and save most of the water.

Hope that makes sense lol