Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

This is my backyard diy aquaponic greenhouse setup so far,. I'm buying a 55 gallon drum tomorrow and getting more fish while my water dechlorinates. Lettuce and herbs in the float trays, tomatoes, kale, and whatever else i can stuff in the media bed, any tips or ideas would be much appreciated. And what do the strwberrys like more media bed or float? Still learning every day.

Looks like a great start!

One thing I might recommend (I could be wrong about how you've set it up), but I think you're pushing the water from fish tank-DWC-DWC-Media. If you go FT-Media-DWC-DWC, it'll filter the water before it goes into the DWC, and you'll end up with a happier bed. If you don't pre-filter before the DWC, you'll end up with roots clogging with solids, and it'll stunt the growth of the plants.

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Good job... It's shown that you don't need to spend thousands to get something working...
( I see these commercial setups costing a few grand and wonder how folk can afford it..)

MY next project seems to be raft beds as the Wing Commander is complaining about deterioration of lower lettuce leaves.. I am thinking of getting some "Massive" Atlantic Salmon boxes and daisy chain them together and the reduced lids for rafts.. I think they claim they are superior as they provide Insulation, to reduce return water heating..

What are you planning with the new drum..??

Use it as the FT, and the smaller one as the sump?

Aint it good fun.. turning junk into something so very practical..


and as Colum suggests, using the media as the filter will have a practical benefit, as well as removing the problem of what happens when something clogs...
ie.. always think what will happen IF something goes wrong..
ie. The FT must never empty etc. etc..
..
.

Thanks a lot. And yes Barrel will be FT and small one sump. If it was DWC only would I need a filter of some sort? The pressure from the siphon will probably over flow DWC's, just wondering how I can get the speed right if I move GB before DWC's.

Yes the bio-filter (media bed) is the heart of the system it won't work without it.

maybe you will have to bypass some water from the siphon to the sump?

You could move your media to your tallest bed and have it constant flow, then move the raft to where the media was,
one of the members here was doing trials on that with hat looked like good success heres the link;

viewtopic.php?f=51&t=8621

Ok purchased, pvc/connectors/ some patience and away I go. Pics coming soon.

So I switched the beds around like suggested and this is what I came up with, FT-GB bell siphon into -DWC's . It spills out into both beds at a pretty good rate. Took a few hours and still checking on it every couple hours. Working good so far. Fingers crossed. Farmers market for starters tomorrow while my seeds catch up the chair say's it all. Lookin watchin waitin.

Love it! Looks great!

Thats a better design.

Only comments I would make is the piping arrangement. It seems that the first DWC after the media bed is being filled and drained at the same end, you really need it filling at the end closest to the media bed and draining from the opposite into the next DWC. Also you will get more equal flow to each DWC with a couple of taps that you can adjust if you need to. It may not matter on a scale of this size but food for thought if you have any flow issues.

Ok so here it goes, I plumbed the barrel and rearranged plumbing from GB siphon to 1st DWC to fill at the front of the bed, overflow to second DWC is covered by the Kale then sump and back to FT. And wondering if the gravity aeration will be enough? I tried a Venturi I made but to make it work properly my pump has to be turned up which fills my FT to fast. Oh the agony. Long story short I got everything working added 10 goldfish and I'm hoping for the best. Oh and the three goldfish I had had for the previous three weeks died when I added the 55 gallon water change. I don't think I let it sit long enough. Thanks for all the Intel.

Much better

Give us updates as it grows!

Hiya Salty looks good, nice work.
Couple of suggestions. It looks like your pump is in the sump and pumps to the ft which is good. You say the pump fills the ft too quickly so to remedy this perhaps increase the size of the SLO. Having a supply pipe(pressure) the same size as the SLO(gravity) would cause the ft to fill too fast. The slo would also benefit having a tee at the top elbow just in case the slo holes block it will act as an overflow. I utilised a sprinkler head like yours last summer and it worked well however mine was up the other way. This meant the water was in the air longer(degassing) and lessened the pump head height increasing the flow and releasing heat.

I placed a T on the SLO inside and an outside overflow also that runs back to the sump just for extra safety, I find myself going out to check on it multiple times at night, my wife thinks it's funny. Filled all the cups and filling GB with more goodies today. I added wood chips and turf to keep the dust down and kind'a give it a finished look. But I am definitely far from finished. I want to do towers on the left, an ibc this next summer, scale up etc.... and thanks for all the feedback, it's helped tons.

Looks good! Believe me, there is no end if you have the juice for it. For instance, you could paint or stain the sides of the beds, add a top rail to frame the bed and give yourself a little shelf to put your coffee, you could add skirts to the beds to enclose the works underneath, you could build a deck as flooring in your AP area, and then there is automation and electric sensors which is a whole-nuther animal. Just don't let it dip into your 401k.