Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Finally got a bit of time to get a small system up and running,before I start the bigger 5000L system at my inlaws farm.

Phase 1: Complete
System is flood and drain on timers, 30 mins on, 30 mins off.
25 mins flood, 20 mins drain
Fish Tank: 1000L IBC
Grow Bed: Bath tub
Sump: 60L Bin (temporary)
Brow Bed Stand: Recycled a pallet we got some turf delivered on.
Fish tank Pump: 1000L/hr (ebay special $30)
Sump Pump: 7000L/hr with auto float switch (ebay special $50)
Fish: 6 comets

Plumbing is temprorary. Trying to find a way to attach PVC to my sump pump.

Phase 2: will be to add a second bath tub Grow bed to the left of the one shown, and find a blue barrell to use as a sump. then add about 20 silver perch. Fix up plumbing. Oh yeah, I will be adding some timber slated lids on hinges with locks for safety (little kids here), and timber slatted sides to the IBC to blend in with the rest of the system and house.

Nice one SG. Are you going to paint or wrap the IBC in something, would help keep the algae down and prolong its life.

Yeah going to do similar with what I did on the grow bed. Timber slatted sides. Hinged timber slatter lids (50/50).

Ph 7.4
Temp 27C
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0

The water a gravel were seeded from my ciclid tank.

nice to hear from you SG. That is gunna be a really neat setup.

Im conflicted about the bathtubs.
on the one hand they are cheap and basicly perfect for our purposes
on the other hand, if i filled my backyard up with horrible old bathtubs my girlfriend would kill me.
the timber slats aren't a bad effort though maybe you could put a top cover and completely hide the fact it's a bathtub?

My wife said absolutely no to bath tubs. I got 2 at B for $20 each and said let me set ti up and then you can tell me to replace them if you do not like the way it looks. With the slats she is more than happy with how it blends in to the rest of the back deck. As a hint to others, I actually painted the bottom of the tub so it blended in a bit better.

yep, the bath tubs looks sweet in the deck house. really nice stuff

Nice one skygazer!

What sort of gravel did you use? & how did you clean it!?



Will a threaded male PVC fitting attach to your pump?

Actually sent my wife to get the gravel one day when I was at work. Not sure what it is but a mixture of 5-15mm rock mostly around the 10mm size.

Cleaning just @#$@#$@#. There was so much dust attached is was unbeleivable. I have one of those clam shell kiddie pool which I used with a garden sieve and did my best. There was a massive amount of fine sludge and I think I only got half of it out. Water is going to be milky for a while I think. Wish I could affort hydroton! And this was only for 1 bath tub !

Stealthy nice looking setup SG! Maybe some slats for the IBC are in order to protect the plastic from UV?

SG there was a thread on washing gravel where ppl explained how their shortcuts went... It may help for next time.

I can not find old used bathtubs here for the life of me! I don't think I am looking in the right places lol!

HSM

Found a crack in the bath tub. Near the top. Have tried to silicon with aquarium safe product. How long do you think I should wait before I can test it out (currently been 24 hrs 27C here yesterday).

bugger.

Edited to add pic:

is the crack just in the top of the bath? or does it go down into the bath?

24hours should be fine. Is it a fibreglass bath? If so, you may want to fix it with fibreglass patch kit, like for board and surf boards.
Is the crack of structural significance, or does it only extend as far as we can see it there?
How have you supported your bath (if it's fibreglass, if not I don't care)
show us a piccy of your sump pump, and I should be able to tell you what fittings to buy. Or you could just go to a shop that's not B and ask them, they have a fitting in a jiffy