Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I have been fairly slack in not posting about my system , especially as I used the fantastic help from this forum to decide to do it , and to get it functioning reasonably.

So here we go..

A Balcony kit from Murray with a total of 3 growbeds, so 750lt of growbed and I think around 800 lt of fish tank.

Sitting in the driveway waiting for me to finish levelling and paving the bit of the backyard chosen as "the aquaponics area"



Installed in it's new home and plumbed up , I'm still playing with this as the layout is a little different to what Murray assumes (ie the extra beds are not sitting either side). That's a north facing wall behind the tank


My timing in setting up was a litle wonky so I had a rush job of leveling an area and laying some pavers as I could not bear to leave the kit on the driveway.

So now have the kit installed and some Silver Perch fingerlings in residence.

Of course with my slight timing issue and the onset of cold weather here in Sydney my cycling plans all went west and just this past weekend the ammonia cycled to zero , however nitrites have not yet cycled to zero.

I have some starter herbs installed but looking pretty unhappy - will spend some time this weekend thinking about seedlings.

Very nice indeed dj, there is a lot of fun to be had with that system and probably a bit of HSM too

Good use of space.
Hopefully the bricks will help with thermal mass in winter, and (if they're afternoon photos) it looks like summer sun will be off some of the GBs.

Ummm, that would be the whole yard wouldnt it??

How many perchies?

and where did you end up getting the Perch from Regatta... and what price?

Well ... I discovered a new pest for aquaponics..


Labradors


Got up this morning to find our two Labradors had CLIMBED into the grow beds , either for a drink or as a warm spot. Luckily the setup was strong and stable enough to survive, but they interupted all the siphons and disturbed all the "muck" from the bottom of the beds back into the fish tank , net result a couple of dead fish (and they look like the biggest ones) most of the seedlings that were in the beds are now unaccounted for ,a very unhappy owner and a couple of sheepish labradors.


Now .. how to keep them out without banning them from half the backyard.

Got my silvers from Aquablue - Advanced fingerlings (that was what he had at the time I wanted them) about $2 each at my door. After last nights effort not sure how many are left, but most.

Labraponics !!

I've seen people put twigs sticking up around plants to keep their chickens from trampling/scratching the plants up but some how I doubt twigs will stop a lab. Perhaps a netting/shade cloth room around the AP system , Kinda an AP playpen to keep the doggies out?

you can buy electric fencing run off batteries (the white tape with small wires sown in the cloth)

Your Labs will only touch it once

and the kids

Neat.

Does the wooden lid come up in one piece, or slat-by-slat?