Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi all,

I have been lurking for a while and have just started building my own system. Nothing huge, a microsystem using an old aquarium.

Many thanks to all that have posted beforehand, a great inspiration. Hopefully I can use this as a test bed for some experiments and ideas.

Materials and cost so far:
Pump: $69.95 (from the local aquarium place)
Drinking-water hose: $15.36 (from wallyworld - i.e. "B's")
Fish tank: free
Grow Beds: free
Timber: $3 (local reverse garbage place)

So a question to get things rolling: Where can I get 6L of grow media in the Brisbane area? What are my options for grow media?

More construction, going for a cantilever design. Tank is only 18L and grow beds 6L, pump does 150-600lph. I figure I will be using closer to 150lph and have capacity to spare if I scale up.

Luv the growbeds Coco-Jumbo......

Welcome to the forum...

Hi CJ

It's a very neat job.
Remember that the 3 growbeds will weigh at LEAST 18kg when flooded, more if the media is heavier than water, plus the weight of any plants. Can your cantilever frame handle that?

Get a 50L bag of hydroton and have some spare. It's not much heavier than water (lighter media like perlite floats and causes hassles).

The main problem i see is every thing is to tidy every thing hanging on nails

Yeah, the only thing I saw that was familar was the milo tin....

Ha ha fish people dont drink milo you ask jamie

Nice looking system!

Bunnings sell hydroten, I think the smallish bags are about 20L. Pump/irrigation shops generally sell it too.

very neat, but i'ld feel safer with a couple of nails or screws in that base join you have there.

Thanks for all the nice comments.

Well, excitment! It cycles! Only a minor misadventure, with the pump on 600lph I managed to squirt a fountain of water 2 metres across my workshop. A little bit of a tweaking (point the outlets down), and turning the pump down to 150lph it all cycles nicely.



I didn't notice any hydroten at wallyworld when I picked up the drinking water hose, will have to take another look. Although I try to avoid the place if I can.



I am more of a sustagen man myself The missus is the milo person in my house.



Hehe, everything starts on nails, but by the end of an Saturday afternoon it is all over the place and of course I can never find which tool I want next...



Thanks Steem, 18kg is a bit of an overestimate though? Grow beds are 6L in total, giving me 6kg when just full of water, but I figure I don't fill the full 6L so only about 5kg in water, hydroten isn't that much heavier than water? I was figuring about 10kg all up.

Thanks Alex, I glued and nailed each of the joins. But I used finish nails, and they are a bit hard to see in the pictures.

Welcome and neat system CJ!

You can keep the hoses from collapsing around tight bends by putting a short sleeve of PVC pipe at the tightest part of the bend.

You could also increase the growbed volume by 50% with 3L soda bottles.

I think I would want to see bigger nails or screws and wire holding down the necks of the bottles. But it isn't my floor it would spill on if one of the little nails bends so keep up the great work. Looks like a really neat idea. I hope it works as good as it looks so far.

Your squirty holes will start to get blocked as well, and then the water will squirt everywhere except into the bottles