Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

The Follwoing Photots are my first three weeks worth of this project up and running. The last set of photos were taken today. I've added cheleated iron to the mix as you can see the first lot of leaves had started to yellow and die off. It's all one big experiment though.
I've decided to go a different method to the usual and approach it more like hydro. I've got no grow beds as such, just pots full of course perlite. This however meant i had to make a trickle filter in the second week due to an absence of surface area for biological filtration. Now theres pleanty! filter has bioballs perlite, zeolite, and volcanioc rock.
Sphagnum moss and crushed marble to buffer PH.
I've done a test a week and I seem to have had my nutrient spike last week, so the test I do today will be interesting.
Plants are basic salad lettuce which are more robust than iceberg, popeye spinach, a mushroom plant, eggplants and celary.
Fish are 6 comet goldies and 50 tandanus cats about 2.5" long from Murray Cod Hatcheries.

I like it, it keeps me occupied. All constructive input and questions appreciated and welcomed.
Sorry about the multitude of photos to DL but a picture tells a thousand words.

More photo's of the first week into it.

More from week two...

End of week 2 needed a filter and I added some food grade algae clear, it basically clumped it all together to make removal easier.

today... week 3.

the end.

What are you using for nutrients?

Just whatever the fish make themselves, i've once added a cup of seasol, but the algae bloom i got afterwards made me think twice about doing it again.

Seasol wont cause an algae bloom by itself - the excess nutrients from the fish will.

How many fish and size etc?

welcome to the madness Krimann

Food Grade Algae Clear ? where'd you get it ?( I didnt know there was such a thing ) I desperately need to clean up the algae problem in one of my systems

Just realized that your filter is after the NFT....you need to prefilter solids before the NFT or root rot will abound.

Hmm... I thought nutrient was nutrient as far as I knew.
There were 6 2" goldfish in there at the time when the bloom took off.
(the reason for adding nutrient... hardly any fish)
Now i have 50 catfish fingerlings 2.5 - 3" long, cleared the algae with part water change (36 litres or so onto my corn crop) after using this product i'd bought off Ebay from a fellow who has been in the aquaculture business for a while but has stepped out to do aquarium trade. Basically this stuff grabs your particulates and pulls them together so the pump can push them into the filter as larger peices. It doesn't exactly kill the algae but will deffo clear it.
I was worried a little about root rot too, but i've read that as long as the roots aren't constantly in the water and that the water is highy oxygenated then it should be fine. My timer runs 15 on and 15 off, the waterfall effect creates huge aeration and i have 2 excellent airstones running in this time too. the pipes drain back so theres only a tiny pool on the bottom of them after the cycle.
reckon that would still be a drama?

Thanks for the warm welcome Boris.

Boris is pointing out that if you don't filter solids before the NFT, the solids will cling to the roots and cause root rot.

Welcome

Doing a steve, VB.

Just wait and see what happens with the roots I suppose krimann

I have some gravel beds that are contantly flooded, and growth is still ok, no root rot. I'll get around to fixing them one of these days

Nah - steve misses the detail in the post, I just missed the name of the poster OBO