Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

First IBC conversion is complete, My master plan is to have at least 3 connected.

amo .25
ntrite .25
Ntrate 40
I added my test system gravel and water.

enough talk heres the pics


I did have some troubles with my LKB siphon

Not sure where I went wrong but after changing the pipes around a few times...



I don't eat tomatoes

I hope this won't be a problem

Might need to shave about 20mm off the inner pipe... flood should only rise to about 25mm below the media surface...

If you have ball valves to control the flow... try adjusting them first... could be that doing so allows the drain to start and keep the level down....

not that it makes a difference to functionality , but can I ask why you didnt use the existing hole where the lid is on the upside-down growbed to put the drain through , rather than drilling another hole through the skin ?

I found that alot of the lids that come with these things have a secondary smaller lid screwed into them , which is perfect size for the drain pipe . Even so drilling through the big fat lid worked wll on 2 of mine

My limited (none) plumbing skills and my local reece store had these disc with a collar to support the pipe that didn't fit in the lid. I would have preferred using the lid but it was a 56mm (i think) hole, And I wasn't sure silicone would support it alone.

I still have another 2 to do If you don't mind posting pics of yours I might be able to use that

Yeah, flooding that high will be a big problem. Dead Plants.

hmmm I wonder if lettuce will grow or some other plant as I prefer not to fix it for awhile

Then again I could move the gravel when I make the next two FT/GB combos

Thanks OBO

I flood my beds like that to get the grubs and caterpillars to swim for saftey out of the beds...then squish....then just reset the flow rate

+1 here 2 of my beds in the glasshouse got blocked with slugs and remained flooded for a few days and the tomatoes carked it

Especially for tomatoes, and corn - corn just falls over

I'm working on fixing the 1st IBC flooding problems soon.

here is the new design to replace the wood

And here's a "what not to do" pic

The word has got out on my high water mark . First it was the wasp that have a nest outside my bedroom window, just today an influx of bee's have populated my grow bed 5-10 at a time. Its weird they wont drink elsewhere, as there is many other places with sitting water.

Here are some pics I took with a cheap camera risking life and limb (no joke I'm allergic) to get within 10cm to get the shot.

I've noticed that bees seem to love AP water... bloke across the road has hives... always plenty of bees around having a drink....

Don't mind... haven't had to manually pollinate anything so far...