Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Just had a look Misti.... looks like you've quite successfully understood and built your first "bell siphon"..... nice work....

Now for your AP system...... keep us posted, and don't be afraid to ask questions....

Pics are nice, and encouraged.... a test kit is a must when it comes time to cycle IMHO...

Oh... if you're ever over that way... drop into Joels BYAP shop...The shop is on the corner of Berrigan Drive and Jandakot Rd in Jandakot.

You can see all sorts of systems up and running.... and I'm sure the crew would be happy to answer any questions you migh have.... probably even score a cup of coffee or pizza as well.

In fact... why not drop over to the meeting July 11th 2008 at 5pm..... be a whole crew of mad aquaponicists on hand .... nibbles etc...

Hi Jen,
the siphons will work as you say with pipe diameters up to 20/25mm, above that, air can rush back up the pipe and stop the siphon from kicking in...just something for you to be aware of if you increase the pipe size

Like the idea of doing the tests 1st to work out how the siphons operate

nice stuff and look forward to your blow-by-blow

Thank you for the info.... I will add another page soon.....

I'd read your posts just from the avatar!

Jens, Shhhhh i'll tell you a secret!

most peeps here use "roof and gutter" sealant. get the one thats to AS:4020 specs (potable water)

i dont think any one has had a problem with it just let it cure good.

Looking good, welcome to the madness!

Here is what I did with a couple aquarium, some buckets and a bin as sump on the floor.
http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/download/file.php?id=11639
Sorry that the room is all cluttered in that photo.

About the only thing I'm thinking to suggest is that running water directly to grow beds from the fish tank and then have the sump last in line will keep the sump cleaner and if the pump happens to be in the sump on the bottom of the system, then the pump stays a bit cleaner too.
This only works if you have the space to lay things out that way though. I've been finding that the little pump in my small aquarium that feeds the little grow bucket above it, needs cleaning more often than the bigger pump in the sump bin on the floor feeding the big aquarium. That still needs cleaning every once in a while as bio-slime and snails slow the flow enough that the loop siphon doesn't kick all the way on and the buckets will stay flooded while water just trickles out the siphon.

Thanks for your info everyone, and Yeah I've got the AP madness. I'm making a few of my family mad and a few of my friends as well, they are keen on the idea of a self run system with fish and veggies. Esp with the food prices going up coz of the petrol issues. My mum's a school teacher and she has been talking to her staff about AP and how I've been getting my head around it. They are following my progress through her, lawl. So I've been working on it.

Sorry about the lack of response, though I've been keeping my eye on the forum, just haven't really said anything.. coz i'm not really an expert and all the questions I had were being asked and answered anyway, so I just went along with my stuff, buying things as the money comes in.
Now my mini outdoor system is set up... I'm fastforwarding this to now because a few issues have come up and I'd like some extra input and maybe a few learned answers. So far this is my 3rd attempt at setting up a system and I'm now expanding my 3rd Setup to the tree-house, except I'm not moving the small setup of the plants and fish there till I get this confusion cleared up.

My system is set up so that it would fillup 2 growbeds but due to lack of help from the old man, I've decided to just try it with one growbed.

• Growbeds are clear strong plastic containers from IKEA and they have about 42 Litres (this is a calculation as they measure by the length and width rather than volume ) they were 12 dollars each which I consider to be a cool price.
• The Tank I have for the fish is from Bunnings. it's black plastic and holds 160L easy.
• The pipes I'm using is 13mm diam and I'm using 13mm poly fittings from TotalEden which sells them for like 50 to 2 dollars each depending on the type.
• Standpipe - Bell Auto-siphon. I used a 13mm pipe of about 15-18cm length for the inside are attached to a 13mm joiner fitting through a 13mm sealer. The standpipe and a screwtop to act as the bell, both are about 20mm diameter.
• The Pump is AquaPro AP750LV which pumps water from the FT to the Growbed that is up on Bricks at about 60-70cm high.
• Timer is from Bunnings, HPM 7day programming, it keeps 14 programs.
• Gravel is Pea varied 12mm diam. I filtered out as much of the dust as I could
• Some good bacteria from the BYAP shop in south of perth.
• Pond Clarifier Bacteria from AquaPro as well

So the timer is set to pump at 12pm, 2pm, 4pm... and so on every 2 hours, to run for 10 mins. In the last 6 mins of the pump the GB gets full so the bell autosiphon kicks in and runs for about 12 mins. Almost 15mins running and the rest of the time GB is drying out.

I started "Pumping" 2nd July 2008. Didn't add fish till 3 days ago (17th July).
The weird part is that the water I put into the Tank to begin with is rain water with a few dropped leaves and the odd bit of natural occuring bio's. It was collected in a few black bins outside and I tested this water with the Master Test Kit that everyone talked so much about. The results were the reasons why I didn't add the fish until a few days ago. Also the night temperatures were a concern, wasn't sure if goldies could actually survive in temps as low as 4 degrees Celsius?

The following is a table of the results from the Master Test Kit and a thermometer. If you look at the Nitrogen cycle happening here.. you'd think that this was strange coz I have no idea where the ammonia was coming from. I didn't even have fish in there! The only thing I put in was the Pond clarifier stuff, BYAPshop's bio and some roma tomato seedlings! I didn't put in any water ager or conditioner as its rain water - no chlorine additives. Please note the date gaps as some days I didn't record the water. dt means didn't test. I didn't really test it much because it has been neutral pretty much every time I tested the pH.

Date ---- pH -- NH -- NO2 ---- NO3
2 July --- 7 ---- 1.5 --- 0 ------ 0
6 July --- 7 ---- 0.5 --- 0.25 --- 5
9 July --- dt --- 0.5 --- 0.25 --- 5 to 10
10 July -- dt --- 0.5 --- 1 ------ 10 +
13 July -- 7 ---- 0.5 --- 5 ------ almost 20
16 July -- dt --- 0.25 -- 1to5 -- 10
17 July -- fish added.
18 July -- 7 --- 0 ------ 5 ------ 40 to 80
19 July -- dt --- 0 ------ 5 ------ 40 to 80

what the heck?? its almost as if adding fish clears out the ammonia?!?

Looks like something with ammonia or something that could decompose got into your system. Perhaps there was some useful ammonia in the gunk from BYAP or the pond additive. This is probably not a bad thing since those numbers look like you have already started cycling in good order. Work up the feed rate on those fish slowly and it looks like you are well on your way with that system.
Cool.

thanks for the response, I think I'll go ahead and do the cubbyhouse anyway. I can always keep trying to fix it if it doesn't work

below is a picture of my cubbyhouse before I changed it and added the GB's and Shades.

The only advice that I can give for moving your system is to do it on xmas day when you have lots of helpers.