Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi All,

Been having a look around for a couple of weeks, taken that long to digest the wealth of info available within these forums - congrats to all.

Been an avid recycler and gardener for years and appear to have been born with green thumbs... but after a couple of years of max level water restrictions it's becoming harder and harder to keep up a viable garden without serious capture/reuse of water.

Before connection to the recently completed sewerage system I had captured (humm ... somewhat illegally I must add) and re-used the grey water from bathroom and laundry to a 700 litre gal tank which I drip feed via black poly pipe and a tiny solar pump to my gardens... worked a charm

New plumbing and constant blockages of the drip feeders from the lint from laundry system lead to just using the laundry water directly onto the garden ... hehe see I've been a flood and drain afficiando for years

The use of hydroponics and more recently aquaponics have been floating in and out of my conscienous for some time and after seeing what you guys and gals are up to it's time to join the choir.

More in the next post ....

do you mean that the laundry water with all detergent will not detriminate the plants / fish?

Easy, it depends on the types of detergents you use. Some of the ingredients in the detergent actually encourage plant growth. That is the problem. The chemicals encourage excessive plant growth in waterways leading to weed infestations etc.

Sorry easyihzy,

Learning this stuff, including how to post... second post may have clarified...

Waste water replumbed after connection to sewerage and laundry now just gets discharged directly to garden.

Looking to reuse the tank ... see second post (hopefully the mods will move them together - excuse my newbiness)

what about the fishes, will they live on waste water with detergent? thanks for the info

Easy, probably best not to use the waste water directly with the fish. If you really HAD to use the water, I would put it through a reed bed or something similar first, before you put it in with the fish. Maybe instead, use the waste water for your fruit trees?

You got it guys ... not intending to use waste water for a system, will use it otherwise...

That leaves me the old tank... ah hah now let's look at what we can do with AP

How exciting!! Full steam ahead! I have read of examples where gray water was sent through a marshy area and then to a fish pond. But I think you are wise just to use that for the dirt garden.

if you were looking to use the waste water one way you could clean it would be to grow reeds in a growbed of murrays and have water flowing in one end and as it flows in one end it would overflow the other end and into the system.

what do you think??

I don't know that I would want to use this cleaned waste water in an AP system at all. Sounds harsh, but I would prefer to use it in an ornamental pond, with fish that were not going to be eaten by me or my family. That way if there was any residual viruses or bacteria leftover from your washed clothes etc, they wouldn't end up back in you.

i'm with jaymie

Yeah thanks everyone...

This was my first post and was intended to just introduce myself.

Second post which (in my newbiness) ended up starting another thread clarifies my intentions.

Never intended to use grey water in a system...

Actually just intend to reuse the tank and space... So please see my other (oops) thread.

P.S re my PM to u Steve on this, I'm ok with things now thanks to my 17 yr old son. Perhaps u could either add this to the start of the other thread or just delete it as it seems to be confusing people as to my intentions.

Thanks for your input though folks

When all else fails RTFM (or call in your 7yo son)

- I've got 3 at different ages that I call on for assistance, then claim the accolades