Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi all,

i think i may have infected a new test subject with this aquaponicus virus

Was chatting about the concept and gave him the website add.

He'd just moved into a new house and filling in the pool was on his to do list.

Picture this: A swimming pool filled with perch, covered with strong mesh sheets like the "reo" used when pouring concrete, some of this covered with wood to facilitate walking and the grow bed directly above the pool.

How envious am i going to be?

Hope to see him here soon

Hi, that's me his talking about, except I'm "his" wife.
So our pool is 9.5 x 4.5m x 1m . We were thinking of getting rid of it because it is not fenced properly and we have young children. Also I figured the time spent on maintaining a pool, throwing in and using yucky chemicals I'd rather be using to grow vegies. So we were going to dismantle. But Steve mentioned aquaponics!!!! I already know a bit about permaculture, so feed me please what can we do. Interested!!!

Julie, I am so sorry !!! I can't imagine what it must be like to loose a husband to Aquaponics....My dear wife is suffering the same fate....When I enter the room babbling aquaponics she goes into a sort of trance, a glased eye look, a kind of hopeless depressed stare....I feel for her, but I am on a trip!!!!
Murray

Hi Julie and welcome to the forum...
Good idea to get rid of the chemical pool and use it for the good of your family!!!
"Fish and chips and fresh salad" thanks Mum..

LB

wow, what an opportunity! I would LOVE to have a pool of that size at my disposal - just imagine the size of the fish you could grow!!! (I'm getting hungry here!)
Go for it, it only seems to have positive posibilities!
just a thought, was it a salt water or fresh water pool? Cement or fiberglass??

you've really started something here steve!!!

Hi Julie..... MMmmmm, a swimming pool.... Wow there are a few things you could do with that.. I do like the idea of placing some strong beams across one end of it, and building grow beds above it. You could turn the pool into a real thing of beauty, pour some gravel into the bottom of it and plant lillies and other water plants. Lilly pads covering the water surface help to stop evaporation, while down the other end of the pool could be your more productive grow beds...

I'm just trying to remember.... I know of someone who was going to turn their pool into a water garden paradise with some growbeds along the side of the pool....

I'm assuming it's a below ground pool?

It is an above ground pool that has been chlorinated in the past. It has a normal pool lining with a metal frame. How would the lining effect the run of things? Because it's on a slope it's kind of built in a bit with decking around it.
Obviously we would empty out the water that is in there now and refill.
By the way there's a great indigenous nursery near Latrobe uni in Melbourne it sells lots of aquatic plants, specialises in wetland species. Anyone been there?

Julie, I wouldn't be too worried about the previous use of the pool.

The chlorine will have more than dissipated. When was the pool last "dosed" by the previous owners?

Did the pool have a chlorinator? (electrical device) if so then even better, as this would have provided the chlorination with out chemicals. The other common chemical which is used in this type is hydrochloric acid to neutralise the caustic soda produced as a by-product by the chlorinator. These react to form everyday salt.

Still Dump the water and re-fill it. (Shhhhh, what water restrictions?)

Besides look at it this way, by growwing your own veggies using aquaponics you'll be using only 10% (is that right EB?) of what it would have taken in the ground

Anyway, fill it with fresh water and get hold of some duckweed and azolla (i'll have a large quantity in a week or so) It will form a mat over your pool, stopping algae growing, insulating it thermally, cutting down evaporation, and by the time you are ready for fish they will have ALL the food they could ever want. They LOVE both, just ask Johnnie and Gary.

What hardware do you have with the pool?

You're proabably half of the way there if you still have the pump. I'll have to come over and drool over it

More ideas for pool ponics.

EB, was concerned about the weight of flood and drain grow beds on the pool.

With so much surface area at hand maybe a system with gravel filled plastic pots (the back ones, a few $ each) lined up in rows. draining straight back into the pool. The pool pump could be plumbed into horizontal pvc pipes running the length of the rows just to the side of the pots and feeding directly into the pots from slits cut with an angle grinder, that way the water would feed out in more of a "fan" shape into the pots.

Would have excellent water distribution to the pots, and excellent airation of the water as it falls back to the pool.

You would need a highly porus / water absorbant media for the pots, but i cant see the pump having to be switched on more than once an hour during the day ?

what do you think?

Then again it could almost be made into one huge DWC or aeroponics set up. Too many options

Steve

I've had a thought....... Because of the fact that things are high up, half above ground, decking etc, weight bearing is going to be very difficult with any growbeds of a large size.

But, what if, is there room infront, beside or below the pool? Perhaps the best idea may be to look at some floating plants/water plants, and a couple of tubs or pots around the edge of the pool for aesthetics, but then have the water flowing DOWN to the main growbeds, via syphon or whatever. With the main pump work then to be getting the water back up to the pool level, from a sump tank....

Never really thought about having growbeds below the fish tank level, but it can make just as much sense depending on the circumstances...

But thats all fairly major works.... As you say Steve, so many options..

very outside the box, i like it!

Sort of opposite of the "norm"

Julie, have we scared you off yet? LOL

What about "floating raft" but without the raft?

I think the mesh is a must do, to isolate the kids from the water surface. But the holes in the mesh i'm talking about are about 10CM square, what
if you could source 10cm square pots? see where i'm going? rootmass hanging in water as per floating raft. only a hand full of media per pot. Could have large tub / bin filled with hydro rocks for main bacteria colony under the pump return to the pool.

Steve

I love all the replies. Thanks.
What about the pool lining? Would this need to be food grade?
We have a creek behind our property- do you reckon we could sneak a few plants up?
Julie

Julie, The pool lining is going to be a personal choice rationalisation.

Ideally i'd like to use nothing but stainless steel. But unless i win lotto thats not going to happen.

Personally, i'm not happy about using PVC, silicone. But then again i smoke too.

I guess its a lesser of many evils type thing. Buy veggies from the supermarket that have been sprayed circa 22 times by the times they reach your mouth or grow your own veggies with possible minute traces of chems leached into the water.

Polyethelyne is probably the best choice as all our food grade plastics (ie bottled water) are PE. Not to say that i think its 100.00% safe. Non the less, i was excited to find that my 1000LT tank was PE. best of many bads.

Know what i mean? There will always be two extremes and lots of people in between.

Me, i'd LIKE to be on the ultra safe extreme, but i'll accept that there are some things i can easily avoid and the rest i'll accept while not being ignorant of them.

Any one have any info on pool linings for Julie? They may even be PE.

Steve