Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi everybody. I started a thread in general systems with the Tilapia I was raising, but I had no grow beds, so I did not want to pst with a full system. Today was C-mas early and I picked up a couple of IBC's. ( $42.30 with tax) To back track a little, let me describe what I have so far. I have 30 to 40 4-8 inch blue tilapia. 1/2 are in an aquarium and 1/2 are in an outdoor 1200 gallon pond. Since it gets very cold here in the winter, I have to bring the outside fish in within the next 30 days. I had my first batch of fry a few weeks ago and have 60-80 small ones. I would like to limit my aquarium to 3-5 fish and put the balance in my indoor system for the winter. My ultimate gola is to return some serious fish to the outdoor pond in the spring and grow out the small ones . I just obtained two clean IBC's today to start my tanks and grow beds on a three season sun porch. I have the ability to keep the porch fairly warm. I have my outdoor 3000 gallon rated bio filter I can add to the system as well if I do not have the plant mass up front.

Here is the find in the driveway next to the trusty M3.





Here is also a shot through the french doors of the porch. Concrete floor, basement underneath and it is 10 X 15 feet.



The 75 gallon aquarium is visible and some of the wicker furniture will be relegated to the basement. The aquarium currently houses 17 tilapia.

My debate at the moment is system configuration. I am leaning towards a main fish tank, two grow beds from the tops of the IBC's and the second tank becoming a sump. Small fish in the sump with a lower overall water level and all the big fish in the main tank. I can incorporate the pressurized bio-filter in the system to supplement the grow beds. I should be cutting up tanks and cleaning things up as the week goes on. I love pictures and will;l add plenty. Lookinf forward to a great system and I hope everyone can enjoy my progress.

Great find on those IBCs!

Just make sure if you put small fry in a sump tank with a pump that you are not making wet fish meal or simply transferring the fish by means of a pump ride. I have had fry survive a trip through a pump before. Basically, what I am saying is that you need a pretty fine mesh around a pump to keep small fish from getting too close to the pump. But I suppose it is one way to thin the crop.

Yea only the fast ones make it! :-) Darwinism at it's finest. That is a good point though, I did not think about that. The fry are in a 20 gallon tank and I would not transfer them until they were 1-2 inches. That should keep them out of the pump.

Just be ware that a fish can swim through some amazingly small spaces. I would not have thought that a 2" fish could swim through a section of 3/4" pipe with 6 elbows in it (a no holes overflow), but I had that happen twice. All plumbing and pumps should have appropriate size netting or mesh to exclude fish.

Awesome! Just be sure to make as much GB volume as you can. I made the mistake of making a lot of pond volume and low GB volume. If only I had known this before I started!

Aren't Sawsalls Great! 20 minutes and a good metal rated blade and I have a tank and grow bed.




In the AM I will be off to the 25cent car wash, a bottle of Dawn, Bleach etc and off to the races. I checked pea gravel at Lowes today. $2.80 for 1/2 a cubic foot. 10 inches of depth is just shy of 14 cubic feet. 28 bags is a bunch of $. I will check some of the bulk places. I want larger river rock in the bottom and pea gravel for the top 3-4 inches. Does anyone do mesh pots and then coconut coir in the pots rather then gravel. Seems easier to plant in. I hear a lot of people griping about planting in heavy gravel. I took the day off work tomorrow. I have a few tasks for the wife and I have to start the fall ritual of leave pick up, loading the flower beds with mulch and putting down a little fall lawn fertilizer,. Somewhere in there I have to sneak in some tank preparation. I have a 500gallon per hour pump laying around to start my flood and drain system. Manifold and then a siphon or possibly a direct drain in to the lower tank.

For gravel try calling concrete companies (they have pea gravel and other stuff for various mixes) or landscape supply places. I typically get gravel for $40-$50 per yard.

Just beware if you call the concrete places, make sure you don't get limestone gravel as tends to keep the pH too high. Landscaping or rock places are probably a better bet. We have places around here that sell it by the ton or by the cubic yard. $50-60 per ton plus delivery unless you have a truck that can haul it. We got one place (Pebble junction) where you go in, they weigh your vechicle and the weight it again on the way out and charge the appropriate rate for whatever stuff you got. It is actually the same scale they use for weighing the delivery trucks. I've twice gotten 6 ton loads delivered to my place.

I would definitely avoid buying bagged rocks, that is almost as bad as buying bagged dirt.

I found some much cheaper gravel at a local stone place. Fill my own buckets at the bulk rate. Nice guys. I got the porch cleaned out everything moved and I made a 2X4 structure to go over the tank and hold the grow bed. I wanted a little more room for access to the tank then the systems stacking the grow bed right on the tank metal frame. I have a hole in the GB and a 1" PVC fitting for my drain. I have a nice piece of 4" that I will use for the cover around the drain. Silicone sealant should hold it OK. I also fond locally some chunky pearlite to mix with my gravel and a large bag of expanded clay balls to spread on top. I need to do a little work on my insulation for the windows befor I set the tank and fill everything making it too heavy to move.

It is starting to get cold here, so I can not waste much time as i want to cycle for a few weeks with gold fish. I have some really mean ones from outside that are pretty tough to kill. More pictures when I am done.

Careful with perlite as folks here have had unhappy experiences with it. And washing it out is not on the top ten list of fun AP jobs. A quick search will show some other experiences folks have had....

I would probably suggest avoiding the perlite as well. I have some mixed into my system that was left over from some Hydroponics in the past. If it is buried in your grow bed well away from the drain, it might never be a problem, however, if you ever have to empty the grow bed for some reason, the perlite has a way of becoming very annoying as it will float and head right to the drain and small particles of it will wedge into the screen protecting the drain and conspire to clog things up. It is also not healthy to breath the dust from handling the stuff when it is dry.

Thanks for the good info. This is funny as in TC's system I noticed that you had pearlite mixed in to your media, but as you stated above, it was a holdover from hydroponics. Now what I bought is large chunky pearlite not the small stuff, which might help a little. I will use it sparingly on your advice. I will do a little more work on my GB support tonight. I fed the fish outside and they are not nearly as voracious as mid summer. My thermometer says 68 in the outdoor pond. I better hurry!

If you lay a coil of black tubing out in the sun and pump through it only during the sunny days, you might keep a little more warmth for the pond for a few weeks longer.

Otherwise I don't think you should be feeding them much anymore out there.

The perlite might still be useful if you do NFT pipes and use yogurt cups for the plants. I have done this.

A little more progress. I built a simple 2X4 frame to hold my GB a little higher above the fish tank. Resting the GB directly on the IBC frame really limits the access to the tank. I put a drain in the GB and siliconed a stand pipe in place. I will let the silicone set up and then start filling some course gravel and then the rest of the media. Here is the GB and stand.



The fish in the aquarium are watching on with great interest as their new home is being built right in front of them. The outdoor fish will really be shocked with their change in scenery.




I'll post more pictures as I progress.

I had to go rescue the outside fish last night. It was a cold rainy 50 degree f night and lows in the 30's for this week-end. Thermal mass and all, I did not want to risk it. I unbooked the filter and ran the pump outlet right over the dam. An hour plus to pump out the 1200 gallons. There was 4-5 inches of water left and I was still worried about being able to catch the fish. No problem as they were sooooo sloooow, you could practically scoop them up in your hands. 23 total outside. I brought them in in a 5 gallon bucket, threw an air stone in and a small heater. I raised the temp slowly to the mid 70's to acclimate the fish and then put them in the aquarium for a short stay. All the fish made it with no floaters this AM. I will monitor the water quality a lot and keep feeding to a minimum. Here is the whole group.



They are happy for now but I was truly amazed at the difference in growth. The aquarium fish were easily 40% larger across the board. If I want to grow out in the outside pond next year a solar heater of some kind is definitely in order. I have to hop on the fish tank this week-end and make a new winter home for my fish. On to gravel washing, my favorite.