Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Went to BYAP yesterday and picked up these. Got another 10 bags of hydroton to collect. (had to choose between leaving the kids or leaving the clay, I thought the police would frown upon plan A so went with B)

Ordered a 1500l corrugated iron tank from Roy at 'Tanks very much' in bibra lake. Should be here ready in a week or so. Gonna weld up some frames in the meantime (off to Midalia on Monday) and start picking up bits from local plumbing shop (parkwood hardware in canning vale have a huge amount of obscure plumbing bits if anyone is looking for stuff, and normally cheaper than the big B).

This is gonna be a simple flood drain set up since that is working so well with the outback that we're already running.

Will update as stuff happens.

Mike

Looking forward to seeing it all set up. Be sure to keep putting up photos as things progress!!

Ahhhh, so it must have been you who caught me playing with the siphon yesterday Mike...

Nice little set up you have out the back there....

In hindsight I should have called this thread mike and hannah's 2nd system. I do the heavy lifting only after the relevant committee meetings have been held. Any way to change a thread title?

Joel: yep, that was me, with family and credit card in hand. Hope you get the siphon going. Will be in over the next few days to pick up the rest of our hydroton.

Been shopping:



Anyone had much experience with pondmate pumps? Local soils ain't soils was clearing them for less than half price, I picked this 4800 l/h up for around $70.

Apparently they're just getting rid of the line as they changed suppliers. Of course I could have just bought a piece of you know what...

Went to midalia steel today to pick up angle iron to make growbed stands. They were unable to cut it for me today so will collect it tomorrow morning. Unfortunately i cant fit 6 metre lengths of steel on my 6x4 trailer. Will tomorrow find out if the hand me down welder that's in my shed works.

Stopped in at BYAP on the way home to pick up rest of hydroton and a few plants (hurrah! Water chestnuts. Asked in another thread already, but any advice on planting?)

Getting closer. Would like to have stands ready for when tank arrives so I can just put all the bits together.

It turns out that my welding is just as messy as ever. Still strong, just bloody messy!

Nothing a smearing of no-more-gaps and a coat of paint can't fix!

Yep. Grind off the crappy bits, paint over the rest.

Visitors will be looking at the fish anyway.

That said, if anyone does notice the unorthodox welding I can always them I bought it that way from BYAP...

Grind em back a little and give them a nice hot run over again

Are they old rods?? That could have gotten damp???

Byap mig there stands

I know theirs are done by mig, only kidding.

Brand new rods, I'm just messy. Haven't used a stick welder for over 10 years. I can weld fairly cleanly with a mig, just working with what's at hand.

After welding one more stand I'll probably have practiced enough to do a nice clean one.

:d

Nice day for welding Mike, I guess when you're hot, you're hot!

Faye, summer does not start till tomorrow!

Anyway, it makes the beer at the end taste all the sweeter!

Sitting out the back with a beer watching the bandicoots eating the kids leftovers. Listening to the sounds of the evening, which includes a the hum of the pump in the barra tank. Feeling tired but happy after busy day.
(mike smiles)

Last year life was hard, this year life is easy. Funny how you can change things if you want to.