Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

The following is the evolution of our system...

Flood & Drain System on a 15min/hr cycle.
- 3000L Fish Tank
- 6 Grow Beds
- 500L Sump
- 2 x Ebara Submersible Pumps

Our original system was installed by BYAP in approx June 2008, Joel has uploaded some pics of the install in "BYAP System Installs" under Stable fish and vegetable production.

I will uploaded some pics of the system as it evolved:
- June 2008 - Week 1 initial planting

August 2008

I added some cascading yabby tanks, with the aim of trialing yabby's initially and then moving to marron if all goes well.

I have also uploaded some progressive plant growths.

I was finding it difficult to get down between the beds (due to the excellent growth), so I decided to take the plunge in Jan09 and rebuild the system.

I was also having some issues with the flow to a few beds as they were on a slope, and one end of the bed was getting very little water.

Decided to build the system in the original planned configuration of 2 rows of 3 beds in parallel.

Build went well, I have a bobcat so I thankfully didn't have to remove the grow media, although there were some hairy moments in the move. Unfortunately I didn't tank any pics, but it was in the height of summer, thus I was in a rush. I cut up the system on the first day, then moved the beds and put in the drain plugs and flooded the beds to save the plants, and levelled the sites for the new bed arrangement.

Day 2, installed the beds, and re-plumbed.

All went relatively well, maybe plumbing could have been neater, but I tried to re-use as much as I could of the previous pipework.

I recently took some pics of the new arrangement, and are as follows...

New arrangement all going well, have uploaded some pics of the rockmellon I enjoyed on the weekend, very very tasty...

Yabby's are reproducing, pic attached of my new little ones...

Managed to get a couple of small pumpkins, I was without fish for a while (struggled to get fish after the trout) thus they had a bit of a late start to the season...

Laksa plant loves the Aquaponics, keeping a close eye to see if it's like the mint, and I might need to move to a pot over the sump...

I had a scare a month back where the sump pump died, and the main pump almost emptied the tank.

Luckily we caught it, and switched the system off and re-filled the fish tank without any casualties.

I put in a cheap pump in the sump that I had in the shed, and the system is up and running, but are now working through options of solving the issues with a sump pump failure.

The ideas I have had are:
1. Turn the system into a gravity feed to the beds
2. Install pump relay on the sump to turn off the main pump if it is overflowing
3. Install an additional pump (and non-return valves) in the sump and a relay that if the sump is overflowing, the second pump is switched on.
4. Install a second 500L sump (one per 3 beds) and link the 2 sumps.
5. Combine options 3 & 4

At this stage I have ordered the second sump, as I think I need that regardless, and I will hopefully have the decision by the time it arrives...

I like option 1, but don't really have the time for the rebuild (dropping levels of beds below main tank sufficiently to get flow).

I think I am leaning towards option 5 as it is the least re-building required, and the quick fix for now that gives me time to re-assess.


Any thoughts/ideas would be appreciated...

Really nice system. I keep seeing those growbeds and am so envious. I wish we had something like those here in Hawaii. Thanks for the inspiration.

Thanks Lucero, if I can get the sump sorted I'll be pretty happy...

I have been researching high and low level pump probes today for the proposed backup sump pump.

I reckon a second pump in the sump, also with a float switch that is set to a higher water level. It the main sump pump fails then the water level rises and switches on the second (backup) pump.

So simple it hurts...

I have noticed that my system has been a bit smelly, and the growth rates have dropped off a bit.

I was attributing the growth rates to the fact the silvers are still only very small (120 in 3000L FT, ranging in size from approx 2 - 3.5 inches).

So I thought it was about time I went and got a water test kit, the results I just measured were as follows:

Temp: 17deg
pH: 7.9
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0

I think I read somewhere the low Nitrate is due to me not feeding enough, but is a bit difficult with the small fish (due to the size of feed), but I can easily up the feed rate.

And lower ammonia and nitrite the better.

Is there an issue with the ph?

How do my other numbers compare?

Any ideas on the smell, is this related to the above results?

Fish seem happy, and are growing, they were barely visible when I got them from the farm, thus I haven't been too concerned, but ignorance in many cases is not bliss...

Your water tests seem quite ok, I'm not sure where the smell is coming from. Maybe over feeding and it's going rank on the bottom.
I started off this year with 150 tiny SP in 3000L and now have 100 6" trout and put my remaining 80 3" long SP in the sump. The rest got past my screen I had on the pump, say no more.
IMO your number and size of your SP is not enough to grow much at all. You would have to add humonia or urea to give the plants enough nitrates, and then add some seasol or the likes.
My system improved a lot when I added more air and from what I've been told trout will not last long with insufficient air.
SP wont grow much during winter but trout will, maybe you need to go with trout during winter and sump the SP.

Thanks Rick...

My current sump is only 500L, maybe when I get my new twin 1000L sump.

I've got another 1 bed system I have been playing with (1500L FT and 1 bed), so I might put all the SP in there for the winter.

We had trout last year (when we first setup the system), and they did very well, so might get some again this year until I can get some size on my SP. Kids definitely enjoy feeding the trout.

The smell was more from the beds strangely, I got the same smell when a bed wasn't draining (blocked with roots) but all is draining fine at present, might just be looking too hard at present while trying to get things sorted.

I have been doing some more reading, and some posts suggest high pH can cause a nutrient lockout, so I might try some methods for getting that down to lower 7's.

Last time I used seasol I had some yabs die, may have been a coincidence, but might try some other options first.

my PH has been in the high 7's. It will come down with fish in the system. I lost a few yabs too. May have been seasol but dunno. The best place for yabbies is in the dam, can't see what the are doing.

FYI, Gutter guard made quite a good temp additional pump screen while the SP were really small...

I suppose I'll know once I do a head count, mind you I never counted them in, so hard to say, 2 turned out to be tadpoles, not sure if the fish farmer counted them