Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello Ladies and gents, after upgrading from a unit to a house mid last year I've been slowly renovating (circa 1940s weatherboard) whenever I have spare time (which isn't that often). I've always enjoyed the idea of sustainability and "eating what you've grown". I have grand plans of a front yard that is all raised beds with fruit trees and vegetables and a backyard with a smallish aquaponics setup and a quail coop and worm farm. I live on about 400sq so it's enough for me to play with while still being managable.

I've attached a sketch of what I'm planning to do - the dashed line indicates a possible addition, the red are pressure lines from the pump and the blue is the gravity flow, I'm hoping to use mostly recycled materials as I'm a big fan of re-use. The system will be a flood/drain type (I think) with a decent sized main pond, a smaller pond for crustaceans, 2 lots of nft channels for lettuce etc. and 2 decent grow beds. I've been a fish eating vegetarian all year so I figure I should step it up a notch.

I'm not 100% sure on the growth rates of marron/yabbies but would like to give it a shot.
The big tank I will stock with barra or perch I think.

Anyhow let me know what you think, seems to be a great forum for discussion.

-Owen-

i think the water shuld flow GB-NFT, rather than FT-NFT/GB, so you dont have a build up os solids in the NFT

Ah good point freoboy, perhaps I can hook them up to the drains from the gb's and run them alongside the gb's.

Well the system parts collection has started thanks to Burnsy.
large pond, needs some work but should come up well, I'm planning on fixing it up a bit and then gel-coating.
At the moment I'm planning on running 2 or 3 rectangle pond liners from the big B as grow beds, I'll re-enforce them so they can carry the weight. I might run the same for a yabby/duck weed tank. They were about $80 each and 360L or similar when I checked.

ok definately not $80 each. but have organised a discount on them

made some nft style grow trays today and started on fixing up the pond.

grow trays are made from plastic gutters using a hole saw.
framed up the pond with some treated pine, flipped it over and patched up the major cracks.

photo time:
legs and I making the grow trays



pond work




tis council verge collection week in my area so I should be able to score some materials. picked up some mesh to make my quail coop with already.

Nice tank .....with your marron/yabbie tank make sure you separate the two, yabbies will destroy the marron pretty quickly

I think I recognize that tank.... Rescued from a verge collection in South Lake if I'm not mistaken. Good to see it will get a new lease on life..

Looks like an interesting system coming together there Lamb..

hey gnash, I'm still unsure about if I will have both yabbies and marron or just 1. need to read up on it more. I like my crustaceans. any idea which are easier to raise?

earthbound: you are correct, it has changed hands a few times apparently, it's the perfect size for my yard.

it's verge collection in my area at the moment and I scored pretty much all the materials I need to build my raised beds and quail coop. also scored a small wheel barrow that just needs a new tube, it'll be handy for carting things around the yard.

Marron are less aggressive but take longer to grow, yabbies grow quick but are lunatics they'll kill each other if not give enough places to hide or space....personally I'd have Marron if you have the growout time.

any idea what kind of tank area I would need for a decent amount of marron or yabbies?

You framed the tank with treated pine? Will it be covered, or have some other way to prevent splashes from washing the treatment into your water?

Looking good!

Whats a good amount i recon for a good feed you would need 1/2 an acre

yep.....

Thats a hard one lamb because as F&F said you'd need alot of space....I think Marron or yabbies in a system is a good thing but only to clean up all the leftover food the fish don't get.
You will never really have a good feed of yabbies from it...you may end up getting a decent feed of marron but it takes time...unless you get mature marron.

ah all of my dreams of crustacean feasts have been shattered!
can they be kept in the fish tank or will there be conflict between the fingerlings and the marron maidens?

hey swanberg, I'm probably going to drop a liner in the tank as it has alot of surface cracks etc. and I want to make sure there will be no leaks.
plus it's a bit scummy and I want it to look aesthetically pleasing as I have a small backyard.
Either way I will make sure no poisons from the pine get into the water.

thanks for the comments guys.

http://www.aquablueseafoods.com.au/other-yabbies.shtml

Have a quick read from the link above lamb....has alot of good pointers