Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I want some of those! Why doesn't my little pod work?!?!
I don't think it's a desing problem but rather a lack of meat problem.

get the meat in there mate...its works a treat!!

Are your "grubs" self harvesting ok ice man. I know in all the BSF composter tutorials I've seen, great care goes into getting the ramp sitting flush against the side of the pod. The theory is that the grubs natural instinct is to circle the outside of the container looking for an exist/ramp. Having it flush with the side increases their chances.

Dip the open part of your PVC pipe ramp in boiling water for 30secs and then bend/flare the side closest to the container wall out. This PVC in boiling water thing worked a treat for me. I used it to close the end of a heap of my preseaure pipe instead of using end caps

i had a heap of maggots in the tub the other day, i have two lots of flies producing two different sized maggots and had both in there

then either the BSF guys are too pedantic, or it's not as much of an issue with HSFL

i'm not 100% happy with it but yes it does work

They came to my pod too, I will add some pictures tomorrow. I'm having a problem with rain though, and they are completely ignoring the "ramp" I set out (a spiralling water hose pvc tube)

It's better if they can get IN the tube. Have you set it up for them to crawl on top of the tube. I hink that worked for BullWinkle

i spent tonight watching the footy (carn the bombers) and redoing the maggot farm

I wasn't 100% happy with my first attempt, it did work at first but then i lost almost all of the maggots (they escaped) and the stench is pretty bad!!

so after a bit more research i came across this blog, and built one, just without the same drainage system.
http://blacksoldierflyblog.com/bsf-buck ... rsion-2-1/

here are some pics

Food scraps, meat, etc goes in, flies are attracted and go in the top T piece or any of the four slots in the side, lay eggs, eggs hatch, drop onto food get big and fat and eat everything and when they are ready to move onto the next stage in their life cycle they will 'in theory'


and the inside, velcro around the top (below the slots) will stop the smaller maggots escaping. the grill down the bottom is a basic filter to allow any fluids to filter through and drain out some holes in the bottom


the ramp!! and escape to the saw dust


where they will circle and eventually enter the tube of certain death!! i might add a square edge funnel to this to ensure they enter the tube and don't circle the bucket aimlessly forever!!


whilst the females will lay eggs anywhere this allow some more spots



out the hole into the saw dust!!



a slight angle will prevent rainwater running down into the tub!!


I'll get it started tomorrow... can't be bothered tonight

Very neat , when can I come around and pick mine up

lol... surprisingly it wasn't too difficult... lets hope this one works better!!

I saw your post last night iceman and I whipped this up today -

I will be interested to see if it works as it was pretty straight forward.

nice one mate, one thing i'd add is a filter off the bottom to allow water and other fluids to drain and not stink up the biopod.

i chopped up some 25mm conduit to raise the filter off the bottom. the filter consist of two plastic grills with synthetic filter material sandwiched in between and cable tied. i have a series of small holes drilled in the bottom of the bucket for drainage.

i cant wait till spring/summer i want to keep an eye out for some BSF's i think i remember seeing some as a kid when i was running my worm farm