Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Ray had an existing 2000L fish tank, stocked with koi. And wanted to filter the water more sustainably, plus grow his own food.

This is a bit different to what I have seen so far on this forum.
Grow beds attached to an existing pond.

No need to worry about Ph spikes and stuff as the pond must be in balance already?

How will the addition of grow beds impact on this pond?

Would an existing filter have been removed?

Or would it be like my little backyard pond with 1 goldfish and lots of water plants and no aeration or filters or anything. Just left to water sitting, it is always clean and the fish is growing.

I suppose the grow beds will get their bacteria quicker than most too?

Congratulations Ray your system looks great.

Dale

Hi Dale,
When Ray heard about aquaponics he became very excited about the idea of growing edible fish, though he already had an old swimming pool that is home to black moors and amazingly beautiful koi. He was hooked and decided to utilise the existing pond and simply add growbeds to take the place of the uv steriliser and biofilter. They were disconnected and the growbeds have since been planted up and ready to start producing his winter veges, he is now looking to separate the fish in the pond and add some edible pets as well. Ray also attended last months weekend workshop to arm himself with as much information as possible. He reports back regularly so I am sure this is one thread that we i'll be able to update regularly. His excitement is infectious and I think his wife is a little tired of hearing about AP, as may be a few other spouses out there. This is one addictive hobby!

And with the wastes that koi produce... aquaponics would seem such an obvious fit...

Good to see the plethora of new BYAP systems installed guys.... has there been a renewed interest of late... or just a backlog of postings???

They had been put up on the website as installs but backlog of posting on the forum I am afraid. Also a bit of an increase on installs of late as well as DIY systems going out. I guess word is spreading.