Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi All,

I have just built my first system from an IBC, 12 x 20 litre pots and an old bath tub (1000L tank and about 400L expanded clay). It is therefore a combination of Flood and Drain and simple reticulation. I have started to populate it with tomatoes, lettuce, strawberries, silverbeet and capsicum. I plan on introducing about 12 Silver Perch next weekend so in the meantime I have dosed the tank with 4 cap fulls of seasol.

I would appreciate any advice that anyone would care to share, particularly around the use of pots, starting a system off, seeding a system and the introduction of fish

Hi and welcome to the forum

Thats a great system you have built there and I look forward in watching it flourish.

Its great to see a planted out system waiting for fish. Keep going with the seasol as you have as that is what will be feeding the plants until you introduce fish and build a nitrate colony.

You can introduce fish as soon as you like and silvers are a good sturdy fish to own.

Enjoy the ride

Thanks Mod,

I think I need to do a bit of reading around testing of the water etc. I am winging it a bit at the moment

You can call me Charlie mate.. we are all family here.

Feel free to ask as many questions as you like. Your system looks great. Spend a few days reading through the threads and you can search through topics that might spike an interest.

Is that a cast iron bath tub?

It's not a cast Iron tub, just rusty old enamel

Did you get your fish Witho?

Yeah thanks Faye, I put 20 fingerlings in, probably a few more than I should have but they are only small. I will be going easy on the tucker until the magic starts to happen. Hopefully the bacteria that I got off you today might spped that up a bit. I will keep you posted

Hi Guys,

I thought I would post an update of how the system is going and hopefully pick up a few more tips from the experts.

I added 20 silver perch about 6 weeks ago and have been feeding them 1 tsp/day of fish food (from the shop) for the first 4 weeks and 2 tsps/day of food for the following 2 weeks.

Ph is 7.6 steady but I have so far had 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and 0 Nitrate ??? Is that normal?

I was dosing the tank with Seasol for the first 3 weeks only.

Plants seem to be doing well.

Absolutely beautiful!... great work, I hope you are proud of your system

enamelled bathtubs may leach high amounts of lead. google "enamel bathtub lead". You're going to be eating what's growing in that bathtub...put a pond liner in.

Thanks for the tip on the bath tub