Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I think I'm addicted to reading about aquaponics - bit worried about how the addicton will go once I actually start building a system. I am wanting to build a vertical system due to poor solar access over a bath tub for starters. Am thinking a continuous flow through not quite horizontal 100mm PVC pipe filled with those little clay balls (I forget their name). Or else using a wall garden system (wallgarden.com.au) filled with same clay balls. Thinking of yabbies as my fish (I have kept yabbies before for several years in an aquarium so I am familiar with their needs and sneaky escape abilities). Any advice on PVC pipe vs Wall garden or size of pump that might be suited to this set up. Would an airlift pump lift enough water for it? Thanks

Welcome grownathome

The addiction only get worse unfortunately.... soon evrything you see will look like a fish tank or grow bed.

Search the forum for stawberry towers, they are a simple way to make towers yourself and a bit more maint friendly rather than filling a whole pipe with media. You tube has some good DIY videos of these.

In relation to the airlift, I believe they will only lift somewhere around 200mm but Im not entirely sure. Prob not a good option. You can get really cheap pond pumps these days that would do the trick depending how high you want to make the tower.

goodluck

Welcome

Howdy.....

From what I've seen of the wall garden system, it wasn't very impressive.. A plastic rectangular pot with a couple of holes at the back to screw it to the wall, and holes in the bottom of it. The one I saw was very saggy, I reckon you could make a better one yourself..

Have a look at my first system. I had space issues and needed the grow beds high enough to make best use of the sun.

welcome to the maddness.....

looking forward to watching your progress

JT

Thanks for your comments. I haven't laid eyes on a Wall garden system so appreciate your feedback earthbound. Fordy your system is very attractive. One of the more attractive looking systems I have seen so far - an inspiration. My site problem is that I get poor solar access in winter and so need to go vertical for winter. I have a brick wall I can build against in winter and make use of thermal mass thereby reducing damage from frost and keeping a warm micro climate for the plants. In summer though the brick wall is in shade. So for year round gardening I almost need two systems or one that can be relocated. Alternately I suppose I could grow shade loving veggies in summer and sun loving veggies in winter against the brick wall. Nothing grows in the shade in winter though it is too darn cold.

Thats a bugger.

I wonder if you could use mirrors to project the sunlight onto your plants?

Have you got a pic of the designated area, might help us help you

I've decided to just get going building my system in a spring, summer configuration will see how it goes through winter next year and if I need to reconfigure it then will face that hurdle when we come to it. To this end I have sunk my bath tub/fish tank into the ground last weekend. I have read all 17 pages of posts on strawberry towers/vertical systems and wonder if anyone who built a tower system out of PVC stormwater pipe has had one that has served them well for a number of years. It seems that they are prone to blockages by roots. Don't want to make trouble for myself.

Bidding on a 150 L grow bed on ebay to go with my 300L bath tub/FT. Here's hoping.

We've had so much rain that my FT is sitting in a puddle. Might need to improve my drainage. Don't want my bath tub to rust from the outside in. Been thinking about trout and yabbies. Thinking about keeping trout in the bathtub through the cooler months then popping yabbies in over summer. If I grow the yabbies in a separate aquarium they usually mate between October and March which means I should have a good crop of little ones for fish food around the time the trout arrive in the system and any that survive the trout will make a nice little entree with a trout dinner in November

You can get yabbies to breed at any time of the year, its just a matter of tricking them with a heater or heat lamp and extending the daylight hours.

Ive done it thousands of times in the middle of winter

Oct-march = summer/warmer months/extended daylight hours.

welcome and good luck

Started experimenting with building an Affnan Siphon on the weekend. Hubby built one in a bucket to prove to ourselves that it works. It worked first time! Yay!! We are trying to understand what factors determine the rate of inflow required to trigger the siphon though. The siphon we built in our 9.5l bucket(no media) required 600l per hour grow bed fill rate in order to trigger the siphon action which seems excessive for a small system - my grow bed will be 150l. We used a 20mm stand pipe with a 40mm reducer on top and 90mm bell. Would a smaller bell reduce the flow required to trigger the siphon? or would a restriction in pipe size below the grow bed be better? Or are there other tricks to make the siphon trigger at a lower flow rate?

Finally getting underway. Here are some pictures of my system coming together. The bathtub is sunk into the ground half it's height. The growbed as seen in the first picture is temporarily propped up on bricks and some posts. We will build a frame once hubby and I agree on whether we need tall posts at both ends of the bathtub or only down the growbed end. The plan is to cover the bathtub with a piece of roofing that can be slid on and off. Then we will build a deck over the bathtub on which the growbed will sit. The deck will have removable sections so that the bathtub can still be accessed from above. Got a bucket full of pond water from my neighbour's backyard pond today ready to go into the system and hopefully inoculate it with some good bacteria.

Added 5 goldfish for the summer season two days ago. Had planned on adding 10 but the man at the aquarium thought I might kill them when I told him they were going into an aquaponics system and only let me have 5. So I guess we will wait a couple weeks and then add another 5. The pump has been running for 2 weeks now and the plants are still alive. No water test kit yet. Over the course of the two weeks I have added one cap of Maxicrop and then a week later some liquid worm waste. The plants are looking happier since I added the worm tea. I think the grow bed has finally stopped swallowing plants. I kept having to dig around in the media for plants that had been swallowed due to the floating expanded clay. Will post updated pics.