Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi all, We (wife and I) are Niknteen... we decided to quit trying to grow our food side as all manner of drama's pretty much denied us the ability to avoid Chemical poisons.. So, I turned our Pantry inti a grow room, Sarked up the room, Sealed up window,put a 600w grow lamp system into place, added a fan(floor standing, will insert bathroom style exhaust fan later) slapped a 50 mm hole through the floor boards and put a large fish pond directly under the house ( apprx 600mm of room under house). I estimate the pnd to hold approx 250 ltr of water.. we put in a small pond pump turning some 200 ltr /hr max.. gravel used came from local river.. was cheap..it came fairly clean so we used it as is.. put in a heap of comets and guppies in the pond.. seedlings in a few days later.. System is near 5 weeks old.. plant growth is rather cool to experience .. needless to say, our pantry is getting full on.. I have room to expand with more grow tubs.. but will have to wait until this grow cycle is done..
Wife n I are already putting plans in place to turn the rear entertainment area ( 9 x 5mtr ) into grow beds and ponds now, after a few mod's to keep the evils outside..
I look forward to reading here.. meeting others of like mind where food security and quality is more than a passing concern.. I know nothing of water conditions eg.. nitrites, nitrates and such.. which is what led me here. I shall endeavor to keep a photographic history of our trial system..get around to uploading said photos as I can..
Be safe all, again.. thanks for a rather awesome bank of info, much appreciated.

photos of system ..

ok, at week 6 fish.. so far we had 3 x fish die ( comets), scored the water test kit, still to use it though as all seems to be running very well.. ( lucky I guess?) The corn had to go, kept falling over so its now outside in the dirt, doing as it wants.. Lettuce all Bolted though I blame the red light for this. So we have tomato, Cucumbers, capsicum and silverbeet growing in a haphazard manner.. Looking at using the lower half of the IBC pod to make a second bed soon, though it will sit against eh back wall in the attached shed, not in the little pantry .. Under the house, can see the water is pumped up through the drain pipe. I believe this might need to change as the plants are seriously kicking along. I worry I will awaken to an internal flood with roots the blocking factor.Learning is pretty cool when you fly by the seat of your pants..

I don't recall ever seeing anyone plumb their system quite like this .

Cheers