Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi everyone, I'm excited to be here.
I'm about to try my hand at aquaponics and am hoping all of you will be able to help and guide me though this exciting adventure.
Here is a little background on my set up thus far.
When I brought my house there was a large round concrete trough in the back yard. (180cm across 66cm deep)
Once upon a time it was used as a veggie garden, fast forward past previous owners and tenants who used to empty lawn clippings into.
Well it has been emptied and given a good wash (no chemicals) and now houses 6 small goldfish, 4 sucking cat fish and 5 feeder guppies (assuming everyone is still alive).
My trough/ pond sits out in the middle of the yard with no shade and up until recently no pump.
My water stared turning green very quickly, so I got some plants (lilies and such)
Upon researching what I should do to combat this I discovered Aquaponics and got really excited by the idea. I have always used my "dirty" fish water from my tank to water my pot plants, so learning that my plants could now return the favour was to me a great idea.
I have now got a pump up and running with a fountain to help air the water and well... look pretty.
Today I went out and got (hopefully) everything I need to set up my aquaponics system.
Then of course the skies opened and down came the long awaited rain. So that has put a halt on my build which I now consider to be a good thing as it has given me time to join up here and ask a few "technical" questions.
I believe I have read enough and watched enough youtube videos to have the basics under control, however... I'm at odds on my placement of holes to allow water in and out of my "veggie garden".
As this is new to me I did not want to invest mega dollars and because I still want it to be "pretty" I was thinking water in through the bottom and out through the top. As my "garden" will be in the water I'm hoping the pressure of the water in will help fight against the water outside the garden. Or should I go from top to top? Top to bottom is really not going to allow for extra air, but if you know that it wint matter or will be a better option please give me your opinion.
With bottom to top I know this keeps the plants wet and will hopefully create a nice "waterfall" as it leaves to help with adding air to the water.
Attached are some photo to make it easier to advise. (I hope).

Ok so my pictures are too big.
I'll have to figure this out.

So this might work.
If so this is the pond and where I plan on having my grow bed, blessed be the handy milk crate

The plants I've got to go in the garden are tomatoes, finger carrots, bazil, purple garlic, lemon thyme, and peas.
Any suggestions on what might work best?
I do not plan on planting all of the above in my grow beds, I have a veggie patch too

Ok here are some bits and bobs for construction.

More construction bits.
That is aluminum fly wire an the inside of a polyester pillow

That is a 31liter bucket I plan to use as my grow bed.

Any advice would be great.
Thank you

Hi Kat

I'm not certain I have this right but it sounds like you plan on setting the 31L bucket on top of the milk crates in the pond . You'd pump water up to this and overflow back into the pond?

Regarding whether to bring water into the grow bed from below or above. You can do it either way but I'd pump the water up and over the side, like BYAP does, only I wouldn't use a distribution grid since it's a small bed. I'd do it this way mostly because it's a small bed and you don't want to have the inflow down inside the grow bed where roots can get to it. Coming through the bottom does hide it better, if you do decide to go through the bottom end the inflow above the media level (see the link at the bottom).

If you look at most beds they have a standpipe that determines the height the water gets to before it flows out of the grow bed. This is usually an inch or two below the surface of the media (you don't want the surface itself constantly moist or you'll get algae growing). Around the standpipe there is a media guard to keep roots and media away from the standpipe. I don't know if you have room for the media guard so you might have to modify the standpipe to keep the media out on it's own but allow flow through. Using a standpipe the water level in your grow bed will be higher than the water level of the pond so water will always be at a higher pressure and flow out into the pond from the grow bed.

It is possible to pump too much water into the grow bed so that it can't drain fast enough because the standpipe is too small. You can put a T with a ball valve to control the flow to the grow bed. Any excess flow can be used to aerate the fish tank and create water movement. You can also use the flow out of the standpipe to create some movement. Common sense dictates that where you pull water for your inflow should not be where you discharge water from the outflow.

I think I missed something, how are you planning on using the funnel?

Here's someones explaination of how they setup one through the bottom - I don't like that the inflow and outflow pipes are adjacent but other than this it's pretty clean and I see that they are trying to direct the water away from the outlet - http://aquaponicfun.com/general/one-barrel-aquaponics-system-construction/

Thanks for the advice Scotty.
Yes the 31 liter tub will go onto the milk crates
Water pumped in and drained out (some how) bottom to top or top to bottom...
I saw a YouTube video early into my investigations where they used a funnel to hold the filter floss and slow the intake. And of course I have never seen it again.
I will take your advice and pump the water into the top and out the bottom.
You are right I don't want algae either..
Currently I have 3/4" pipe to go into the grow bed and 1" tube to go out.
I will invest in a tap to adjust the flow too as you've suggested..
Scotty you are full of helpful ideas and for this I thank you..

Update.
I've done a..... well given how wet I got today a dry run might not be the right choice of words. LOL.
So turns out I'm a little short on scoria stones.
I have the hose entering the top and wrapped around the inside of my tub to the bottom. The scoria fills the tub and creates an overflow waterfall.
I couldn't help myself and there are 4 tomato plants nestled in.
I figured that tomatoes are grown hydroponically so they probably wouldn't mind being in a waterfall. This is based on no more research other than I have brought hydroponic tomatoes from the supermarket.
I just figured it was worth a try and I haven't put any holes in the tub or cut pipes so things can still be changed.
But the waterfall sound is lovely to sit by and watch the fish swim around.
I think I'll see how this goes (until I get board and decide to change it again)
But I thought I'd share my pics and see if anyone has had any success with this set up they can share with me.

That looks like a lot of water in the grow bed. does the water level stay that high all the time. The plastic tube going into the tank is that from the pump? What are your water readings like?

Hi there out on a limb.
I just put this in today as a trial.
The water in the tube is from the pump and the water levels are that high all the time.
Today was more of an experiment of placements.
My PH was high 2 days ago (before the new tub/ grow bed) but I added some baking soda and didn't get a chance to check it this evening. I will in the morning.

Yikes, baking soda will raise the pH not lower it Kat. Check your pH. You need an acid if you want to lower it. How much did you add?

Otherwise this looks like an interesting experiment. It may work if there is enough oxygen for the tomatoes roots.

Oh no!!! Scotty what do I do?
That was some bad advice I got.
Thankfully my PH hasn't changed (still sitting at 9) One cup of baking soda was what I was told to start with.
Good thing I didn't go at it with guns blazing.
My PH was fine and sat between 7.2 and 7.8 then it did a massive spike up to 9- almost 10.
Was it the lillys I put in? The change only happened when I started to play with the set up to add the grow bed and added new plants. Was it me?? I did have to physically get into the pond to adjust some of the plumbing. Could my skin have made the spike? It's been very hot here would my sweat do it?
I need to get this PH back down into the 7s.
The test strips I have for pool water testing (I have run out of my "chemistry set" liquids that I had - I will be getting more soon.) say there is no chlorine in the water (that's at 0) my alkalinity is 80ppm, PH is 9, and the cyanuric acid is at 40ppm.