Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi everyone,

I am new to AP and just starting to build a system out of 2 IBC one as a tank and the other cut for 2 grow beds with a separate sump. I just tried the setting it up as a flood system with pump in the sump pumping into the tank with about 100 mm drop gravity feed into the GB but the GB are to slow to fill up.
I was thinking of raising the tank by another 100 mm but not sure if that will work or improve the gravity feed or just change it to an auto siphon any ideas would be awesome thanks.
I am in the 6111 area so if anyone is in the area would like to bounce ideas and information on plants and fish would be great.

Cheers Frank

Welcome Frank

Hi and welcome.

6111 - You have the best place in the world just up the road at Jandakot.

Hi Frank and welcome to the best forum and the smoothest moderator(s).
looking forward to seeking you system as it develops.

thanks
yes its about 10 minutes to the backyard aquaponics shop lol although i did start out thinking of building a system with auto syphon and have gone with flood and drain. but i am having problems with the setup as i have bought a 3000l/ph pump and the plumbing for the gb i got from the shop was 20mm i fitted my pipes with 20mm but it seems to slow to fill the gbs i was hoping to grow marron in the sump and fish in the tank anyone have any ideas i will see if i can work out how to upload pics.

cheers Frank

A pic will help.

Resize your photos to 800x600 and save as a copy to your desktop or folder so not to alter your originals.
Open a reply post and write your comments in the text box as you normally would.
Click the 'browse' button and choose your photo from your desktop or folder.
Then click 'add the file' - this will take a moment to upload.
You can do this another 2 times for a total of 3 images per post.
You can click the 'preview' button to check see if you have it right, then submit.

Hi Frank , I think you will find the pipe work is 25mm. You can run on a timer but if your growbed is flooding too high trim the stand pipe down a little.
Hope this helps.

Sent from my GT-P5100 using Tapatalk 2

Raise the height of your sump tank, if you, can milk crates are always good.

ok went and changed the size of the pipe work to 40 mm it fills the beds in 7 minutes ans drains in 20 minutes so just need to set the timer right then it should be all good all i need to do then id finish of the stan pipes in the tank and the pipes around the beds nut will have to wait as i am back at work for the next 4 days i have put about 100ltrs of water from my fish pond to speed up the process so i can start putting fish and plant up the beds will try get some pics to post as soon as i can thanks for the help guys.

Cheers Frank

here is a couple of pics of my system i have got it sorted finally with a comedy of errors lol like dropping my drill into the IBC then when taking it out and drying it down i stripped the drill down and spayed it with a cleaner then put it together only to try it out and it catch fire so i threw it into the water lol now its all cleaned out and dry before i tried it and it works a treat lol.
i have put up a trellis on the other end to the IBC so i can do truss tomatoes and things like that with out it effecting the sun coverage on the rest of the system.

Looking good.

thanks i have ordered some trout and some marron so cant wait to get them and start planting
am going to start on a wall garden soon and use the fish pond i have

Nice progress frank

Careful with the marron, they are great escape artists.

thanks for the heads up on the Marron i will guard them but already looking at expanding to anothere tank
Hmmm this is addictive.
the lady of the house has already put in an order for a vertical garden

Hi everyone just wondering my system has been running for about 2 weeks my question is do i need to test the water and if so what do i use and what should the readings be ?