Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello everybody!

My names Mark, i'm from west wyalong NSW ( 150km north of wagga wagga 300 from canberra 500 from sydney )
I was looking at stocking some dams with fish when i stumbled upon a word i'd never seen before "Aquaponics" so i clicked it.....
I've since spent probably 100 hours reading in like 2 weeks (mainly these forums)
I'm super keen on getting something small-medium going.

I've got a small ( very small ) pump and a water test kit, so today i wanna get a very small system going which has 2 purposes:
1. practise, making sure it works and I understand it all.
2. i'll be using heaps of fish tank pebbles which will be used as/part-of the grow beds in my medium system, if/when i do it

So here is my idea for the little one:

I'm going to put as many fish tank pebble things as I can in an old fish tank, with a few yabbies i'll get out of the dam.
I'll have 2 air stones under the pebbles, and feed the yabbies with veggies or what-ever.

I'm going to put a small pot plant filled with more pebbles on top of the tank so it constantly drains into the tank
my little pump will constantly run into the pot plant, ( untill it blows up probably, it was $20 )
Then i'll test the water a couple of times a day to see if its all working.

So i have these questions....
1. Will this work, after all this reading i'm still unsure about the "constant trickle" idea,
everyone seems to be using flood and drain setups, but i don't have a timer and don't quite understand the syphon thing.
2. Will the bactera grow on the pebbles in the tank under the yabbies? are 2 small air stones enough?


I hope I understand enough, and this works, but i won't be surprised if you guys tell me this is all wrong.....
Anyway, I'm glad to be a member, and glad I clicked on the strange looking word i came across by acident

Hi Mark

welcome to the forum and to the madness and the addiction

not to sure how the trickle pot will work if it is constant ... some one else might have a better idea of how it will work

i was thinking that it might be a better idea if you added a small lenght of pipe and run a film of water along the bottom of the pipe so that the plants can grow roots into it .. this is also known as nft

personally i run a nft pipe for growing lettuce and spinch in
and then run 4 growbeds with loop siphons and that wassnt to hard to figure out how they work once i tried it
and i used 13mm poly pipe fittings and then normal hose into a common drain ( 90 mm stormwater pipe )

and there are a few threads on how siphons work ... i found loop siphons the easiest to make and to get working correctly... havent tried the bell siphons yet when i expand i will give them a go

if you have any questions ask and you will be pointed in the right direction by someone

good luck with your setup

Thanks for the input mal,

I didn't try the nft, I just got this whole little setup going out of stuff i had lying around
(the grow bed is an ice cream container i attacked with a knife)
It cost me nothing if you concider the pump and test kit will be used in the bigger system,

heres what happened............
1. My pump is WAY to fast, constantly running it just wasn't an option, i gave it about 10 seconds about once an hour to fill the growbed
of couse this don't happen when i'm asleep or at work......
so... i got a couple of timers a few days ago, and had the pipe go around the growbed (with little holes in it) and back into the fish tank
the timers alternate between the pump and air stones, 15 minutes each
2. PH constantly rises to 8, ammonia levels are now 4 and rising, nitrate is at almost 0 and hasn't changed at all since before i even put the yabbies in.
Nitrite is 0 !!

I think (and i know nothing) that there should be SOME evidence of bactria by now, since it is flooding and draining, and theres plenty on ammonia.
Soo... am i right to assume the fish tank pebbles are completely useless?
The garden shop is going to start stocking expanded clay soon,
Once they do I think i'll still use the yabbies in the aquarium for now, but make up some real (yet smallish) grow beds,
i'll use loop syphons, those bell ones look complicated.

If all that works, once stuff starts growing i'll go much bigger, we have a small farm with lots of earth moving machines, space is not an issue

So whats your opinion?, Is it just the growing media?

P.S. for the grow beds i'm just gunna cut an old chemical drum in half, it had round-up in it, but its got to be AT LEAST 10 years old, probably 15-20
will a simple hose-out do the trick? or should i find something else?

P.P.S I Apoligise for all the speeling mistakes, i suck bad at english, but i try

Hi Mark

dont worry about the spelling mistakes to much we all make them
ok so your ammonia level is to high for effective bacteria growth
you want it closer to 1 and no more than 2 if you can help it

the aquaium gravel should work fine they just dont have as much water between them then the clay balls do so you need less water to fill the growbed up

and it can take up to 4 to 6 weeks for the tank to cycle from scratch

just hang in there with your system you will notice the nitrite levels come up and then the nitrate level will also come up after that

you should then notice that the ammonia and nitrite levels will drop close to 0

most people seem to run an all 0 system or nitrate at 5 to 10 and the rest 0 or close to it when fully cycled

if you know someone with an aquaium and if you can get the crap out of there filter when they clean it next and add that to your system ( put it in the grow bed .... or add a little bit at a time to your fish tank )
this will add some extra of the bacteria needed to make your system run

hope your going well

Thanks again mal,
Things seem to be going much better, ammonia is still rather high, but nitrite and nitrate are both increasing dramaticaly,
3 of my 6 yabbies got out, but the last 3 are much smaller, don't think they can manage it,
The seeds i just chucked in there when i was drunk one friday night are growing!, didn't expect that!
Heres the Little LITTLE working little setup:



( in the 10 minutes since i took that photo the test tube has gone red, 40ppm of nitrate, mabye my little plants are dead )

I've started colleting bits and pieces for a bigger setup, but still haven't got a real fish tank
and i've been expermenting with loop syphons (they work!!)
Heres what i got so far:



I was thinking with those tubs i got i could mabye start with some silvers? what you think?
I have a few dams i wanna stock, can i just throw some of them in the dam as they get bigger?
That would keep the stocking density right and i can go fishing at home! but how would they cope with the water change?
also, my dams are near empty, 1-3 foot in all 3 big ones.
How many could i have in those tubs using the big drum as 2 grow beds?, how many if i use my 2 loop syphon tests?

see now that will teach you you for thinking something wont work or grow

congrats on you first working system ( even if you grow bed is really really to small for that tank

and i would be more inclined to be looking at thhose blue barrels ( the 1 in the photo ) that you have there
come on what has it had in it? ... can you use that and a few more and find a small rain water tank to go with it as the fish tank?

by the way what seeds did you happen to throw in the growbed ?? interested to see what you want to grow ..as i am with what everyone is growing and what grows well and not so well

good luck with you setup hope to see some more photos soon