Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Yeah, Doug, i have been to a couple of aquaculture sites, but this is the only one i have ever seen(and yeah it was a commercial product). Even my tafe (aquaculture) lecturer hadn't seen one before.....if only i knew what it was called, tried googleling possible names, but no such luck so far.......

Steve, they tried converting to metric in US when I was in high school. The masses of people were unwilling to make the journey. Never saw a birth announcement in kg; it stays 7lbs 4 oz. The auto industry switched to metric (did some go back?). The real mess was when vehicles were half metric. I have a small metal shop and have metric and english tooling. Having two systems sure is wasteful! I wish everything was metric and be done with it! Besides, I like driving at 100 and it would be safer in metric

I was riding the rails in Canada and noticed the distance markers were in miles. I mentioned it to a rail worker and he said it was a matter of expense. They need almost twice as many signs for Km.

I thought I would patent the idea of marking every two kilometers and sell it to the Canadian government. But then I remembered they would have to figure out where to put the 2 Km markers (survey) and figured they would save a lot staying in miles.

I have noticed that many hydroponics sites recommend recycled plastics that are FDA approved..

Many hydroponic farms use electrical conduit systems, that are probably not food grade...

I guess, the soil in my backyard probably is no-where near food grade growing media either... probably worse than a wheelie bin regards leaching of undesirables .

I have no knowledge of history of my backyard, and as I understand it, a lot of spraying of roundup, termite comntrol chemicals, and even the excrement from chooks fed on certain chook pellets are debatable contaminants.

Also , the drinking water butts, stock drinking vessels provided for farm animals in concerete, recycled plastic, etc. etc .. who knows what the leachate concentrations are?

Is it worse than using black reic pipe for solar heating? I understand the temperature thing, but some of the water butts in Northern Australia get pretty hot!

How far do we go with contamination issues?

Good points raised by all!

Johnnie I chuckled about your post. There is a country song out in the US about the old days when we (old people) grew up. Riding bikes without helmets, lead base paint, drinking from a garden hose rather than bottled water...and we did just fine (or something to that affect). I do not dine on lead base paint, but there is a limit to 'playing it safe'.

Remember the taste of water from a garden hose? It did have a distinct plastic (or something taste) taste which came from something leeching into the water. In a recirculating system, that could add up to a problem.

My biggest health concern comes from a totally natural and organic source. I have high levels of Radon gas in my home...but not to worry; the source is 'natural' uranium under my house. Anyway...none of us are going to get out of this alive...just a matter of choices before the reaper gets you...so far I am enjoying the ride...with a bit of humor about life and death.

I agree ...

I live in a spot where radon is a problem .. granite hills.

I also raised chickens, for eggs in my backyard, then a friend told me that it was much safer to buy tasteless eggs from the supermarket, cos, chickens scratch, and who knows what they ingest from the spraying and weedkilling, and termite control, etc. etc. that would have been carried out by previous owners...

The home grown eggs tasted so much better than anything I ever got in a shop .. I supplemented their diet with grass clippings, herbs and dandilions, meal scraps, ...

The quesion is .. (and I think it relates to the black poly pipe issue)

Was I safer producing eggs in my backyard, or buying them from the supermarket? How do I know that commercial hydroponic tomatoes have not used plastic containers that are not able to leach bad chemicals into the nutrient water, (I know that many use recycled plastics for theor channels!)

And ... do the growers of these tomatoes use chemicals that are "poison free" in their nutrient solution. Do they really care?

Thanks for a good subject and debate.

J7, I think we agree...moderation. Whenever it looks like 'modern living' is killing people, think about how much longer people are living on average and how many healthy, vital people there are in their 70s & 80s. London in the 1800s was a very unhealthy environment because of burning wood and coal and sewage in the river. Our lives are under much healthier conditions. I do what I can to make things good for us. That includes raising chickens, vegetables, and fish to eat. I have had my land 22 years. Anything here before then has probably been leeched out. The taste of water from a hose does relate to the safety of black poly in a closed system where it can build up over time. That risk I would not take. They have CPVC pipe here certified for drinking water. It costs more, but I would go with that. First I would run a test for myself. Leave a CPVC pipe full of water in the sun for several days and then taste the water (cooling it first). If I tasted plastic, then no. We each have our standards, that is just mine.

The pioneers had scant medicine, spoiled food, wood smoke coated lungs, smoked cigarettes, and died young. I think we have a much healthier life available now.

Read this with interest yesterday[ you mean a blower like this ] new i had one somewere

wow, yeah like that

they had a couple of huge sweetwater blowers, i think they had 6, 3 were running and 3 were backup...

never ceases to amaze

whens your garage sale? you putting on a BYAP sale date one day before the real one so we can get our hands on the good stuff? LOL

Hi F&F,
It might work depending what pressure it can manage, I have one similar to yours and it does about 10" wg.h2o. and sounds like a jet engine

Regenerative blowers, like the sweetwaters, are much quieter and have a lot more ummph.
Here`s my blower..i`ll find a use for it someday

Well for all the folks that want or have expressed the thought about tank heating or heat exchangers.... here's a possible answer......



http://www.koiwaterbarn.co.uk/?act=products&cat=5 ... about halfway down the page ...


The water in the return line from the growbeds could be passed through one of these.. perhaps "lagged" to minimise heat loss???

Not cheap, but they would seem to be efficient.....

Annoying part was I didn't have any spare cash at the time....

because This One On eBay went for $51 plus postage....

The eBay listing has some nice photos... included a couple


Surely someone with good metal working skills could perhaps duplicate these and sell them to members... VB you were going to order some stainless weren't you... and Les is just around the corner

Rupert, do you need to heat part of the year where you are? How cold does it get? What does natural gas cost there? Our natural gas went up about 40% in the last two years. With our cold winters, energy is a major expense. Over $1,000/yr for natural gas for the house.

Maybe for about three months Doug.... could run these off a small instantaneous gas heater.... 45Kg gas cylinders, or for that matter off 9kg BBQ cylinders.

Can't see why you couldn't actually plumb a solar or normal home hot water heater into the circuit, or some of those solar collector panels.