Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I thought I would give a summary to date of this system and add some current plant pics.

System operates on 2 pumps. One is the main pump which is located in the sump. It is 15 minutes on 15 minutes off. Water is pumped to the fish tank and then overflows through 2 syphons (to be sure to be sure) to the growbeds. Growbeds all fill together due to the drain being one hundred mm sealed pipe. The pipe rises in a n shape and reduces to 80mm over and into the sump which has a elbow on the bottom to create an airlock, so when the growbeds are full, the syphon into the sump kicks in and the growbeds drain in about 3 minutes.
The second pump runs continuously and its flow is split between the nft and the fish tank. This gives continuous flow to the fish tnk for aeration between floods. So the water is aerated as it goes into the fish tank, as it percolates thru the gravel, and as it syphons into the sump. We haven't tested DO but suspect it is saturated.
Water volume is about 5000 litres in the fish tank, and about 6000 in the sump, gravel volume is about 8000-9000 litres.

System has cycled up with goldfish and we have encountered a few issues since the start.

Where most people have to deal with low ph through nitrification, we struggled to get our ph down below 8. We achieved this with the use of ph down (phosphoric acid). Added bonus I suppose would be the bi product being phosphorous instead of say chlorine which hydrochloric acid. Prior to getting the ph down to below 8, we had virtually zero plant growth. In fact the basil in the pics which is now looking good, was reduce to sticks, and you can see how the spring onions have rejuvenated since mostly dying off. This shows just how resilient plants are in AP. Eggpants are starting to take off, toms are fruiting, eastern bloc watercress will be a problem if we don't keep on top of it, lettuces are bolting. Seed are germinating stright in perlit in the nft, and in the gravel. Zucchinis are starting to come thru the gravel, purple capsicums are fruiting. Have squeezed a few toms into the gbs and seeds are germinating. As you can see, some of the new growth on the broccoli and lettuces in the nft is quite yellow. We will add some iron soon. (one hour round trip to the hardware shop means we have to wait lol).
We are going to push the limits with this system as far as stocking densities go. We have a lot of nft to add more plants when the nutes build up. At my old system, we had 250 barra successfuly growout in 3500 litres of water and 3500 litres of gravel approx, filling 14 times a day. This system floods 48 times a day, and has over twice he gravel and 3 times the water, so we are going to add 1000 silvers to the system next week when the fish arrive. Obviously we will have to monitor it and are in the fortunate position of being able to move fish around if we have to, but it will be interesting to see how it goes. I am expecting a bit of an ammonia spkie to start with, and as the ph is still over 7.5, we will have to be a bit careful of that. I think if we feed minimally to give the bacteria a chance to catch up, we should be okay. If not we will move out the fish and we will keep the results posted here.
It is amazing how much you learn all the time with AP. The difference in the plants with the ph at 8 to 7.8 is amazing. Truly, from almost zero growth to full on in 2 days.
I have added pics of todays plants.

Stu

more

more

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Monya

Any chance of seeing some pics to explain the plumbing system ?

cheers
Derek

Hi Derek

coupla pics for you.


will add a decent pic of the overflow syphons

Stu

Impressive stuff boys ......how many goldies are producing this growth??
and what amount are you feeding them each day??

initially we had 112, 15 cm goldies eating a couple of handfuls a day, but no growth due to the ph. They have been sold, then we put about 40 - 50 mixed goldies in there. Ph was then sorted out. Now we have an extra 100 big goldies in there to bump up the bacteria before the silvers come and we are feeding them as much as they will eat. probably 100 grams of pellets a day

That's alot of water dumping in 3 minutes, impressive aeration.
1000 silvers are going to give you a stack of growth in those growbeds.

:-) LB

Very nice system.
I've taken notes on the pH as my water grid delivers water at pH 8.4.
Would you have a general pic just to get the global impression of the system. You're getting to the "limo" AP system there, big luxury toy.

Another question on your website, does the air UV sterilizator work well, how does it work ? is it the suction of the air that gets water flowing through the lamp?
Sorry for the hijack but that UV system would be good for a NFT system on an aquarium if it works.

I hope that all will be fine with the silvers, i'll be waiting for the results because a system that size is very promissing for the future of AP.

Yep, the air driven UV seems to work well, we have one in a tank here. The air line plugs onto the filter, kinda works like a airlift pump, drawing the water thru with a big bubble.
I will take an overall pic of the greenhouse and system tomorow and post it up. Cheers

Stu

Thanks.
I'll have to find those Resun pumps and gear over here.

I saw the setup first hand about a week ago when I picked up a new pump from Stu and Danial, I was really impressed. Not only with what they have done but with the effort they are putting into making it work.

I didn't have much time there but what I saw made me green with envy, thanks for the hospitality boys and keep up the good work.

BTW the pump works a treat.

H.

Thanks Himzol, glad to hear the pump is going well

here is an old(ish) overall pic. Looks much better now, as you can tell from the above pics...

Very impressive plant growth and a well-designed system. I especially like the volumes of water being moved around.