Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

goodness me gentlemen

Tim, how long has Nicholas been your brother? 16 years?



Nick is *your* relative

Now I get it... LOL! Very... Umm, Funny!

Tim - I heard from a little birdie that you have TROUT! What's the story???

I'mvery sorry to hear that Tim has caught Trout. It's a nasty desease but resent research into Ammonia has shown good results in deminishing the problem.

Ok, now I know there have been a couple of you dying to see an update of my system...

It is one bed away from being fully operational. It kinda has been that way since 1st June, but I've been busy...

OK, quick run down...

May 23rd, Two beds done, 1000L tank sunk, drains and pumps setup. Float switch installed. Turned on the first time...
May 25th, Running fine for 48 hours... Got 25 Trout. And installed 1800LPH air pump and air stones...
May 31st, Three beds done. Second sump plumbed.
June 5th, First HSM. Ammonia Spike. No losses. Was bucketing down with rain so did large water change.
June 6th, started working on Trellis for peas. Using SS cable.
June 9th, Nic brought home 185 yabbies... Put them into the tanks.
June 14th, Finished Trellis. Built cover for main tank. Made shadecloth octagon, folded corners, used punch down brass eyelets and stick on hooks under rim of tank...

Fish: 25 Rainbow Trout (6-10 inches), 170 Yabbies (sold a few, ate a few), 6 Tandanus catfish and a few bristlenose catfish which are surviving well in the cold water.
Plants: 8 Lettuces, 8 Strawberry Plants, 10 Snowpeas, 25 Peas, Assorted Spinach, Assorted Silverbeat, Joi Choi, Pak Choi, a few onions to try and two very cold tomato plants...

Quick run down of the system operation:
10,000 LPH Pump in main tank, on 15min on/ 45min off timer.
Main pump pumps water to all four growbeds, ball valves on each GB, a master ball valve and the bypass valve. The bypass valve is 75% open. I have a LOT of pressure, tank swirls.
Two beds closest to the main tank, gravity drain through buried pipes to 1000L tank.
4500LPH pump in 1000L tank with added float switch pumps to main tank, when pump is off it syphons back some water so water goes back and forth all the time.
Last two growbeds drain to 500L sump.
8000LPH pump with float switch pumps water back to main tank. Added venturi just recently to add oxygen.

Second HSM moment: Came out one morning (Tuesday 17th June) to find 6inches of water in main tank and 1000L tank over flowing. All fish OK. Checked float switch, fine.
Pulled out pump, steam was coming off it. Had it died? Opened it up, had to remove screws to get to impellor, only to find a fairly decent size yabbie curled up in the pump...
He was still alive! He must have crawled in the return in the main tank when it was syphoning and got sucked down.
Spent 2 hours bucketing water from rainwater tank to AP system. Luckily it rained a few days after. so a 90% water change with no issues.... Yabbie still alive!

So there we go... Here are some pics from earlier this month... Will get new ones soon. Hopefully I will get the last bed done soon too...

tim,,,absolutely top set-up,,,,Looks great,,,you have seemed to have use the best.
May I ask cost???

Lets just say... LOTS... but the cost was worth it... Lower than $4000... With everything...

Just curious what you have done to hopefully keep the last HSM from happening again?

A quick rap on the claws and I told the rest of them to stay out... No, I used some mesh to protect the pipe opening...

did the pump survive the incident?

Bloody nice TimC.... and worth every cent of < $4000.... done well, played strong...

Thanks Rupe...

Yes the pump survived. A bit warm but fine. This pump has been used in all my aquaponic systems, it has been run dry a few times.
Its still going strong. It is an ebay one too. Cost me $120.

I am also looking into a float switch for the main pump, so if the main tank gets too low it will shut off and also sound an alarm or sms me or something.

It will be a while before the monitoring system is all setup, but eventually I will setup sms and or email alerts and a webpage to monitor the operation of the system. I am also looking at putting in cutoff valves to isolate beds if a pump fails.

But for now... Simple Timer, Simple Operation. Get the fish happy, get the plants happy. Then tinker... hehe!

Some more pics.... Taken this morning.

Very neat Tim

Great stuff Tim good to see the system up and running..

LB