Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Well I'm starting with a Barrel system much like several that I have seen here. Back in October I turned some Channel cats and some Bluegills loose in my 4'x25' above ground pool. Years ago my brother used to turn goldfish loose in his pool to keep the alge down over the winter and sell them in the spring and profit enough to pay for the chemical startup. So that was were I learned fish would live in my pool. The channel cats didn't make it I believe the copper in the algecide got them but didn't bother the bluegills. I should have put goldfish in there too because the alge thrived a lot of leaf litter got in there being I didn't cover it last fall. Well my daughters want their pool back and my system is circulating now so I siphoned it down to about 18" and started trying to catch them with a cast net. I couldn't catch a one. I felt like a young bear learning to catch fish, and I just ended up green with slime! Well I pumped it down to about 10" and caught most of them with a scoop net, also used the net to get the leaves out. I will check in the am for the fish I missed. Well here is my first attempt to post a few pics of the fun Well I have to figure out how to make them smaller.

Well here is a couple of photo's of the fun!

Here's another!!!

I ended up catching 50 bluegills and I believe that there is still a dozen left. Well as for that pump that i purchased to pump the pool down I guess I have a pump for the 300 gallon system I'm putting in my greenhouse. But I will concentrate on making sure my little barrel system works, I don't have any greens growing in it and I'm worried that 5 dozen blue gills will overpower the system with nitrates, I may replace about 5 gallons a day until the greens are big enough to handle. I may plant some corn because they are heavy feeders but it may look kinda funny in those barrels

BRB, I'm just shrinking your pics a bit to make it easier to view them, maybe reduce them to 640x480?


looks good so far

Thanks for the help Jamie!
I will try to get some pics of my barrel system posted tomorrow, I'll do better next time!!!

Sounds like a lot of fun. The best is yet to come. Welcome!

Firstly, welcome to the family.
Bill are you sure the pool isn't to big for the kids??
I mean, well, that pool has a volume of atleast 15000 US gal (50000 ltrs)
Sure you couldn't find a nice small pool for the kids?

Nah only joking.

Best of luck with the addiction

Welcome to the BYAP forum Baton Rouge Bill.
I bet it was a chore chasing small bluegill around such a large round pond.
Coulda been a hit on you boob.

good growing ya

Where ya from BRB? update your profile

also i recon a smaller mesh net might damage your fish less

I am trying to control the flood level in the growbeds by controlling the rate of drain in the drain pipes by drilling holes in pipe caps. I may need bigger overflow tubes to control it that way. I want the flood level to reach the top of the gravel before draining. I want to ensure the seedlings get the water and nutrients they need until the root systems growout. I may try to accomplish this by raising the level in my flood tank. This would probably be better for the bacteria in the growbeds that trying to maintain a residual level in the growbeds. The seedling are planted in cotton balls and they seem to stay damp all day. I'll just wet them in the am until I get home from work and try working it out with the flood tank.

Generally, we have opted to keep the water level about an inch below the gravel level...this is to discourage any algae growing on the top of the gravel...seems to work quite well in mine BRB

Me too

Have you tried syphons?

Mine's all down to timing BRB, I have a tap to each group of 4 beds and a tap to each bed.
Granted it took some time to adjust each single tap but a few beers helped, if one bed received too much water I backed it off expecting the other 3 to get more and if they got to much I backed off the big tap.

If it is a barrel ponic system with a flush tank, you should be able to easily adjust the siphon height to the flush bottle to bring the depth of flood up a little temporarily for the seedlings but if they are planted in cotton, it might not really be necessary. Most plants are quite happy with the flood level being about an inch below the top of the gravel. Many plants will have problems if you flood too deep.

I really love this forum,!!! I posted my first little problem and got 4 responses right away. With you guy/girls help I should really be able to cut down on my newbie mistakes!
Thanks TLC this is a Barrel ponics system and that should work, and thanks EllKayBee, for pointing out about the algae on the rocks, I do want it to look good. Here in the Louisiana humidity algae grows on the roof of the house!!! And very importantly Thanks Gnash I think I should be able to squeeze in a couple beers while adjusting it!!!