Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Perfect enough for now Nocky..... now the next system I'm going to ......

I think most of us are trying to improve/evolve our systems...sometimes it seems like one step forward - two steps back, but it is the enjoyment of achieving something (in AP)

Bottomless pockets would be goo too

Is the way the barrel-ponics guy supports his adequet?

Or cut them the other way

I would enclose my drainage pipes with another pipe to make it obvious when the roots are invading. I might also build support for the plants before planting them, instead of desparately trying to get them down while the plants are doubling everyday.

And the autofill when the water level drops is a good idea. I think I will have to look into that one.

Man only 18 votes, I think this needs a bump, so bump

I think it is a pretty good indication

Now that I've been tinkering with the monster grow bed, I think I would like to have planned to cascade all my other grow beds into it to save on water volume fluctuations.

well the other half wants a little system now, so is good for me as I can get away with what i want to do with my system for a while, am going to use large bath tub, got some free goldies, well sell her 10 mussels and have some pure blue marron coming, 27.50 per kilo, I have bought a 180lph solar pump from Ebay that will run for a couple of hours at night from battery back up, you can set to come on at anytime of night so will probably let it come on about midnight as well as running during sunlight, mussels should help things along as well, pump was about $50 posted so will see how it works out

Changed your words for you Nocky (better late than never heh).

As for me, I'd do a lot more planning and try and save a heap of money by not buying all sorts of stuff I don't need. Of course it is easy to say this now that I know more about what I want and generally about AP. Wasn't so easy 2+ years ago.

Cheers thanks VB, you make a good edit button, woops sorry steve I promised I wouldn't mention the thingy button again, VB I already am doing as cheap as possible, I think the fun is making cheap or free things work, fortunately have a good free supply of things I stock, except the Mussels, and our local salvage guy looks for stuff I ask for, stuffed up with the tanks tho, my bathtub will cost about 50 banana's and solar pump likewise, free goldfish, free marron pay for Mussels (dam easterners fleecing us again) so will get her system up and running then watch out, my next plans are drawn with a 4500lt poly stock tank $950, and will build around that, I am growing things I like to eat, Marron, Mussels, and don't know on what fish as yet, I don't know about the grow bed thing either, seems like I lot of work, I could get a lot of hanging pots around a 4500lt tank so hope this experiment works out, veggies to me are the side line and the fish and marron are the main things, veggies are their to keep down the ph and also eat of course

This may confuse some newbies. One of our old members used to confuse people by saying that the bacteria made the plants grow. So just to be clear (for any newbs who may read this thread), the media in which the plants are grown houses the bacteria. The bacteria converts the fish produced ammonia to nitrite and the nitrite to nitrate. The plants then keep down the nitrate. A biproduct of the nitrification process is lower pH.

Clear as mud VB

The bit about not buying stuff that you don't need is good. I spent a (relative) ton on pvc tubing and piping that are just sitting in a box now. This was due to poor planning.

The discovery of electrical-purpose PVC bulkhead fittings simplified things a great deal for me. Even so, I have a small, steady leak that I though would solve itself through biofilm, but hasn't. As a result, I have standing water on the floor, which leads to flies.

So, to sum up: plan carefully, take a couple recon trips to your hardware store (or wherever you are getting plumbing), and seal up things that should be sealed.

Or, ignore all that, fly by the seat of your pants, and get annoyed by rebuilding your system from time to time

When Nocky wrote that it reminded me of my grandfather and his homebrew. My grandfather made homebrew for many years. After he passed away we found his notes on his homebrews. He had kept notes on every brew including ingredients, quantities etc. He also included comments on what he thought of the beer. After reading through his notes I noticed that he always found something wrong with each batch. Too much head, Not enough head, Too bitter etc. I realised that the reason why he never got it perfectly right was because if he did then he would have nothing to strive for.

I think that that is what is happening with all of us. Of course we will make changes if we could start again. We don't really want to get it perfect because then there would be nothing to tinker with.

As for me, my first system was built to learn from so I will definitely be making changes. Some of them will be:

Use a combination of different gravels in my growbeds
Different technique for the drainage of my beds
Grow beds made from wood rather than the barrels that I currently have
Make everything larger
Incorporate some time of shade/greenhouse
Make it easier to pull apart for removal of roots etc

That is a list of some of the things that I will be changing.

Simon