Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Yeah, I have found them very good price wise...get up a list so that the freight isn't a factor (or give them a visit )

it's ready to cycle, now I need the fish... This is such an expensive hobby.

more pics

I will be replacing these tanks with a insulated fibreglass tanks, I haven't weighed up the price difference between building my own fibreglass tank and buying a food grade poly tank... that's for later on...

I have to clean up the bloody great mess I've made, finish a bit of wiring and get the timers set. I've ordered 50 freshwater mussels, 100 pacific blue eyes and 100 glass shrimp. They will be the main food source for my fish, which I still haven't decided on. I like crayfish more than fish so it'll probably be redclaw, otherwise I'll get a heater and grow barra. I have 2 irrigation controllers that I picked up from bunnings for $45 each on sale reduced from $115. couldn't pass that up. one controller runs the solenoids letting water into the pump either from tank or GB and the other controls the water out. liquid level sensors and relay from jaycar make sure nothing overflows if I get a big downpour of rain filling up my GB's, they also make sure the tanks don't overflow. I have an overflow pipe from the fish tank to the sump. a 1000L/h pump keeps water flowing from sump to the tank keeping the overflow pipe running constant. I bought the controllers with the idea in mind I can keep adding solenoid valves to the pump and water other gardens as I add them to the system. Big plans ahead but baby steps for now. more pics to come soonish, more money to spend first.

and I thought I had stuff everywhere

looking real impressive A_Z

well done

Way to go zombie.... nice stuff...

Can you post a close up of the controllers and explain the flow path(s) a bit more?

because the controllers only open one valve at a time, I had to get 2 controllers. the top controller switches the pump outflow valves, so one allows water to go to the growbeds and the other goes back into the tank.
the bottom controller switches the inflow valves, so one takes water from the tank and the other from the from growbeds. so it's all about timing getting 2 valves to open and the pump to switch on at the same time. so in order for it to work properly I need one inflow and one outflow valve open at the same time. I have to set the timers on the controllers and program them to switch when the GB's are full via a liquid level sensor. I still have some wiring to do, I only tested it today so I need to pretty it all up. I'll have more details and pics soon... after I clean up.

controllers, www.holmanindustries.com.au/products.as ... lEZY%20RSR

whoops... no edit button?

Just be ware that those valves dont get blocked up, others have had trouble with the pilot holes - great looking setup

need some aerator advice... is there a ratio of Lt/h of air to volume of water in the tank?

more tailored to number of fish hence O2 requirement AZ did the calcs once..................

TCL posted something about it once...

Planted last week, not expecting a great growth rate being winter and all but I planted mostly winter veges. beets, beans, etc. I have 200 glass shrimp, 100 pacific blue eyes and 25 mussels in the sump tank. In the next few weeks I'm getting 50 redclaws for the main tank, I just want to build up some bacteria first. Since I've put fish in the tank I've gotten a lot of algae, it's like mucus and it's all over everything. these are my readings.
Ammonia = 0.15ppm
Nitrite = 0.25ppm
Nitrate = 0ppm
PH = 7.8

not long now!!!

Once I have my redclaw, I am going to start work on a second GB system. the GB's I have now are roughly 700Lt of 5mm black drainage gravel. very dirty stuff. The idea of growing tomatoes upside down was extremely interesting, so I built a prototype that I could use in an AP system. I will have 10 x 20Lt buckets using perlite for media, a sprinkler type system under the lid(so not to waste water) and a drain at the bottom leading to a wheeliebin sump that can be drained after the cycle. The irrigation controllers I'm using will allow me to pump and drain water to 4 seperate GB systems, at the moment it pumps through my main GB's 4 times a cycle, the controllers cycle 4 times a day, 6am, 10am, 2pm and 6pm. I have extra programs to run on the controllers which will allow me to run them overnight as well but being winter it doesn't need it and the gravel hold moisture really well because of their small size and silt coating on each rock.