Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Thats a good size aeration pump Boris.

Have the pump at one end, with the pipe going to the other end, pointing back at the pump, will make a nice current.

Will be about 2000 litres when filled to the top, so probably 1500 useable

Nice tip about running a pipe the full length from the pump OBO , thanks

Thanks mods for changing the thread name too !

heres some pics ..

And heres the mess ...

still need to do another two courses of bricks ( ran out of mortar mix plus its too cold today , looks like rain , no point in trying to do it if its gonna get all wet straight away )

once the bricks are laid I'll give it a week then line the whole inside with render mix , smooth it out then get someone to fibreglass it

All those little pillars at the back against the wall are for the beams that will support the growbeds . I intend to have 3 half-IBCs resting on top of the whole thing , all cut at 50cm to give 500L of gravel in each , theyre going to be HEAVY
Ill probably attach some sort of light frame to the wall for tomotoes or something to grow up , but as soon as theres water in there I'll be putting in weeds , sunflowers or lupins to see how quick it grows

That "mess" looks like a mighty fine work in progress to me Boris

I've got a couple of really nice pictures of Jana you should see Boris

...and I have some unfortunate memories too

Jana?

I think you had made a move by then OB.

dont worry C1 , the bright glow of awesomeness from pics of my new system ( when its finished ) will burn those "unfortunate memories" from your mind

no work on the system today . apparently it turns out Im what people call "lazy" .
too busy working on other stuff

Im officially a troutslayer now , no more jokes frm me at Duckponds expense ( although , he DID kill more than me ...)

The 1400LPH pump with the venturi attachment somehow slipped down deeper into the tank , thus not pumping out air , just water . It happened some time in the early mornign os theres no way I'd have caught it , 18 dead trout , I practiced my filletting

I seem to have lost all the smaller ones , the trout that are left look alot bigger than the ones on the trays there .
Theyre super happy with their new space too - not so crowded in there, theyre eating now even though for the last 4 days none of them were ( because of the constant weather changes I think )

duckponds offered me 10 of his trout , so Im gonna feed like mad from now on to keep pumping out the nutrients and get the second growbed established

more bricklaying tomorrow ,Im hoping to get the new system up and running before barramundi time

Bummer....

... trout for tea... yeah...

There seems to be a lot of trout killing going on.....nice sized fish too

Got a mate to weld the 4th steel leg in place , the new grow bed is up and filled with gravel .
too late I realise the problem :

either
a) the two drain holes in the outlet are too big
or
b) the 1500LPH pump is too small to pump that high

the top growbed is now pumped from the sump ( that was the initial design of the system anyway , if you look back to the dodgy pics that I drew up ) , but it being a 1500lph pump it now takes an hour & fifteen minutes to fill & overflow the top growbed . The drain holes in the existing ( lower ) growbed are a bit smaller , and it gradually fills up and overflows before the top one

I've jammed an earplug in one of the 2 drain holes in the top GBs drain pipe , it fills a bit quicker now . Tomorrow I remove the 1500lph pump from the sump and replace it with the shiny new 3500lph pump that I got given a few weeks ago . Id like to drop the overall ( top one fill , overflow , bottom one fill , overflow , pump stop ) down to 15 minutes

2nd problem -
the new standpipe for the top growbed is too tall by 3cm . again , I realised this AFTER the thing was in place and filled with gravel . it fills a fair way over the top of the shiny new hydroton .
Got to somehow reach my arm under the whole thing again tomorrow , unscrew the standpipe , cut it to size & get someone to help me screw it back in from the top

and YES , it IS as it appears in that last pic - the enite thing is filled fro mthat one beer bottle !

the pipe from the pump will be fixed soon to look less dodgy , plus im thinking to wrap the whole top GB in black plastic

annoyed at the stuffing around that I had to do in the dark to get it flooding and working , but atleast it hasnt fallen twitching and bleeding in a pile of its own vomit like everything else I try to build

both the pump with venturi and the circulating pump have got big chunks of filter foam on them now to try suck up some of the excess dust from 6 bags of hydro

I suppose when eating my fish ( if they live ) people will now remark about how "tough" they are ...

Yes, it is a bit of trial and error with the timed pumps -
use a small pump and the outlet holes need to be small,
which then leads to the hole being blocked easily,
which then leads to GBs not draining fully,
which then leads to a bigger pump and drain holes fitted,
which then puts lots of smilies on the BYAPers face for a job well done,
which then leads to a few more of those mysterious bottles filling the stubby holder