Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

i've been away for a while and the plants have taken off meanwhile, i enjoyed the progress seen, although i hope a more rapid growth will follow
pumpkinss

basil is growing like crazy, that's good


the cucumbers are forming lots of fruits, i hope they'll be able to fill out

peppers could be produced massively, one of the best AP plants
the albino goldfish is a real piggy!
checking out&feeding the fish with my brother, always fun to watch them hehe

i think that my next system will have the gravel media separated from the grow beds, i will rather use pure DWC with no media, i think it will help to eliminate the need for bigger pumps or autosyphons - no restriction of flow in the grow beds, besides the roots
was thinking on leading the drainage to another(or a few) IBC that is full of gravel then leading the water back to zi fish
i think it's a solid idea, what do you think?

hope you enjoyed the photo update, have a wonderful day!

You'll want the gravel before the dwc molj - something to do with the solids getting stuck to the roots, causing root rot.

Fish Tank--->Gravel filter on a stand---->DWC---->Sump/Fish Tank

hey OBO!
hmm, maybe there's some truth to that when the water flow is not high, because i have no such problems in my Aquarium aP(have a lot of flow)
will definetly have to think this through as there are height issues here no doubt about it

Thanks for the update Molj, always a pleasure to see what you have been up to and how it is coming along. Your system and greenhouse lokks so beautiful.

Any particular reason you want to go DWC rather than floo and drain Molj??

If you go DWC... then as OBO says... you'll have to pre-filter the solids...

... and DWC relies on high flow to provide enough oxygenation to the root zone to prevent root rot...

... so you'll probably end up running the same sized pumps anyway....

Downside is ... you wont have enough support to grow "tall" vege like tomatoes, cucumbers etc... that need a support media.... unless you can support them in some way...

IMO.... flood and drain is less hassle... more adaptable... and almost as good in terms of yield/production.... uless you just want lettuce and basil....

faye thanks for cheers up, although i am not so pleased with the drainage mainly....we'll c, thanks for stopping by

ruperto:well the main reason is that if you use flood and drain, you definetly need a sump tank or a bigger fish tank, i have non of those, that's why my system uses DWC and never completely drains the GBs, which is a big negative thing in terms of solids, as i would need far more water flow to move them through the system because of the gravel

maybe i'll install a 500L sump and some kind of autosyphons, i need more flow

you can use the pool noodle for the support, but u need some kind of fitting, pot, or hole to put that noodle in along with the plant....more work then with gravel i agree, in the long run

the biggest black spot of my system is the 40mm drainage, as it is hard to get a bell syphon working, have to take the time to play around with the syphons and diff. diameters
thanks for pulling me down to the earth again ruperto:)

hello everybody!

i'm bringing some fresh photos with me
since i've started adding rain water i dropped the ph to around 7, and most of the plants have taken off, i've eaten a few kg of my own AP salad already, and a few kilos of cucumbers, good feeling:)
cauliflower is growing despite the massive caterpillar attacks

gonna chop this one soon

the fall in a greenhouse

there was a storm and a drainage pipe was dislocated(there was no seal, my fault), and about 900L of system water was flushed, i flushed more then 60%, but the plants don't seem to mind as long as the ph stays down


i'm working on a salad GB in my aquarium system, i'm setting it up infront of a window that has a view on the south, so there's alwas plenty of light. i hope i'll get it started soon enough to show you what i'm doing
i had some visitors at my AP greenhouse, it was the man who gave me the trout at my first try, and he's interested in setting up a system of his own now that he's seen the growth:) i'll be happy to help him set it up and report it to all of you

thumbs up!

What up molj!

What temps are you getting around there these days?

perfect for trout!:)
from 6-18°C air temps, water temps are somewhere there too
but really, next fall i'm definetly using trout if they can grow to a good size in 7 months, what do you think?
it's really hard to work something good since i'm mostly away in another city, argh, nice to see you dave!

Trout can reach 750g in 7 months under ideal conditions

I got 500g + without feeding properly.

Good photos, and I love the growbed stands.

hey OBO!
750g? that's awsome!!i wish i had the time and $ to set up the greenhouse's and water heating this year...well next one i guess

what are your average water and air temps?cos our winters get as low as -20°C
i enjoy posting them:)

Troutman got the big Trout

For my system, 6 months, 500 grams +, water temp spent a lot of time below 10 deg c, optimal temp is 16-18 deg c. To be honest I cant see any feeding difference between 10 and 18 deg c.

Winter air temps range between -2 and 16 ish. Summer is 16 to 40 ish. The solar radiation is a big problem in summer.

u have pretty mild winters, that's cool, i think i will need some sort of heating, in the ghouse and in the AP for those cold cold days
maan, the trout would love my ap now, it's perfect temp wise, i'm just concerned about the veggies, i don't think they'll grow good over the hardest winter times -- don't want no nitrate spikes.....tests and water changes maybe?
i was thinking on setting up some fluoro lights to keep the veggies growning, but i'd need a lot of lamps to use up all the nitrates...me thinks, since you need about 25w/m2 at least, that's 0,625kW at least × 4h/day = 2,5 kW/day × 31 = 77,5kWh /month × 7months/season =542,5 kwh /season, meaning with electricity costing us around 0,07EUR /kWh × 542,5 kWh = 42 EUR
well that's actually pretty cheap, even if i use a HPS/MH bulb or something, let's see how much veggies/fish i get for that money(not so good fish, not so good veg)
for salad here i give 1,99EUR /kg so with those 42 euros i can buy 21 kg of salad . if 2 people eat about 200g of salad per dinner, that means i can eat that salad for 105 days, but i got no fish!!
so for 42 euros i can buy 6 kg of middle grade trout per kg, meaning 2 people can eat one 200g trout within 15 dinners....
so 105 salad days and 15 fish days + all the pesticides you wish, for the flavour ofcourse

in the long term and in the sattisfaction meaning, WE win

our summers don't exceed 35°C for now so with large volumes of water i could go troutish all year, but in smaller systems like this....a sunshade on the GH and carps in the system, i tried trout but i failed, no way of keeping the temps under 25