Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Here is a system that we have been working on for the past few weeks, our focus was to build a system which used predominantly recycled and scavenged materials. The entire Setup cost just over $500 dollars (see explaination below). We decided to trial a flood and drain system this time and wanted to make the whole system as simple as possible.

A medium cast iron tank which is just over 2000 litres is stocked with 15 Barramundi and 5 Maron. There are 6 blue barrel halves and one fiberglass canopy situated around the tank which are used as the growbeds. The canopy and two half barrels are filled with expanded clay, another two with blue metal and another two with crushed pea gravel. This is so we can measure the effects of the different media.

All the beds have one edge hanging over the tank and drain directly back into the fish tank mainly for simplicity and to save on plumbing costs. To distribute the water from the fish tank we have used 19mm poly pipe which runs around the entire upper lip of the fish tank this tees off for each bed. Each bed has a tap (to control water flow) and an exterier drain fitting which can be adjusted for hieght by twisting it clockwise and anti-clockwise (see diagram).

We also built a pergola from materials we had lying around, this provides adequate shade and cover for the plants and fish. The water in the tank sits at 20 degrees and has a PH of 7.2. Further tests will show the nitrogen cycle. These will later be compaired to my other systems to determine whether the size of the system has an effect on the bacteria.

Barrels = $75
Pipe and fittings = $0
Media
Expanded Clay = $230
Blue metal = $20
Crushed Gravel = $30
Pump = $120
Seeds = $5
Fish = $40
Total = $520

Couple of extra photos

looks good mitch, my own experiment cost under $200 with the pump being $90 and the tank was a carton of beer and all the rest was scrap from here and there, blue was free and bought some clay balls, marron and fish were free but the fish was a day mission to collect, my next one will be a lot bigger, 4500lt and cost heaps more but once you have the bug, you gotta keep going so good luck and keep scavenging

A man after my own thoughts excellent use of recycled stuff

A quick update. Took some more photos. The system has just finished cycling. Only took a month.
Strawberry's have been amazing!!! we harvest about a punnet a week - if not more!! Its hard to keep track when everyone goes in and picks them!!
All the other plants have been planted from seed and have really started to take off.

what a cool setup

Hell yeah... I really like it.
Very Cool system.