Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I've just finished assembling my micro AP system. It's a fairly simple and compact system, due to my limited handiness and the small size of my balcony. It consists of two 90L tubs ($15ea at bunnings) on a wheeled trolley. Draining the grow bed was a little bit complicated as the trolley won't fit the usual vertical standpipe, so I used an L-bend in the pipe. I used a water tank fitting to ensure a good seal through the tub wall, but unfortunately this has meant that the drain pipe is raised almost an inch from the bottom of the grow bed, so I will have a bit of watter sitting in the grow bed at all times. I considered using foam or plastic to raise the base of the grow bed or adding a small secondary drain to get the last bit of water, but I decided to keep this tub simple, and refine the concept later as needed. If this set up works, I'm planning to add another grow bed or two down the track, though managing the water levels for might be a bit complicated. I ended up removing the tap from the drainpipe since it kept catching rogue bits of hydroton and blocking up. I'm planning to fit a roof to the fish tank, and sit the fish tub inside another tub for insulation in winter.

I will get some goldfish on Friday, if I can find them at a reasonable price. The last place I went to wanted $5 per fish, for tiny little comets...hoping I can find cheaper than that somewhere, otherwise I might be fishing for carp in lake Burley Griffin.

Bootsy

If I understand it correctly thats F&D with a timer? The water in the FT is going to be dropping lots when you are on pump.

third or fourth floor?

welcome Owen

Sleepe,

Yes, it is F&D with a timer. The fishs' water level is a concern, but I couldn't find a taller tub with a similar size base so it would fit on the trolley. The fish tank level seems to drop by about 40% at the peak of the flood phase. I'm banking on the roughly 50L of water being enough for the fish provided I don't stock too heavily.

Ok, just so you know the drama's
And I was impolite, welcome.

The system has been up and running for a bit over 6 weeks now. I've added a low tech sun shade (a towel) for the fish tank as the water temp was getting up to 30 degrees. I've got 16 little comets eager to wolf down food at any time of the day or night. But it doesn't seem as though they've been producing enough waste to really get the biological filter running. As you can see from the test results picture, I've got a little bit of ammonia, but no nitrate or nitrate.

My Ph is also staying a bit high, I think because the tap water here is about 8.5ph or thereabouts. After (gradually) adding two litres of vinegar, I've still only got it down to about 8.0. Still, the fish don't seem too bothered.

Plant growth has been pretty slow, as you would expect, but the cherry tomatoes are already setting fruits. I've been spraying them with maxicrop, which probably helps. Looking forward to eating my first aquaponic produce.

Hi Owen

Looks like quite a bit of Ammonia, pretty shade of green. Might pay to knock back the feed a little and do a partial water change. With nice high water temps it won't take long for the bacteria to build up. Any chance of getting an old filter or some gravel from someone fish tank as it really helps to kick things along.

Hi Owen

I constructed a similar system awhile back..had the same problem with water capacity for the growbeds on F&D. Also it was hard to control the water temperature..
You can pipe another container off to the side for more water capacity
http://backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=1617&start=0

Looks great. I'm right there with you. I have a 10 gallon fish tank with 1 shoebox growbed. I plan to add another soon. I was waiting until My plants started growing before I start a thread for it though. I've had serious issues getting plants to start using the baggie method. I'm one of the 5% it doesn't work for. Really wish there were more micro systems posted online. Anyhow, keep up the pics and updates! It's what the people want.

I put together a little demo system from two aquaria last Summer, one goldfish lived in it, very wide temp swings, the water was like a hot tub at times but the little trooper lasted through it and is now in the regular aquarium in the living room with his friends. Pump ran all the way dry once, water loss needed to be managed daily. Still a good system though.

viewtopic.php?p=125119#p125119

(scroll down a bit for the small system diagram and pictures)

Hi bootsy and welcome to the forums for the addicted

nice system you have there in such a small space

i hope you have fun with it

A big ammonia spike hit today- probably about 3 or 4 ppm - fish were looking pretty lethargic. I did a partial water change this morning, and another one this afternoon. I've finally started getting some nitrite too, but no nitrate yet. Gemmell was kind enough to give me some of his tank gravel to kickstart the process, so hopefully I should get some nitrate soon (thanks for the tip Fishfodder). Unfortunately my pump also seems to be running on about 50%, and I can't figure out what the problem is. I've had to cover some of the holes on my standpipe to get the water level high enough.

Thanks for the other comments too - Livebeyond and Dave Donley, I checked out both your threads before building mine. Good to see there are a few working small system designs out there.

Why would you have holes besides one on each end of your standpipe? Maybe that's that problem.

Well there's good news and bad news. Bad news is that the day after the big ammonia spike, 6 fish died - a third of my total. This was despite doing a 50% water change. I changed a bit more water after they died just to be on the safe side. The good news is that no more have died in the two days since (touch wood), and that the system finally seems to be cycling. I've now currently got a pretty big nitrite spike, but I'm getting a bit of nitrate at last, and the ammonia level has at least halved. PRetty amazing change in just three days, but I guess the addition off Gemmell's rocks combined with 30 degree water temperature really got things moving. Also on the good side, the water has gone crystal clear again, and the Ph is down to 7.8.

Plus, the heat wave is set to end after tomorrow, and next week should be a lot cooler, which will give all my plants a much needed break.

Hi Owen

Looks like things are moving along. Have you got any salt in the system to protect your fish from the Nitrite? 1ppt will do the trick.