Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hey all, I'm new here. I recently built a small ~130L system in my basement. I'd love to add some photos, but I keep getting an invalid file type error while trying to upload a .jpeg. Anyone have a tip for me to get some pics up?

Hey fishwrangler....

make sure your picture size is not over 600 x 800 pixels....

jT

And make sure you resize the file to less than 256K....

Use the Microsoft picture resizer... easy as.... does it all for you...

Thanks for the assistance.

Here it is. Just to produce some salad greens for me and the better half. She's been a real trooper puting up with my mess in the basement. It is Zebrafish (Danio rerio) powered for now; thinking of bream (hybrid bluegill)or even Piranha for the future.

sorry- the pics appeared in the opposite order I added them!

A couple more pics from day 1

A quirk of the forum software fishwrangler.... you can place them in order by using the "Place Inline" option...

Secondly... the thread is more for a "snapshot" summary of peoples systems...

You should have your own thread in the "Members Systems" topic.... mind if I ask the Mods to move it for you??

Thanks for the heads up.

I'd be fine with it being relocated if another area is more suitable. Thanks.

I recently modified the overflow drain and some of you may find it a useful design to employ in your system somewhere. I, by no means invented or designed this, but I do find it an amazing technique for removing solid waste and the benthic layer of the water column, and it also avoids removing floating diets before they can be eaten (or they clog your overflow drain). It works like this:
The water fills to the desired level where it encounters a standpipe type drain which has been encased in pipe of at least one-size larger. The bottom of this larger pipe rests on (I cut V-shaped notches in mine because I am dealing with small fish) or very near the bottom of the tank. When the water reaches the internal standpipe and drains a bit, a gravity siphon is formed. As long as the inflow into the tank is not greater than the outflow capacity of the drain, the water level will be depleted by drawing water from the bottom (or wherever you choose to make the drain cuts) until it reaches the primary siphon break hole. A second hole is drilled for safety in the even the first one becomes clogged. It takes a bit of tweaking to get it just how you want it, but mine currently enjoys two drain/refill cycles per hour and has made the deposition of solid waste in the tank a thing of the past.

Please, please, please, excuse the rudimentary photoshop drawing- I'm not too good at freehand using PS and my mouse really leaves a bit to be desired as well.

Neat system FW

Any chance of a quick description of how it works? ie water goes from here to here through this sort of filter etc

Be also interested in the water parameters as the ceramic rings you have there are supposed to provide some removal of nitrates.

Thanks Sleepe. I'll attach a few photos in this post and try to answer a few questions.

The sump contains a 4 stone air diffuser manifold, a 4L bag of Siporax bio-filter media (the ceramic rings Sleepe mentioned), a 100W heater, a Kent float valve, a small framework that holds a prefilter pad and an anti-vortex panel over the pump intake. The water is drawn by an Iwaki mag drive pump from the sump and is first pushed through a 50micron spun or wound polypropelyne filter cartridge, then through the ~6L Biofilter/reactor of Siporax, then through carbon filtration, then through the two UV's (one, then the other). After UV sterilization, it hits a pressure relief valve, then onto a distribution manifold. The manifold distributes to the grow beds and the fish tank. The growbeds are Sterilite tote containers which have been drilled for two bulkhead fittings for drains. The water is distributed through these growbeds via sprayer manifolds- so this is actually a Aqua-Aeroponics System, and you can see that the net-pots which hold the media are never actually submerged.

As far as the Siporax Biomedia- there is no substitute in the relam of static biomedia. The suface area dwarfs that of it's nearest competitor- BioGlass. All you have to do is hold one in your hand. That being said, if I was going out to buy this stuff, I'd likely consider a media such as Kaldnes which could be fluidized by moving air and water. The only drawback with ANY static biofilter media is that you run a serious risk of killing off your colony if you allow it to get stagnant. This means that if seriously neglected, an anaerobic bacterium could supplant your aerobic colony and cause an upshift in the nitrite content of the system.

In my case after ~2 weeks with fish (~300 Danio rerio), I have 0 ppm Ammonia, 0-0.5ppm Nitrite, and 40-80ppm Nitrate. All because I took a mature bag of Siporax from my work facility, dropped it in my sump and replaced it with a new one.



Please feel free to ask any questions I haven't covered.

That must have cost heaps, thanks for the info
Looks like no problems with the nitrates, was told that those ceramic rings could develop bacteria in the inner micropores that could convert nitrates (anerobes).
You don't have any problems with the micron filter first? (mind I notice you have pressure gagues on the filter)

My out of pocket costs were nil. A supervisor at an old job who knew absolutely nothing about aquaculture, gave me all of the guts of the system for free because she felt it could not be adequately cleaned for use again in the same facility.

After several years of managing large systems (10's of thousands of L's) I have to say that the Siporax is worth every cent. Nothing else even comes close.

The pressure guages are only there to help tell me when the 50um filter needs to be changed (and both are non-functioning right now as a result of sitting for a couple of years). When there is a ~15psi differential between the two, it must be changed. They only cost ~3$ US. And having this degree of mecanical filtration is requisite when running UV's- because if you don't, a heavy biofilm and large particles will accumulate on the quartz sleeve causing a "shadow casting" efffect where the UV light is blocked and does not work as effectively.