Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi everyone, Jamie here.

Thought I'd better pull my finger out and introduce myself! I've been reading through your forum for little over a year now and finally joined up last month with a hope of setting up my own system. Armed with a copy of Joel’s Book, DVD, and CD and lot of hours of reading the BYAP site I’ve finally decided where and how in my backyard I am going to set it up. I live in Launceston, Tasmania so the climate here will be a great challenge for me so I will be relying on my new found AP mates for lots of help. I have very little experience with gardening or fish keeping. Although I have good friends who keep vegie gardens here all year round and after hearing what I propose to do I get the usual . This is going to fun I can see it now .

I will start my own “Taz” topic once I’m armed with enough pics, I know everyone loves pics, me included! So stay tuned.

But in the meantime my plan so far, in short is;

5 x 200 ltr Blue drums cut vertically for grow beds (total 10 x 100 ltr Grow beds)
gravel medium
1 x 1000 ltr IBC fish tank (kept in the shed to maintain reasonable temperature)
bath tub sump? (yet to decide)
Stocked with goldfish to start, with a hope to eventually stocking Trout. (all year round?)
CHIFT PIST

Hopefully by the end of this weekend I’ll have a rough layout of what I’ve got so far (grow beds only) and show what I have planned and then start firing questions at you all, and start what looks like the first Tassie system (although would love to find that I’m actually the 2nd or 3rd to make it a little easier )

Regards Jamie.

welcome Jamie......looks like you will be eating trout all year round .....living down in that part of Oz....sounds like a neat little system....hope you have great luck......

Hi Jamie,
welcome to our madness
J

Welcome Jamie. Looking foreward to your progress. Above all, have fun.

Hi Taz... good to have you aboard... look forward to seeing your system

Welcome Taz
There is another person building a large 4 growbed system in Tassie also.
Will dig out a contact for you.
Enjoy your new hobby

LB

Welcome Jamie, if you have friends keeping dirt gardens they can be a good guide of what to grow in your area
Give it a bit of time to get going then bring them over to look see, you'll send em home in shock

Hi Jamie

Sounds like a good system in the making. Only suggestion I could make is use another IBC as your sump and bury it. Bigger sump means more stability and easier expansion. Expansion is like the tide, unstoppable

Enjoy the fun.

Welcome. And your right about the pictures.

Welcome Taz and +1 for more pic's on the forum so everyone knows what your talking about

Hiya and Welcome Taz
I just know you will enjoy it here

Cheers
VM

Ditto hi taz, sounds like you've done the homework now for the workwork but look forward to the new thread

Thanks guys for the support already!


Hi Jessy, what is the recommended temp. and stocking levels for Trout so they will be happy (ie; grow, feed, stay alive )


Thanks LB, I look foward to being able to see a working system up close.


Haha thanks FF I can already see where things might get a bit out of hand and grow and I haven't even started yet. I originally planned small and then thought about where I would expand and then said oh bugger it start out at a good size! A size that works well for my size and shape backyard. I've go a 4yo daughter and 2yo boy who I have to share the backyard with . Yeah the IBC in the ground as a sump idea did cross my mind but need to do some more thinking about water volume and how much will be in GB's, FT and Sump at any one time (or extreme case scenario) mainly so I don't over do it in terms of how long my pump runs for.

What are the rec. sizes for FT to GB to Sump ratio so as to not end up with a Pump running for extended periods of time?

My assumption is the CHIFT PIST concept means the water from the FT is only flooding the GB's while the sump pump is pumping back to the FT! Is this corect?

Also one last question for now (sorry for the long post). If I use 10-13mm gravel in a 100 ltr GB will it take around 30-40 ltrs to fill?

thanks Jamie

G'day Taz,
trout will tolerate 5c min and a max of 24+ if well airated.
but growth is greatest from <14 - 19c in my experience only.

This year the trout have handled upto 25.5c but not sustained, only a few hours.
Also, I add ice, during the peak of the day (for a few hours anyway)
Hope this helps

Hi Jamie

With Chift Pist you are correct, water is overflowing from the tank while your pump is running. You can then use autosyphons and run your pump 24/7 or use a timer or float switches to fill the beds then slowly drain them. The search function will give you heaps of info on these options.

With regard to tank volumn etc, the simplest way to view this for me was as follows:

1000 litre IBC will potentially support 2000 litres of grow beds.

2000 litres of grow beds if all flooded at once will hold around 40% of their volume in water, so 800 litres.

A sump should hold at least the entire possible water volume of my grow beds (800 litres) so it was easiest to just bury an IBC the same volume as my fish tank.

Some of the electronic wizzards on here can do all sorts of tricky stuff like use valves etc to stagger the filling of their beds and therefore use a smaller sump but that was a bit beyond me.