Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi all, I haven't put much up I know but I thought it was time to let you all know what I have done.
I will try to put up some pics later too.
I bought a 3.6m plastic pool from Kmart about April last year, and filled it with rain water. 12,000 litres. I am using 5 bath tubs so far but am planning to increase that soon with another complete system like the one running now.
I have a syphon feeding the tubs continuously, with the water returning from a sump that has a submersible pump with a float switch.
I also have a dish washer pump in the syphon line, on a timer so that the flow is increased 8 times a day for 30mins. this helps to keep the holes in my pipes clear of detritis, and gives some F&D function too.

I ran this system from April 2008 till October when I got 100 SPs. And planted lettace, tomatoes, zuchinis, button squash and Capsicum.
The fish started at about 40mm and grew to 100mm by now. Veges have been going well, still waiting for the tomatoes to flower.
I had a cartridge filter in line from the sump pump...why?...dunno.
A few days ago the lid blew off in the middle of the night and the water escaped. All 12000 litres.

In the morning, the fish were swimming in 50mm of water around the bottom of the pool, wondering what happened.

I removed the filted and piped direct to the pool, replacing 3000 litres ....all I had left, and the fish seem to be fine.
Because the water is so low, I no longer have the syphon function, but the dishwasher pump on a timer seems to be quite adequate.......waiting for more rain.
The SPs have settled down again and are still growing well....they didnt eat much for a bit after the water change, maybe they didnt like the fresh water.
I had been thinking of changing the water bit by bit because I think its a good idea....but not all at once!
Because the surrounding area was inundated with 12000 litres of water born fish poo, weeds have gone absolutely ape-s%$@ and I am having a hard time keeping the growth down. I may have to use some round-up but I am reluctant.....

Because I lost all the rich poo water, my plants leveled off for a while, but seem to be coming back now....phew.

I intend to duplicate the tubs and pumps on the other side soon so that I will get a better Grow-bed:water:fish ratio.

Some photos soon, just have to read up on how to do it.

Cheers, Ira

Bugger about the water loss ...
thanks for the update

Thanks....I still have a lot to learn, haven't even bought a test kit yet. I figured that with 12000 litres the water would always be reasonable.
I haven't had any floaters yet.......don't talk too soon.
I need to put more plants in too so maybe that will be this weekends 'project'.. I want some eggplant and some icebergs, maybe some more zuchinis...I have heaps of capsicum... they have gone beserk, a good sign.
I do need some chelated iron I think because the button squash leaves are going yellow.
Cheers, Ira

Hey, good to hear from ya Ira... glad things are ticking along nicely... well apart from the water loss...

Is the water clear enough to be tempting on a hot day? And do the fish like the company? Looking forward to pics.....

BTW, another good computer program for resizing and playing with pictures is irfanview. And it's free (always nice).

Sounds like you lucked out on that incident! So have you/do you have plans now to keep a spare container of at least 1/4 capacity of replacement water in case of future accidents? Or maybe did you put your pump higher up from the bottom?

Thanks Guys, Its cool, the water only went down to two inches which is just enough short term for them to survive. I usually have 3000 litres of rainwater which fills the pool to about third way. The rain at the moment has topped the pool right up to overflowing so I am happy.
The water is crystal clear and is covered by sheets of colourbond supported by some 4"x2"s
so it gets almost no sunlight. The fish are happy and come right up at feed time when I tap on the side....My mate Tommy Harrison taught me that...G'day Tommy.

Voracious eaters, they do a 'washing machine' on the surface when they take feed.

There is quite a lot of detritis on the bottom, uneaten feed, dust, poo, etc. but as long as it stays on the bottom I am happy.
Maybe I'll make a little vacuum thingy to clean it up one day. A mini Kreepy......

When the sump-pump comes on to return water to the pool, It comes in underwater to reduce noise and I have a flap on the end of the pipe to close off the flow when the pump stops, otherwise the water would syphon back into the sump.
I use the little flap that you will have on the outlet from the overflow in the laundry, they are supposed to stop roaches and mice from coming in the house...little 45 degree job....
makes a great non return valve underwater...

My wife wants to name all the fish......I suppose its a girl thing......

Cheers.. Ira

Naming is fine so long as they get names like lunch, dinner, griller, BBQ, Stir Fry, Baked, poached, pan fried, etc, ya get the idea!
Good luck and hope you get some more rain to replenish the stuff lost!

Hi all,
Thought I would add something at last...still haven't put up any pics but I will try to do something soon. The fish are now about 170mm long down to about 120mm.
I still have about 85-90 and the veges are great. Tomatoes, capsicum, eggplant ...anything else gets grazed by worms in under a week.
I still have not added the other tubs but its been cold and miserable so I just go to work, cook and go to bed.
I must say the fish take very little maintenance. Occasionally I take a sample of my water to Mark at the Bribie Aquarium Supplies...He used to work at Seaworld on water conditioning etc so seems quite cool on the technology. He showed me how to make a really cool oxygenator which uses air pump and a couple of old chlorine buckets full of marble chips. Thanks Mark.
Hello VB, Rupe etc....cheers for now. Ira

Long time no hear Ira... how ya been..

Oh... that's right... ya just told us....

Ira,

My limited understanding is that seawater systems like a higher ph than our freshwater systems and a bed of marble chips would help maintain that high ph. Maybe keep an eye on it?

And post a picture or diagram?

Ira, we're up at Gympie - about 90min north of you. Can't promise anything, but if you have some pics of your system, you could email them to me and I'll chuck 'em up in the thread for you.

I seem to have a fair bit of time on my hands - not sleepin much since the whole introduction to this AP thing.

Another program to optimise photo's so they are small enough in physical size and file size is mihov, again a free one to d/load and seems pretty easy to use, it may help.