Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Approx.....5 metres by 10 maybe....max anyway

I built my first system and then kept adding to it. Started with blue drums and ended up with large gb's.

Nice system DL

Questions:-
1) Wilson Lennard (PhD) recommends using river gravel... any comments?
2) Has the thesaurous been done on the abbreviations... yet ?

Susan

Gravel is fine, cheap and readily AM.... expanded clay does the job just as well.. but isn't as cheap.... but sooooo easy to work with....

Abbreviations here

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=1275

Hi Susan, not much help but my first system cost $150 and a carton of beer, the CTN paid for a 2500lt tank, and the rest was for pump and fittings all other was made from stuff lying around, my new system is bought and scabbed but will end up with about 6000lt of system
I tried floating GB's but not much success.
Start small and you will want bigger, start big and you will want bigger so start as big as the budget or scrounging will allow, and space of course

Thanks Rupe, C1 and Nocky... everyoe is soo helpful
Nocky, love the ideas of the ecco friendly set up ....and those Blue Marron are unreal, thank you for sharing I can't wait and yes it would appear you very right it is not going to matter what size I start with I will want bigger and bigger and Ohhh the thought of it.
For those of you who think I spent the whole on here .. nah nah nah ... I did actually find the time to ring the local council ( wish I hadn't ) to see if I needed a building permit for a shade/ hot house for this set up. ya know what ... council in Vic no longer handles them I have to get a building supervisor in to decide the issue .. so no matter what it is going to cost me money .. why did I bother? Cos I have the neighbour from Hell living next door to me.. Ohh well way of life i guess.
Starting to think I have encountered my Waterloo ... this is getting bigger than Ben Hur !
Susan

have fun and eat well I say
C1

No, just the first post I saw when I came on that night. It was looking so lonely all by itself


It wont be a waste, but make sure you design it in such a way that it can either be incorporated into your bigger system, or stay small as a quarantine system.


Yup, know how he feels, excepting I tend to plan too big. 2 years and still completing my system.


Hey I will need some gravel washed and plumbing done soon, I'll trade you hour for hour, it's hard work on your own, but easier when there's other ppl around. I'm not far either.


Hydro has only nutrients they need, and is a delicate chemical balance keeping it all cool. Most commercial AP systems are not recirculating, but just run to drain.
It's only a problem if there is not enough oxygen in the roots.

there is a group of radical permaculturists near here who get together and have "permie blitz's" on eachothers places..

they spend the day working, eating and a few bevies at the end of the day..

lots of work completed.. good social event and great community building..

could be a good workable idea for byapers......

Lost ...
The same when I was living in Albury and belonged to the Permaculture group there.. just not sure about being described as a radical permaculturist, is it a compliment.? Lots dows get completed for the person who holds the event and lots of knowledge is traded off also. As to food... it was BYO unless the person holding it decided otherwise.

Susan

all permies are good...

no harm intended

i also have a militant vegan friend who would near beat you up if you served her food that had touched an animal product.......

When I was at uni, I had a girlfriend who was a strict vegetarian... and an absolutely great cook... had no problems exisitng on a vegetarian diet... for the most part...

But I needed a red meat fix every now and then...

Deal was that once a month I'd go down the local steak house and have the biggest thickest steak I could get....

Other part of the deal was she wouldn't let me in her house for about 3-4 days until everything had passed....

Given that there was 3-4 days when she basically wanted to kill me anyway... it was pretty easy to live within the rules.... and I had some great weekend binges with the boys...

Lateral thinking... win win for everyone

Hi and welcome.

You are lucky over there as buying a BYAP turnkey system is an option there. Over here all the turnkey AP systems are those floating raft beds where you can only grow leafy greens as they don't really support much in the way of fruiting veggies. Actually, the sellers are all surprised that I can grow tomatoes in AP and I have to explain that I use flood and drain media beds to manage it.

Anyway, my guess by the way you explain your situation is go for a turnkey system as your first smaller system. That way you can get started with AP and the other half can learn about it hands on with the turn key system and from there you can decide what way you want to go for the really big system! I don't know what size the turnkey systems are but I expect that something with 500 l of fish tank and 500 l of grow bed would make a pretty nice fingerling quarantine system once you have the big system online. Actually, personally I would go for the CHIFT PIST system that had 500 l of fish tank feeding to 1000 l of grow beds that drain to 500 l of sump and there is a really robust . quarantine system for you.