Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

My first step towards my Aquaponics system. Today I did the base for the fishtank and did up a video for it that you can see here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-hhWVR1jD0

When I first heard about Aquaponics I found these forums and loved the pictures and stories people told about their systems - lessons learnt and mistakes made.

Well, I want to be able to contribute back so I will be making sure I post plenty of pics and do videos when I can - as in the videos you get to see a lot more detail.

The base was put together using blocks on crusher dust then placing hardwood sleepers on the blocks. If anyone can see issues with what I have done or the way I did it, please let me know - as I am in IT by trade and using my hands for anything other then typing on a keyboard is all very new - so building an AP system is quite a challenge for me!

Cheers, Andrew.

I'm not sure how strong the bottom of your container is ,, but a centre support may be a good idea.

Hay there and welcome!

Some new activities will do ya good, working with your hands and washing some gravel, all good stuff

Yep, a center support might be a good idea there unless there is some really good ribbing to reinforce the bottom of that tank.

I love to see new systems coming together.

Think that's one of Murrays 1200L fibreglass tanks Chappo... should be strong enough...

But a centre support would be an added insurance Wild...

Hey All,
Andrews Fish Tank has 3 full width reinforcing ribs (100x100 each in section) across the bottom of the tank. Murray has glassed in some eps to act as strengthening bulkheads as well as keeping the tank 100 off the natural surface level. Andrew went with the perimeter sleepers to accomodate these strengthening ribs and to gain a bit more height for the fish tank to drain by gravity into the Grow Beds. I didn't have my dumpy level (one of the sons reckoned they needed it more than I did!!) so I couldn't get fixed levels on Andrews system , but I think we should be able to get about 300mm fall from FT outlet to GB inlet (over about a 15m run so about 1:50). PS, I'm only writing this because I left Andrew digging and leveling for his GB supports:( Chuckle, Chuckle!)

Cheers IanK

Ian - thanks for your help today! My back is killing me. Lifting those sleepers is a killer!

Thanks for the suggestion for the middle support - as Ian mentioned, the fibreglass tank has a full width reinforced section which is fully supported and also half supports in the middle which are sitting on the sleeper as well. So I think it should be strong enough. Time will tell.

Time for an epsom salt bath to try and recover for more of the same tomorrow.

Sounds good, looks good.

Here is some of the progress from the weekend work on the growbed base. This base will end up fitting 2 GBs each 1.5m in length (so length of what you see is 3m). Will be building two of these for a total of 4 GBs.

I look forward to seeing your system come together. Welcome to AP!

Finally finished the base for the growbeds today. Ended up with a different design then what I first thought of... 2x2.8m treated sleepers (75mm thick) sit on 4 blocks which have been core filled with cement. The sump sits under the growbeds and is 1 block high.

Now that the growbed base is done, can finally start on the plumbing!

Just a quick suggestion on making a cheap dumpy level. Get a 20Meter lenght of 8mm clear plastic tube. Half fill it with water and add a few drops of bleach (to stop alge). Join the two ends together with a hollow tube joiner. You now have a level finder. With all of the water in the bottom section of the tube as you lift one end up the other end will equallise and give the correct horizontal level.

ya don't even have to join the ends together. I've used 3/8 inch airline tubing as a level simply tie one end a bit above where I want to level something hold other end next to it then dribble water in until the tubing is mostly full of water and the water is at the level I want to match. Then carefully move the free end (careful so as not to loose the water if you lift it up or something, Put thumb over it while moving is often a good idea.)

This has let me check the level of things that are quite far apart when I could not run a string because of intervening objects.

Anyway, looking good. Is there a reason to raise that sump up? Could probably simply let it sit on the ground and save the blocks for other purpose unless you have something going in lower than the sump.

Yes - in the future, want to have some duckweed tanks and would like the water to flow into them, then into a lower sump. Another idea is to do a DWC - either way, the higher that sump is, the easier it will be to gravity flow the water through. I want to stick with 1 pump for the whole system if possible.

So when I do that, I will convert the existing sump to a CHIFT tank with aquatic plants and/or maybe redclaw or some other type of crayfish.