Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi Everybody
I am very new to aquaponics and stumbled across it by accident. I was given a copy of Joel's first book to read and it totally captured my imagination. Water is pretty limited where we are so the low water usage and ease of management really got our attention. I am located just out of Gin Gin, west of Bundy in Queensland. Almost self sufficiency is our goal and aquaponics seems to be an excellent way to head toward our goal. We currently have plenty of veges growing but like the idea of no digging and no sprays or other nasties on our tucker.
We were lucky enough to get some old rainwater tanks that had holes in the bottom only. With a little rendering they should make good GB's and a decent FT. I have been lurking here as a guest and as a member for a while now and feel ready to jump in. We will post pics as we go and any advice is welcome.
Cheers,
Adrian

Welcome Adrian, you are now officially hooked and there is no turning back, you will be surprised on how quick veggies grow and the bonus of fish as well, don't forget to start a thread when you start construction with regular progress pictures, and always ask questions no matter how simple, most people here have experienced some sort of disaster (HSM or Holy S*** Moment) and answers will always be on hand

Thanks Nocky
Will do my best to keep you all posted as things progress.
Cheers,
Adrian

WELCOME
Glad you have joined us here- the more the merrier!nLooking forward to learning about your AP experiences too

Welcome and all that.

re your water tanks, thought about just re-lining them?
There are food-grade liners for repairing tanks on e-bay.
Easier than rendering,unless you get some mad tropical temperature fluctuations and need the thermal mass...

Welcome! Like you have probably read in other posts everybody here LOVES pictures! A visit to an AP neighbour might give you heaps more ideas! My 2 cents - plan one ASAP!

welcome

Glad to have you aboard Adrian... welcome...

Hi Everyone thanks for the good wishes. I will make sure to have plenty of pictures.
Uncle Yarra- Thanks for the heads up re:liners. Due to unreliable bosses in the last year My budget would allow for black builders plastic at best On the upside I already have plenty of builders mix, sand and cement I originally got the tanks with the plan of making one into a form for making more concrete tanks. But will sacrifice them to my new addiction instead
Cheers,
Adrian

I have 5 layers of builders plastic, its been going for a year so far.

Cheapest 8000 litre tank ever

That is on pages 26, 27 ad 28 of his smugmug.

OBO- you moved a lot of dirt mate! What are the dimensions of that tank? Looks very cool.

6 metres, by 1.5 metres, by 1m deep.

The dirt moving has not finished yet, just need the funds to continue the expansion

I am thinking of doing something similar - except I will probably line it with brick. Need to figure out the costs though.

I have figured out it will take about 6 weeks to get the Ap setup done. So I was wondering if building a small barrel system to get some bacteria happening would speed up the innoculation of the big system.
If so I would have 2 half barrels of cycled gravel available. My proposed beds are 1.8m dia and 400mm high with 300mm gravel.
Would the startup time be very noticably reduced?
I also plan to run fishless till it has cycled as the budget doesn't run to replacing dead fish
Cheers,
Adrian

if you have the time and inclination to get some gravel ready and impregnated with bacteria, then do it... heck, if you can get some pond water or the squuzings from someones aquarium filter, that would help too:)