Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi just joined and this is the start of my system an IBC tank with the top cut off and flipped ,bell siphon installed to the right with incorporated venturi to help with aeration that office water fountain bottle you can see has the top cut off and inserted on the inside upside down below that is filter material for the water to pass through then gravel.
on the bottom of the tank the frame you can see is pvc waste pipe drilled on the bottom this is connected to the pump the reason for this was I came home one day to find a gold fish stuck to the end of the intake pipe, I`m going to fill the top part with pea gravel for my first grow bed with the intention adding more beds later, I`m also going to lag the tank and tidy up with encasing with wood, fish stock is koi and goldfish ,anyway that's my start.
Thanks for looking

Very neato start Aqua Geordie......and welcome to the forum.....those kio will be worth a fair quid in about a year.....if you can feed them a high protien diet....they grow faster ( I recon ) than any other fish. If you feed them trout feed for example, you could sell them back to the fish shop for at least $200 AU weighing about a kilo each

Hi there Lorry,

Great start! How did you cut the top off the IBC so neatly? I have problems cutting pipes

hi Lorry, looks good so far...
i'll follow your thread with interest

best wishes
charlie

Hay Jessy, I'm not sure that trout feed is all that good for gold fish and koi long term. I'm not entirely sure but I thought such food causes problems when fed exclusively to the more omnivorous fish?

Thanks all for the encouragement to cut the pipes I just used a hacksaw a friend gave me a new blade it was easy enough, the plan is to drill the steel tubing and fix and ordinary wooden fence rail taken from a fence the neighbors pulled down round the top and bottom then put a sheet of king span or similar insulation depending on what I can get off the local building site that is surplus,between the top and bottom rail then pine planking over the top of that and around the top edge I think this will make it more pleasing to the eye as well as good insulation for the cold weather, I`ll stain it with the left over stain off the neighbors fence to make it look nice

I`ll post some pics as it progresses but it might be a while as I do like to use recycled materials where possible you may have noticed.


I missed the chance of a free conservatory from freecycle to house the system in so a poly tunnel is expected to be the most expensive item I have the frame ( plastic industrial service pipe) a whopping 21 pound sterling for the poly sheeting if my friend cant come up trumps with some surplus of a job stuff.

Whole system cost to date including pump and plumbing 20 pound sterling, yeah its true If I must cry I cry from one eye only save on eye water.
thanks for looking lorry