Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

MY FIRST POST

You guys are the reason for MY sleep deprivation over the last week. I once said "The Internet is the greatest time waster I've ever seen" - It's also one of the greatest sources of (sifted) information as well. What a great forum you guys have. Hope I can live up to your high standards (and a few lows )

Today was "Day One" - Scrounging gear.

Duh!! What a bummer - can only post THREE piccies at a time !!

More to come - over

Mal

The 22,000 litre rainwater tank (previous photo of IBC) has two downpipes straight into tank. Other end of shed has two downpipes and concrete apron draining into underground sump with 240V sump pump back to tank. Any overflow drains direct to street via 90mm stormwater pipe. Just recently set this up. Still waiting for a bit of rain to test it all out.

One of the bays in the shed is filled with the cold room paneling (aluminium) I was going to use to build a gooseneck camper towed by F250. Cost ~$4000 for the paneling alone, now looks like ending up as a coldroom (come brewery and whatever else - sampling room) inside the shed I may even use some of the panels to make fish tanks. Panels are 1.2 metres by various length and thickness. Was thinking to use aluminium angle iron and Sikaflex (have to check toxicity).

Another mate owns a nursery and has offered some pipe and fittings. I dread the cost - bottle of Dimple Whiskey ?

Nice scores

tks obo

All I have to do now is come up with a plan of attack. Think I'll sit down and sketch out a few things to scale. Do 3 or 4. Then choose the 1st I suppose. LOL

Mal

Anything you are planning on doing, size up the pipework, draw it out, post it here, and have it critiqued - save having to do it all again later

I certainly will obo. Absolutely new to AP and need all the advice at this stage.

Mal

Recommendations for Newbies!!!!
If you haven't already done it, read the Basic Info and Useful Info sections of the forum completely. Should give you most of the basics to save on confusion.

Then you might save yourself some of the more common mistakes by picking a few of the longer member system threads to read through as completely as you can. If you have some ideas about your plans, we might be able to point you to similar system threads to what you hope to do.

OBO is right, up size plumbing, especially gravity drain plumbing. And posting your ideas, plans before going ahead with them can save you grief later. Making changes to the plans is definitely better than having to buy new materials and re-do the project.

Now I know you will feel urgency to get something up and running. It is not a bad idea to set up something of a small temporary system that you can combine with the big system later or take down and re-use the parts in the big system. You can get some media cycled up fishlessly and learn about using the test kits and test out different media if you need and discover the pH and some chemistry about your water. This can give you some good experience as well as provide starter bacteria for the big system.

Welcome to the addiction.

well done Mal, knew you could do it

Copycat

boys!

Welcome Cheyenne (and Chainsaw)....

You've sure got a nice collection of stuff to begin building your system...

You should re enforce the top of that green cut off tank if you get it. I asked a guy at the tank place if that could be done and he said the tanks aren't thick enough. But he probably wasn't an engineer but better safe than sorry.

Thanks for all the feedback Guys (and Gals )

Today was time to slow down from yesterday's adrenalin rush and look at what I had collected.

The bathtubs are all brand new - removed the plastic protective film from each. Pretty hard to get that off once the sun has made it brittle. Each of the tubs are 400mm deep. May be a little too deep for growing beds. Pretty good IMHO for fish. I think I could cut them in half and make two good size GB. Put an edge on the bottom half and a new bottom on the top half. Any thoughts?

Went to the local mini-loads place and looked at crushed river gravel (20mm) - $42 tonne. 1.63 tonne per m3 IIRC. Start off with 1/2 trailer load when I'm ready.

Local SuperCrap store had those portable carports on special so I bought one with the idea of putting my KK in it out of the weather. Once I got it home and worked on my layout plan (see below - drawn to scale) I thought of getting another one and erecting them side by side (without the middle wall). No Council permit required. Can easily pull down and move if plans change. Yes, think I'll get another one tomorrow.

Looked at Murray's two bath system and thought I'd setup two of them in one carport. The two aqua tanks, IBC and 3 other baths in the other.

The electrician just finished the last bit of wiring my shed today - automatic change over switch for my 7.5kVA generator. Works a treat. Only been waiting a couple of years for an electrician. Just can't get one in Townsville to do 'shed' work.

Initially I want to setup my AP system using 12V solar system - I already have 220 Amp deep cycle and a couple of 90 watt panels from my camping days.

Time to wait for some feedback whilst I do a bit of the recommended reading for newbies.

400mm deep growbeds are awesome! The deeper the better as far as I am concerned.

Lots of cool stuff you have scored.

What is in the background of that picture of the half tank on the shed roof? Looks like a helicopter cabin converted into a chookpen - very cool