Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Leave it for a bit to stabilise. You dont want to drag it down too low and have it bounce back up.

System is running well. Plants are growing faster than normal and the water is clearing. F&D is almost twice an hr on most of the gb's via spider valve. New timer is fun, you can adjust fill times easily and has been running like clock work. One GB on continuous flow from the swirl filter is also performing well. ABF is on increased flow so the Am & Ni are zero. Ph is stable but am keeping an eye on it as the bacteria levels increase.

Ph is around the 6.5. Its been raining for most of the last 9 days. I droped 10000ltrs out of the pool to stop the fish from looking over the side.

Some of the tomato plants are not looking good being wet for this long. The dirt garden is going nuts.

Are they the Vietnamese type Dragon fruit??
I got a red and a yellow a few weeks back ..... looking forward to next years fruit:)

Have both. the photos are of the red variety. The top sections have grown over the past couple of weeks. They do seem to like the filtered light.

Harvesting duckweed from the swirl filter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEh1a7THWQc
Some of the catfish
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caK6pG3D9Uo
The ABF tank with the duckweed showing how the water moves.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBPjoQOFCrg
George is in there somewhere.

PPM of the pool is 1200. Not sure what that works out as. Got an PPM tester today. wanted an easy way to check smaller aquarium tanks for how clean the water is.
Rain water is so clean it does not even register. But the tap water show up on the bottom of the scale.

White fly. You leave plants growing without checking on them for a month or so and the little buggers move in. My continous flow GB is getting to be a solids filter and not in the good way. So I put the bell back in. I don't have a problem if I use a raised section under the inlet. But without it the clay blocks and the worms don't seem to become active in the one area. And dam, the 1000ltr swirl filter collects a lot of stuff. Moved some duckweed and could see the solids on the bottom. I still don't know if collecting solids is such a good idea. If I didn't use the swirl filter then the gb's would of got this lot and the worms would of mineralized it. I do have 500+ fish and it does make a nice duckweed tank. But on a smaller system I think it would be just creating another task. Why play with crap if you don't have to. The fish are going well and will eat anything I throw at them. Silvers are really big. And the catfish are everywhere. Going to introduce some smaller tanks so I can harvest fish. I could probably get the larger silvers but I don't think stressing the other fish are worth it.

Hey dufflight, i've been following your progress for a while. Can you distill some of your knowledge on what you need in a pool setup? What kind of fish stocking density do you need to get a high enough concentration of Nitrates for the plants to actually get enough?

Converting a pool was interesting. Does have a few problems that need to be adressed.

Light, water needs to be covered.
Turn over of the water for removing solids and processing Am & Ni. I use 6000ltrs of media and a few ABF(airlift bio filters)
Cos of the light getting in you do get a lot of aglae growing on the sides. This affects plant growth. But does provide food for the fish. I can leave my system for a month and it will generate enough aglae for the fish to keep going.

I have 500 ish fish with at least 100 at eating size(50 of these are well past plate size). I've been lazy with planting new stuff but as you can see by the corn in these photos that were planted at the same time in AP & dirt. And corn is a heavy feeder.


When the new ABF goes online I should be able to run 4 times the fish. A 20000ltr pool would be easier to convert. This one is 55000ltrs and does make it hard to catch the fish. System is stable all year round and I don't get Am or Ni readings unless I dump a couple of cups of urea in. Na is around the 5 to 20 mark depending on the plant load. Better light control is a big issue. And something I will get around to. Today I could see the fish 2mtrs under the water. Very clear water.

Has the paw paw been in long? I'm about to plant some in my dirt garden

Couple of weeks at the most. My one in the dirt is going nuts, trunk is 40mm allready and only a bit over 1mtr tall. The AP ones are sending out new leaves. They perform well in AP but you need a few fish to power the gb for them.

Hungry suckers hey? Might keep all of mine for the dirt beds..