Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Dear All

Been dipping my toes in this for a little while now, and making some head way. My system is starting to look better, and we are slowly getting the hang of it.

At the moment the system is made up from an 1200 ltr aquaplate tank (the guy up the road sells tanks and garden beds, and made me one up to my specs), and a blue drum cut in half. We have about 100 tiny silver perch, and about 10 feeder fish.

The plan is to build a deck out over the retaining wall, and build grow beds around the outside edge, with two fish tanks located under the deck. I will then be able to pump up to the growbeds - probably using one of rupes spiders, or some sequencing valves and a continuous pump.

Will post some pictures next.

Justin

Make sure deck is not treated as rainfall will drip toxins into fish tank!

Some photos.

More shots.

Toxins in the fish tank would be very bad! I think the deck is probably going to be oiled, which is probably toxic for the fish.

My plan is to build a "roof" under the deck above the fish tank (and the sheep) - so as to stop any rain getting down to them. But now I will need to be extra careful that there are no leaks! Thanks for the heads up.

Justin

Justin,
Doing the same thing myself with roof sheeting under the decking to stop any waterbourne rubbish from getting in the fish tank.

Cutting around the pipework is a bit fussy, so I'm going to use a plastic membrane and sealant to attach around a "square" opening (out to the edge) in the roofing material.
The Spandek is good for this, as it has a wide pan in between the ribs which fits a 100 diameter pipe.

Not taking any more chances after killing 200 little jades from possible toxic shock and lack of D.O.!!!

Cheers IanK.

Hey Ian, good to see someone else is doing the same thing! Will have to compare notes once we get some where with ours.

I was hoping to reduce the number of pipes going up through the deck, but maybe having wide drain pipes - with a smaller pumping pipe up the middle. Then when it gets to the growbed, the pump pipe can branch off, and the drain pipe can connect up to a stand pipe etc.

Justin

Justin,


I was going to do the same thing; 25mm Delivery pipe inside 90mm drain pipe, but the physical problems of getting it in, around bends etc, as well as the build up of "biofilm" which would eventually block the gravity fed drain pipe (or at least provide for anaerobic "black spots") decided me against it. I now run the pipes next to each other and only two holes in the corner of the deck, so it worked out much better.


Looking forward to see your progress.
Cheers IanK

Okay, scratch that idea
Do you have a system page?

Hi Justin,
No I don't, not on this forum, as yet. I suppose I should put up or shut up!
I will get one up and running when I sucessfully put fish in the "mechanically" working system.
Cheers IanK

What I have seen looks pretty good
Nice to see what others are doing.

Quick update. Have moved the tank to the other side of the retaining wall - and have another tank on standbye to give more water volume.
Have half finished the deck, and have just built two growbeds out of old sleepers and pond lining. You can see one finished and planted bed here, the unfinished bed, and the current tank.

Tank still has silvers and some goldies, might get something else for the other tank - maybe yabbies.

justin

After losing all my fish during the Kelmscott fires - no backup power for the pumps - have decided to upsize the system and make it more of a feature. So we have dug a pond - by spade - created a creek and are working on a 2 metre water fall.

Once complete I will be pumping up to the grow beds (boxes made with sleepers and lined with pond liner). Grow beds will drain into a small top reservoir. The reservoir will flow over down the water fall, which will flow into the creek and eventually drop into the pond.

I will probably run a second pump that will pump to the top of the creek to increase the creek flow and an air pump to increase the aeration in the deeper parts of the pond. If needed I will probably also add a swirl filter to the system to capture particles that don't end up in the grow beds.

Eventually the pond will have fish and marron, as well as being a place for our ducks to swim in.

Some photos to follow.

Some more pictures.

looks great justin
remeber ducks are warm blooded, so you run the risk of salmonella poisoning from their poos in the veggies or maybe evenfish
maybe do some research on it first