Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Thought i would start this thread with some photos of our systems we built late last year and add to it as we progress.

Checking the water levels and siphons before adding gravel.


This is the system that originally had cod in the FT and some catfish in the ST, that got poisoned (see my thread in 'New Member Introductions' about that!) We now have 19 catfish in the FT and white clouds in the ST and all is going well.

Our 2nd home made system


This system has 4 GB's which are slightly smaller than in the 1st system as the IBC,s were cut the opposite way. We have 3 ST's and 2 GB's drain into 2 of them, then water flows into the 3rd and is pumped back to the FT. We have some large catfish in the FT and goldfish in 2 ST's, but the one with the pump in it has no fish.
Water flows to the GB's by gravity and it works much better than in the 1st system as the outlet is a little lower.

Today's pics


We have had exceptional growth and have already harvested and replanted lettuce. The tomatoes have heaps of developing fruit and the capsicum plants have had to be staked as they have grown so big and kept toppling over. The strawberries are coming along ok, but at the rate i eat them, hubby has complained that he never gets any!


The next stage.....this is the area we intend to rebuild for a BYAP kit and another homemade system (probably a small floating raft system), have a fare bit of work to do yet though. Will keep you informed of our progress

Nice looking system - you can obviously get IBC's for cheap =)

How do you access the fish? Doesn't look like much clearance, enough to get a net in?

How do Murrays kits fare (that wood cover looks like one).

Thanks gemmell, yes we are fortunate to be able to get IBC's cheap

Accessing the fish is no problem at all, there's more clearance than it looks in the photos, and now that the water is clear we can see right to the bottom.

The wood cover is Murray's Maximus kit. I have to say it is performing very well so far. It was used as a demo by a local agent and they made us an offer on it that was too good to refuse!

Just so I understand, your GB's syphon into your ST's below which are obviously interconnected in series and then pumped from the last one to the FT. Is that right? if so how have you interconnected the ST's??
I am thinking of a similar setup with one IBC cut in half and connected side by side to act as two ST's, having yabbies in one and pumping out of the second one.
Have been wondering what is the best way to connect the IBC's?

Wow... couple of busy little beavers been beavering away quietly... with great results...

Thats a yes to both remarks above!

2 GB's siphon into the 1st ST, 2 into the 2nd ST then the 3rd (closest to FT) has the pump in it. First we interconnected the ST's with 25mm pipe but there was too much restriction and they overflowed when 2 GB's emptyied at the same time. We changed to 50mm pipe with a mesh vent cowl used inside the tank to stop the fish swimming through and have had no problems since. Hopefully it will be clear in the photo.

yes thanks for the photo, very clear now. I have the same plan and was wondering what size to go to avoid restriction... I like the cowl idea too.
Do you have a problem with solids build up in the ST's?

Not really, there's a bit of gravel dust in the ST's at the moment, from the scoria, also there's a potted weed in the corner of each ST and i think the goldfish are scattering some of the gravel.

Very nice, love the pictures!

Well we started losing some catfish in the system that the poison got into, so last weekend we did a complete water change, scrubbed the FT & ST and flushed the gravel a number of times. I suspect that there must have still been a trace of the poison in the gravel and at a much weeker concentration it took longer to start killing the fish. All other tests were fine and the fish in our other 2 systems are all good.

Since refilling the tanks the water had been too cloudy to see to the bottom, so i wasn't sure if the remaining fish were alive or dead. Then yesterday i read desertrat's story about putting eggs into his tanks and his water cleared! Well i just had to give that a go. So i added one full egg crushed + the whites from one egg into my 1200 ltr tank and this morning i could see to the bottom (it's not crystal clear--probably needed a bit more egg white), but all remaining fish are alive. I just hope we have now got rid of all trace of the poison.

Great looking system
I always love looking at DIY systems and the way people solve their own unique problems
Looks like you have had some great growth
How many fish do you have in the system?

In the system that i had to do the water change, we have 7 catfish in the FT and some white clouds in the ST. i wont add any more until i see how they go. The nitrate levels have dropped to just a trace due to the water change, so we have given the plants a foliar spray with a stimulant similar to seaweed.
Our other homemade system has about 12 catfish, including 4 very large ones which are to be the 'guests of honor' at a BBQ in a couple of weeks time. Then i will be able to add more catfish that i currently have in an aquarium.
Our Murray Hallam kit has 90 silver perch about 15 cm long. I think that's a bit too many, so we intend to thin them out as they grow. The nitrate reading in this system is very high 80+ Ammonia and nitrite readings in all systems are zero.

Harvested 4 catfish for a BBQ. The biggest was 981g. We can't claim to having raised them in our AP as they had bred and grown in our dam, but fattened up over the past 3 months in the AP.






Yes the BBQ got very hot. Was suggested to us to cook on a hot BBQ with skin on as the skin turns crispy like pork crackling. Tasted pretty good.