Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Roy ...

I am a newbie to aquaculture, aquariums and aquaponics ... .. also a teacher ...

I just scored Aquariums for our school! (Thanks to Terry & Rhonda at the Perth Cichlid Society! ... ( Amazing donation!)

Maybe in your neck of the woods you can put the feelers out and ask for donations ... on various aquaium sites in your city .. state ..... etc ...

you will be suprised at how generous people are when it comes to giving to our students!

So many people have stuff hanging around ..

Now, regards this recent donation I have to figure a way to make it happen! Help!

WOW! post the link to their site J7

you could always link multiple tank on a benchtop via the method i just described and i think les is using in his thread. Thus having quite a large "tank" volume

Steve ..

the guy is very shy ...

He saw what I was trying to do and has helped ...

some of the tanks are "pristine"

he didn't want a personal aknowledgement ...

Just a mention regards the society ...

All I have to do .. is malke it happen ...

And I am going to have to ring a few people ...

cos if I don't make this work .. I couldn't live with myself

DOH!

http://www.perthcichlid.com

These guys are so nice!

If you wan't to make it look really cool then get hold of a glass hole saw, i've sen them on ebay.

You could use multiple tanks plumbed together bottom to top cross flow.

you could also use some tanks as DWC tanks with black cardboard around the glass to block light from the roots. another few as flood and drain. And the beauty of glass tanks in a school environment is that you can see what happening "under ground"

Start a new thread, and LOTS of pics!

Fantastic effort there J7... once again the Cichlid community comes through...
Check out any major fish shop and see how they setup theirs. Are they all the same size? Some would make nice sump filters for non AP setups.

Tim ...

U are on the same wavelength ..

I gotta learn fast! and yep .. the tanks have pre-drilled holes ...

Awesome donation ....

Now .. how do I beg for one air pump that will service 60 or so tanks:

Hee Hee ...

That is fantasitic...

Other news just in... I didnt get the position I was after, so guess what this means...

Its FULL steam ahead with aquaponics... Woot!

Big News today...

I attended the Reef Guardian Schools Eco Meet with a few students from school. Our students introduced Aquaponics as our school future project and we got a very large response from organisers and industry that was there. It generated a large discussion amonst the adults in the room.

Some of the organisers have already told us they will help us get advice on ethics and expertise, help with getting links to CQU lectures who set up their hydroponics set ups etc, even from Aquaculture experts up north if they can get them over video conferening.

Some of the Industry reps were also impressed and were wondering costs to get project off the group etc... So an excellent day.

Also the students we had there were enthused and want to help create the project next year. So I now have a small aquaponis committee of students.

It is late in the year, so at the moment our focus will be on a number of things.

1. Creating a plan for the start of next year so that we have clear roles, jobs, resources and dates when sections are due.

2. Start with a small classroom based system, like a scale model pilot project so we can get the system working and major bugs sorted out.

3. Apply for funding by March, and get the Pilot project operational

4. Collect data, resources, funding and create deadlines for a larger system.

5. Once viable and all things fall into place, start a larger system based upon the first.

All this should be viable because the ratios shouldnt change and the science behind it should be no different.

Reef Guardians reps also want us to take a visual diary so that it can be promoted later.

For a pilot project, I was thinking 120lt plastic tanks, Redclaw, small gravel filled growbed of around 200 ltrs with small contious flow system.

For major Phase 2 project - 700- 1000 Ltr tank With Barramundi. and 1400 - 2000 Ltrs of growbed.

Anyone have any thoughts, Idea's on system design of things I shuold think about? Good, bad... the ugly?

which lecturers from CQU are involved?

none yet... Reef Guardian was going to approach them...

Im hoping for their Hydroponics person...

I studied aquaculture there, last century

Ive committed myself that if i ever give up teaching... Id go do a science degree with an aquaponics focus...

the one thing i have found very useful in aquaponics is to start a system as soon as possible. you initial 120 litre yub and 200 litre grow bed would be fantastic. make sure you can move the growbed though, this is important.

The reason for this that the bacteria takes a long time to get going but once going it can expand quickly to facilitate any size. I had a small filter (consider this a growbed) on a tank and have recently upsized but kept the filter wet and bacteria alive. It took only two weeks to get to a level where the bacteria were uptaking the ammonia and doing the processing.

That was a little more than a month ago and I can now add half a handful of food twice a day and my results from the weekend testing show no ammonia and very low nitrate.

well, thats excellent...

Ive priced for myself...

$25.00 - 120Lt Plastic tub
$42.00 - 6 * 40 Ltr tubs for Growbed and they are around 30cm deep too.
$12.00 - small water pump
$35.00 - Testing kit
$0 Already got a hose kit (the black garden stff) have to watch it heating up the water though
Gravel - Free, ill grab it out of a local creek, sifted for around 1cm stones, then well wash...
$ ? - Fish. I was thinking Guppies (lots) or Goldfish. We are trying to prep a small worm farm at home, so once we get some worms, then well start feeding them worms.

Any idea on using guppies as a test system fish. Hardy, breed like rabbits, and also therefore (is a crazy way) provide their own food from time to time)

In the end im thinking $150.00 to get a system started.

For testing, im wondering about getting the test kit first, then use the chemicals we have at school for testing. Should be interesting...

Anyone tried using purple cabbages and making their own test kit?