Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

G’day from Bernie.

I have been trying to set this system up for the last couple of years now and due to a lack of time (full time job and running a small hobby farm) a large area to re-develop I have finally done it.

I had a large hole in the ground (at least 10,000 Litres), which I dug by hand many years ago, that was my water supply from my 1 Megalitre dam, which was 150 metres away. This was my general garden water supply with which we serviced our veggie garden.
I managed to get hold of bits of an ex Hydroponic garden structure which I have now installed as my structure. Also I have laid out much surface gravel and built the basic grow bed structures out of recycled timbers i.e.; old hardwood fence posts, and hardwood house framing with a bit of treated pine as bearers for them all.

I have covered the structure with bird netting (blackbirds, Choughs, chooks and other larger birds have been a problem with digging up seedlings so I have been trying to keep them out. The small wrens, honeyeaters, and willy wagtails I welcome and I will install small entrance points into my aquaponics area as they are great for catching moths and bugs that are not welcome on my veggies.
My aquaponics area incorporates a normal veggie garden area as well, which is where I will use the nutrient rich excess water from my fishpond to supplement their growth and water needs. I have spent much time and effort re-jigging our veggie gardens in this process.

Summers here are long and hot with temperatures of up to 45C. for days at a time common and Winter temperatures down to -8C at night with severe frosts and an average rainfall of about 400mm a year. Soils in general are acidic with a PH. Around 4.0 to 5.5 so adding everything you can to get the soils to be alive and produce good veg/fruit/water are not easy.

I now have 4 large 1/2tanks made from a 10,000 litre metal tank cut 4 ways, which are set in the ground and are of similar height to the aquaponic growbeds. These are conventional soil beds. These are also for when I am in a wheelchair and old for easy access (sic). (After shoveling 4 tons of gravel and washing it at ½ a bucket at a time I think I might need one sooner. I also have a 3X4 metre raised soil garden under the aquaponic structure that has an Asparagus patch in the middle. Outside of the structure I also have a large garden bed that is 15 metres long by 2 metres wide that has many herbs and our current winter crop in it. (I think I will have to become a seller or give away a large part of our veggie crop as it is bigger than I thought it would ever be).

I grow most of our vegetables anyway but I will now focus on our existing soil beds for tuber production i.e.; carrots, potatoes, parsnips, onions, garlic etc.
If I can grow all the veggies I need I wont have to buy any from a supermarket or mass produced market garden that has been sprayed with god knows what and of course, I will have fresh fish as well.
This aquaponic garden will of course have to cover costs let alone make a profit. Electricity costs continue to rise so in the future I will look at setting up a solar system and this will be another expense but it would then be a self sustainable system that no longer relies on 240 volt power from the grid.
The main profit I see is that we can eat chemical free food

Wow sounds great, but you know what they say... a picture paints a thousand words.

Where are you located? I'm guess in Australia due to the birds you listed?

I also have a very productive dirt garden and currently find it out produces aquaponics in the winter (stupid silver perch and their hibernating habits) but in summer AP goes gang busters! I have found AP great for water loving summer crops like cucumber and rockmelon.

Look forward to the photos.

I still havent had time to get onto a decent internet connection and upload some pics. I also have more to add as it's now operating.
I had 200 fingerlings delivered the other day but havent sighted them since putting them in the pond. Water temp is only about 10 C and have been told they wont feed till above 11 C. Hope they dont starve.
Also havent planted anything yet and system isnt initialised yet. Any tips on how i can do this.
What about a few buckets of someones aquarium water? Any other sugestions?
I did buy Joel Malcolms book and they said they would help but if i can find a simple solution that would be great.
I live in N. W. Victoria (OZ) 100km west of Bendigo.
I will check forum again in a couple of days.
Cheers Bernie

Find a mate with either a big aquarium or pond that has a filter, grab as much gunk from the filter unit as possible and add it to your system

100km west of Bendigo, just where are you Bernie, you cant be far from me at Horsham

I live at Carapooee, 12 Km S.E. of St Arnaud.
I am just about to upload some pics of my system. I have more pics to take as yet. It is now up and running and veg planted. Dont know yet how they will go as i am unsure how long it will take to initialise system.

Here are some pics.

More Pics.
The ones that didn't make it the first time. Try again.

Try Again. And its not letting me post more pics. Dont know why. I thought these images were small.

800 x 600 pixels in size, and 256kB maximum.

Thanks for that. I will have to takemy pics back into photoshop and adjust them. I will put a couple of others up now whatever it will allow.

Another Query i have is Do i only run my system at night? I do oxygenate my water in the day with a bubbler.
When summer arrives can the plants be sustained all day without flooding the beds in the day? It gets pretty hot in this part of the world when it does.

As long as your water quality remains ok you can set your pumping up to take advantage of the prevailing weather.

In summer I used to be able to not pump at all during the day, except for a midday run. Too many fish now.

So it's OK to run the pump during the day as well?? I thought there was something to do with when plants produce oxygen and when plants produce Carbon dioxide that only flooding and draining happened at night!?
Anyway I'll try some more Pics. And guess what they still wont upload. They are only 50 kb jpegs so what am i doing wrong. Do i have to start a new Topic???

Hi Bernie
Are you clicking on place inline after you upload them



This guy made a booboo today at the site of the new school hall