Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Thank you for taking the time to look. This is what I have to start my system. A 100 gallon stock tank, a make shift grow bed, pebbles, a bilge pump 1100gal per hour, and a solar panel. I have a battery laying around somewhere as I do a few fish tank aerators. Looking at my stuff pictured here, what should I do next? I have a super sunny spot to start setting up. Thanks again for your help.

Get/make a stand for the grow bed, learn how to make an auto siphon and make one, plumb it and check it and the pump and the aerators. Then wash the pebbles, this will hurt.

Once plumbing is up and running and pebbles washed, you can add plants and fish, thats all you need to do very close you are
welcome to the addiction.

Probably going to need some shade or you will boil the fish. In a warm climate ideally you want morning to midday sun.

I'm with Abdul.

Check out my thread on how I made a clear bell siphon from plastic bottles, will save you a couple of dollars and will also impress family and friends. viewtopic.php?f=8&t=7949

You look to have everything you need, just need to put it all together.

Be sure to keep asking questions if you need help!

hay there and welcome.

You might also dig the fish tank into the ground some and just set the grow bed trough up on some blocks if you would prefer that method.

Where in Florida are you? I'm near Mount Dora if you know where that is.

You will need more pebbles I think. Washing gravel need not hurt that much. Just set up some bins on some boards across saw horses to make it the right height to swish the plant baskets of gravel in some water. Ya want to make it a comfortable height so you don't bend you back over while swishing or it will hurt.

But first, Read the Basic Info and Useful Info sections of the forum.
http://backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=12
http://backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=11
Reading those should save you needing to ask lots of questions and probably help you figure out the questions you do need to ask.

I don't know if your solar panel or battery are going to be up to running your pump or air pumps because that is rather size and condition dependent. It would also require an inverter.

You have a choice of using siphons and running the pump constantly or you could get a timer and do a timed flood and slow stand pipe drain.

what kind of fish are you planning? Keep in mind that you should probably only stock one fish per cubic foot of gravel in your grow bed and that is if you only plan to grow the fish out to 1 pound. If you are gonna grow catfish, I would say you will need a bigger fish tank and lots more grow beds.

Yes, you may need to put up some shade cloth.

Definitely get a cover for the fish tank to keep fish in and sun, debris, leaves, pets and small children out.

Good Luck and welcome!

...Fire up that BBQ and grill yourself a hotdog while you contemplate!

TehehehaHA you people are great! Well I'm reading the links you all posted now. While I'm doing that, what do you think about putting this particular grow bed on top of the fish tank for shade? And if that's what I should do, how do I go about working my system then? Remember, when it comes to following instructions, I'm like talking to a bucket with 3500230027 drill holes in it. I just built my patio area for my system which is pictured here. I can make it bigger at any time. It seems pretty level by my eyes but then again I drink you know. More suggestions and .info are soooooo welcome. Thank you again!

That will work, you are just making a small version of what I have in my back yard.



Pump straight up into the GB and then either auto siphon or flood and drain back into the FT.

Actually, your system doesn't too much different in size? How big is your tank? I almost got a rounded tank. I finally got a link for the auto-siphon. Boy that made a big difference in my thinking here. Here's the link I got. http://homeaquaponics.wikispaces.com/Auto-Siphon Any other links for it would be great though.

I love your setup. So can I ask...When I want to expand, is that when the SUMP comes in? I know I am going to be expanding because I cannot have this little amount of garden, should I go ahead and set up for a SUMP to make life easier? or is it one of those things I can add later?

What is your grow media there? I bought some pea pebble. I also have many pounds of raw coconut husk. Can I mix the gravel with the husk? Would that work somehow? Your pebbles are so pretty. I'm all into pretty

Notice all my corn is flowering Love those plants. They grow in zone 11 year round. Best grass ever!

I've read that the cocunut husks tend to stay too dry and discolour the water, so probably not a good idea mixing them in.

I saw the video Decal made of his clear auto siphon, very nice it is, I think I'm going to set up a similar bell for my siphon just to show it off to people

You need to have a sump, or ST ( Sump Tank) to make sure you have enough water in the system at any given time to flood the GBs without draining the Fish tank. So whether or not you have one really depends on the setup you choose and the size of your grow beds.

AP systems can be made on a very small footprint by doing things like burying tanks and using vertical grow towers, a small yard is no reason to feel constricted

I think I would be saving myself a heap of time and just putting the GB on a stand pumping straight up to the GB and letting the water drain free back to the tank.

Dead easy

where in Florida are you located amollenh?
Yea you can probably do fine to put that grow bed over your tank, just turn one or the other sideways so you still have access to the bottom tank on one end or the other.

Of course if you are planning to expand, then perhaps planning now should be a bit different.

And your system there is probably quite a bit smaller than the green one pictured. That green one has a 500 liter grow bed while that bunk feeder I'm guessing is probably not even half that size. You will definitely need more grow beds and probably a bigger fish tank cause this is addictive.

If you don't have the space or don't want to dig in a sump tank, I can help you out with an Aquaponics Indexing valve to sequence the flood and drain of the grow beds and you could simply do stand pipes so as not to need to mess with siphons.

I am using clay ball or hydrotron in my system, it not as heavy as gravel and it much nicer on the fingers.