Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello there,

This is a bunch of photos of my system - from when I started through until now, design changed a little from the beginning but all a modified version of Travis Hughey's barrel-ponics setup as I was a bit slow to find this forum. Any comments welcome and I'll post some questions after the last pic.
Cheers,
Jackal.

Some more pics

And some more pics for you all

Hey Jackal.... Looks pretty good apart from a couple of things... Firstly the leak at your fish tank, but you probably know about the puddle there..

The only real problem I see is the clear tube. The clear pipe will allow algae to grow on the inside of your pipes which is not a good thing as it will slow your pumping flow, just like an artery becoming blocked..

how cute jackal
welcome on board

Thanks for that! - I was wondering about the clear tubing - I have pretty good access to it so I'll keep it as clear as possible - I'm a bit hamstrung with that at the moment though as it's the only thing I could find that was flexible enough to get through the wall and into the fishtank...

Oh and you don;t want the water flooding over the top of your rocks like that, it will lead to algae growing all over the surface of the media.

And onto some questions.
So the three photos below:

Raft tank
Fish tank pump inlet and
flood level.

So my questions are, with the raft tank - am I on the right track? it's still a new system so I haven't added anything into the pots to avoid stressing it too early but I'm thinking lettuce should do pretty well? any other recommendations about it?

The fish tank pump inlet - I've used a PVC pipe with a couple of outdoor nails in it to stop the fishes getting sucked in - given that there is no total exposure to oxygen will the nails be a problem? just worried that the small fish might get sucked in...

My flood level - unfortunately I was somewhat hasty with my siphon height and it's not adjustable at all. This is the top of a dump and it only stays that high for about a minute or two - I'm flooding every hour and the plants seem fine - is there any issue with this?

Other than that - things seem to be going along OK - my PH seems to hang around at 7.6 with the normal test kit and 7.4 with the high test kit(?!) is this a problem or are my fish OK as they seem to be.
Other readings are ammonia hangs around about the 0.25 - 0.5 mark and it's been up to 1 but not for a week or two.
Nitrite reading is nominal - barely registering and I don't get any Nitrate readings - I'm assuming this is due to the hungry plants eating it up but I could be wrong.

Thanks in advance for any comments / suggestions I appreciate it.

Cheers,

Jackal.

dark stickytape around your clear pipe should work

I would put another 50mm depth of clayballs in those beds so the flood level is below the surface. The plants can be pulled and replanted with no problems.

the algae will rob the precious nutrients away and other cause other faults as well, what sort of syphon do you have?

Doesn't look like the system has any siphons. Just a fixed height bottom drain in each half barrel with a manifolded overflow for any extra the drains can't handle for the time the water is being supplied to the barrels. The Pump must be on a timer, although I can't really see from the Photos?
Unless there is a siphon in the header tank that supplies the Gb's?

Cheers IanK

Hi guys, thanks for the responses.

Good advice on the black tape - I have plenty so I'll get onto that this afternoon to avoid any more algae buildup, will also raise the media level to avoid cover flooding.

There is a header tank that fills to about 3/4 of the way to the top - the siphon is just a gravity fed syphon made from 20mm PVC pipes as used here:
http://backyardaquaponics.com/Travis/Sm ... -Range.pdf

The header tank (and raft tank) are fed by the pump from the fish tank - this is on a timer which is running 8 minutes (single dump time) then 15 minutes (extended dump time) every hour alternatively.

Cheers,
Jackal

a cheap can of matt black spray paint will fix that clear tubing in less than a minute.

Trev

Is that gravel I see in your sump/fish tank? Gravel or some objects that could trap any waste/food is generally not a good idea in AP. Plus, the fish in the tank may move some gravel into your pump inlet and hence damage the pump...