Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Good evening all,

About time I introduced myself. I am Angie, I've been interested in Aquaponics for a few years, just purchased my first system in December. I was lucky to get a secondhand system which had been in use for a couple of seasons, so I was saved from much trial and error!

I know you all just want to see the pics, so bear with me, this photo stuff is new to me.

Welcome Angel... bit of good luck getting your hands on a second hand system...

Tip.... fill your beds up with media... the way the water is currently splashing down on the grow beds/media... with the sunlight... will result in algae forming on the top of the media...

This stops the oxygen draw down throught the media to the plant roots...

Hi Angel... Good to see photos...

Yeah, as Rupe says, best if you can make it so the water doesn't splash on the bed surface like that, it will get pretty yucky with algae fairly quickly.

Thank you for the input. I have pretty much left the system as the previous owner had it running as he had no issues with it. I was concerned about the posibility of algae in the growbeds, however I am 3 months in and so far so good.

Do you do metal work Angel?

Welcome to the forum Angel. Looks good!

G'Day Angel

Yes, I have been self learning blacksmithing for a few years now, that's not to say I'm good! I do hope to devote a lot more time to it this year though, perhaps even sell some stuff. As soon as I clean up my workshop...

Hi Angel, your system looks massive, time for me to post some close ups of mine. It took half the evening to work out how to upload one photo yesterday. It's great to see how much detail your photos give. The plants look healthy - and you have a huge set up! Thanks for sharing. MandyS.

Hi MandyS, Massive? Thank you for the reminder to focus on the glass half full! I had my heart set on a 5000L galv tank, for the rustic look, but I found this system, the price was too good to pass up. To be honest I am already planning an upgrade, but I have a lot to learn in the mean time. This forum is an amazing wealth of knowledge, and the members are so liberal with advice.

Hi Angel , hope you have fun with your system
And expansions are a necessary part of the process

Hi Angel Any progres on your blacksmithing... this has always been something Ive wanted to try. would you have any pics of your handy work and how you heat your steel

Hi Angel. Looks very nice! I wonder how you are running that system. Is it on a timer? That irrigation is not a cool idea and I will tell you why. To repeat what the others said... Algae... its fine now but when you have high nutrients and a heavy fish load it will be a huge problem. Not only that but the plants will be better off not getting their leaves watered all the time. Some plants hate that and will die. Also if a leaf starts channeling the water out the bed you could end up losing lots of nutrient rich water, even run the system out of water, god forbid. In addition all that water will be of no use to all the beneficial bugs (spiders) that you need in your system. If that is not enough to convince you then try... those holes that the water comes out of are too small and will block with solids causing you endless grief...That is believe it or not not all... I can see by how you have planted that the spraying is inhibiting or shaping how you plant stuff in the bed and that is losing you precious planting space. I could fit way more plants in those beds but not with that spraying going on. Basically you are losing a lot of productivity.

Just have the water flowing into the bed on a angle turning down in one place. I think (stand corrected) it is good to have the water spread out a little on the surface to spread the solids for mineralization. If you can have 2 or three points of entry then all the better.

I would pimp it out a bit and get some more hydroton and fill the beds up to the top..for more filtration. You will also have marginally more room to grow stuff. Then you will need to lengthen the standpipes to get the water level to about 30mm below the top of the hydroton.

It would be great to know exactly how the beds run and how the standpipes look and work.

What fish do you have and how many? Hope they like hot water as that black plastic is going to heat things up a bit I think.

Is the blue tank the fish tank and the brown one the sump?

Have fun

That looks like itll be a nice system angel, is that chilli in the foreground?

Good luck with the blacksmithing, there's not many people teaching that nowadays, these guys over in O'conner make some pretty cool stuff http://www.livingiron.com.au/

Where bouts in the country are you from?

Sorry for starting this then disappearing, I have been working away for the past few years. System has been going constantly despite much neglect. I have really only had problems when I start "improving" it. I will take some pics this week as my system is very different from the first set up.

Today I emptied my grow bed to move it as the previous location was not working. I have a small yard and am trying to design my system to be aesthetically pleasing, However I now realise I have not been getting the best out of the system, and the process is my priority now.

I am also renovating my front pond. I am going to try fruit trees in 400L tubs draining back into the pond, again pics to come soon.

To answer some questions, originally from kambalda, much time on family dairy farm in Busselton, then perth. Blacksmithing, I will put up some pics, my wish to devote more time to it hasn't really happened up until now. My original system ran for a couple of years with no problems, no algae on my grow media, I never got around to changing the irrigation on the beds. Shame on me.