Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

How do you edit a post to fix the link that did not work? The message at the bottom says I can but HOW?

Hi Don. Good looking start you've got. Your latest link worked for me, so maybe you figured that out already? (It's the edit button, but there's a time limit on editing.)

What kind of fish and plants are you using?

Good luck!

Hi Merlin
there is 200 Channel Cats and 100 Copper Nose Blue Gills and a # of minnows. I plan to eat some and stock my soon to be new pond with the cats and minnows.

Next Photo
This is starting to build the racks for the barrels.
Each will hold 12 half barrels. I plan to make two separate runs of 24 halves. I used 18 inch legs and 2 x 12 supports and 2 x 4 to hold it apart. The cross pieces that separate the barrels are 2 x 6 with a 45 degree cut on the edge and screwed together to make a 45. Turns out that they were not tall enough so I made the pointy pieces to hold them up 1 1/2 inches higher.

Boy that sure shows my shop is too full to work on anything already. Bad Form.
Don

This is to show a little clearer what it looks like. Seems slow when you are doing it.

I must have been picture happy that day and took plenty of pics.

It is kinda slow resizing these photos in Photo Shop but it works. They still look ok. Wish my camera could be set to take the right size to start with. This rack is finished and moved in place by the FT. Looks like that with a few barrels.
Water is getting cloudy er by the day. Must be Alge Bloom and Amonia starting. Water test dont show anything yet except PH 7.8 55deg F when this was taken.

This is when I decided to try to filter the dust off the bottom of the tank to see if I could clear it up some. I also tried putting in a half cup of lemon juice to reduce the PH from 7.8 but no avail. Later I read on the forum that is bad and could kill the fish so I did not do that any more.
Next pic is the filter running. Only could get algae and very little sand and dust with my make shift wand. Gave up cause I really don't care about the sand on the bottom but I don't like the dust in the water. Cant see trough it. Im impatient I want to watch the fish.
Next pic is more barrels ready. I drilled a 7/8 inch hole in the bottom for a drain and used a 3/4 in pipe tap to thread the hole and put in a street ell. That is a 90 degree fitting with Male Pipe Thread on one end and whatever on the other. in this case I used 3/4 slip fittings for PVC.
You can see the over flow fittings on the ends the same as the drains.
Pictures turned out the reverse order when displayed.

I would not worry about the filtering of the water. When the system is started it will soon clear. That is also the time to alter the pH but considering the volume change it slowly with hydrochloric acid.

Looks like I will have to steal your pattern for the GB frame it sure puts my planks to shame. Maybe for the next system though.......

Yep, wouldn't worry about the filtration Don - not needed.

Rmcbp Well my design isn't perfect but can be improved on and hope I do better on number 3 and 4. Here is the problem with this one and will get an improvement in a bit.
See where the legs are about to turn over. I put the gravel in and it was not able to hold the weight so I had to regroup and a fix. Move the gravel and back to the shop to add some spacers and triangle bracing.

Here is part of the fix, the triangle bracing. Why did I forget that. Big uhooohh. That cost a lot of work and time. I used the loader to lift the barrels full of gravel one at a time and move them to the second rack while I fixed the first one.
Second fix, I also put a piece of 2x4 about 8 inches long on top of the legs under barrel supports so the load would be square to the world and not off center the way it was. After putting every thing back it sits straight now. Used the loader to move the barrels of gravel back. Had fun trying to bolt the barrels back together again after all that. Had to drill new holes in some places cause I did not get them back in the right places. The sides and ends have two bolts in each to hold as a single unit.

The skinny ends of my barrels sometimes bow out as well. It might not be a bad idea to brace those, too.
Looking good!

This first rack has been a monster part of the time. I measured and measured and then built and then take apart and move something to make it fit. When I got this far I was going to use plumbers tape to hold up the gutter but I could see that would not be reliable so I decided to use the scraps of 2x4 for supports to hold the gutter. I put in a
screw on the outside of the gutter just to make sure it did not fall off. Had to lay in the mud and screw in the supports and try to get the down hill slope. After all water runs up hill don't it. I did not think so.
Don

I think I finally got the picture to shrink and have the right one.

Looking good Don. How are you draining the barrels?