Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Okay, so here is my system its a 310L tank, unknown GB size bud should be roughly the same judging by dimensions.

The pump is a medium sized Aqua One pump, I don't know any specs.

I have 6 x 10cm comets and 1 x 40 cm comet in at the moment to cycle the system.

Testing kits are yet to be obtained and used.

The system has been up for about 2 weeks.

now that I've written that down I feel like there is alot I don't know











may have to resize my pictures

Whats the media guard made out of?

ah.. its like a little basket from a 2 dollar shop.. cant really describe it, just had it hanging around so I cut it up.

Hey mate good little system but i noticed 1 thing your water supply to your GB it just taped on thats what it looks like anyway i would try and secure it another way so u dont go out one day and find all the water on the floor.

yeah, it also has a nail where the tap is but you cant see that, there are quite a few aspects of my system that need more permanence lol.

Welcome to the forum
I would also lower the gb return so it sits on the media. The less the water is exposed to sunlight the less algae you will have.

Hi Fabian,

You may want to ziptie that 240V lead to the mesh so theres no chance of it dropping in, if it isn't secure already.

CHEERS JORGY

Looks like everyone else has said it all - fix up your power lead before things get too sparky and tie the water delivery to the GB so it doesn't fall down and drain your tank.

Another aquaponics adventure is starting............

cant find edit post button, here is resized images posted.

Hi Fabian and welcome

Got a question tho... they arent gum leaves sitting in your GB are they? If so you may have some major probs down the track growing anything... the tannins inhibit plant growth. If youve got time to look, try a search for the BYAP commercial test system (sorry, cant remember what its called... EB?)

One more issue - the media guard you have may not be UV stabilised. It looks like a cheap plastic peg basket or similar, and they frequently break apart when regularly exposed to daylight. Pieces of plastic could then end up in the FT and block pumps, valves etc, and possibly (and importantly) the fish.
BYAP sells a short section of large drainage pipe (either 90 or 100mm) to fit over the standpipe, and the pipe has many holes (5 or 6mm) drilled into it. This would be easy to manufacture yourself.

a bit of a to do list

* top off bed with hydroton

* buy master tester kit

* replace syphon filter

* make things a bit tighter water source/leaves/lead


- A couple of questions:

as a rough idea how many fish could this system grow out to ~400g?

the bell is 90mm, if I was to use 100mm or similar pvc as a filter could this be too small and conceivably cause problems?

good one Fabian. Look up some threads on ratios but when cycled you could do 10-15 fish with 300 ltr GB.

I got my testing master kit today, tested the water just after I woke up my goldfish and fed them.

Ph - 8
Nitrite .50
Ammonia 0
Nitrate 20

what I get from this is there is enough filtration for my currently small amount of fish but my plants (which are tiny) aren't nomming enough nitrate

please tell me what you think, because I'm not even sure I read the colours right ^^

also is the PH too high - I heard somewhere that it will become acid over time.