Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi Bill
The spacing of my supports will be sorted before I add my grow bed media 25 mm stones.
I am trying to get cut off pieces from builders and save.
This is a dry run to see problems and fix before starting up the system.
Almost there.

Hi All
Today I finished of my woodwork for my top 2 grow trays. Using scrap pieces from a building site and cutting them into the sizes I needed...Saved a few rands.
Most of my piping has been done and I tested the system without the fish dam and worm filter.
I used a small pump and pumped the water from my pump sump (green 210 l plastic drum) into my grow trays on top and the water flowing out on the other side into my duckweed trays and back into my pump sump
And all looks good.
Now it is for my fish tank and growing media in my trays….
I can see the light at the end of the tunnel

Looks good Francois, may want to drop the gb return down into the duckweed tanks so the water remains calm for the duckweed??

more photos

Coming right along. Looking good.

looking good!!

Hi All
Today I started the fitting of my fish tank and worm filter.
Not my first choice of a fish tank but suits the pocket
I would have liked to have a round tank with centre outlet
I cut the plastic tank so that my fish tank can hold +-750 litres water.
The other piece I will use as a worms filter/sump
The fish tank piece comes with a tap so I will use this as my outlet to my worm’s filter/sump
The top piece has a centre outlet and this I will use for the water to my grow trays

from bellow

Hi All
Today I finished of the tank and worm filter/sump
Beefed up the wood framework and fitted the galvanized frame the tank came in.
I also washed the tank and worm filter and I will sterilize before I add my water
The next and last of the big things to do is my media….washing and rinsing
Hoping I can still do that in this week
Almost ready to start this baby up

This complete system is build out of what I had around and basically so far cost minimum.

Looking good Francois, can't wait till its up and running..

Cool, looking forward to you turning it on Francois..

Hi All
Today I finished of the piping and I cycled the system with everything in place.
Checking for leaks and whatever else can be wrong or not working 100%
So far so good…I have a few leaks but I will sort them out.
The water flows from the dam gravity into my worm sump

into my grow trays into my duckweed sump

into my pump sump and then pumped back into the dam