Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi all, after a great deal of time lurking and learning and asking questions and reinventing again and again "my system", I'm now ready to commit (I spent less time asking my wife to marry me or deciding to have kids!!). I managed to get the "War Office" on side, well actually that was Faye (thanks Faye). One look at her system and she was hooked (well she spent all afternoon looking and ooing and ahing at the photos. Then off to a BYAP workshop and its "why have you not got it in yet"!
I had a 5m X 15m green house that once housed a collection of tropical plants. Personal circumstances changed (read kids sport) and that was the end of them. So here was an opportunity to utilise something already in place and perhaps get an extra month or 2 of grow time out of the Silver perch, or better still keep the temperatures up high enough to get plate size fish in a year. Even better I can grow vegies without having to fight off the bandicoots (worse than rabbits) who destroy my vegie garden no matter how well I fence it and maybe even get the upper hand with the possums and Kangaroos. I don't think I have a chance with the possums who will eventually work out what I'm doing and learn to fish. (those of you from NZ you have my sympathies having to deal with feral possums.)










These photos were taken after several days of cleaning up with a lot more work to go. By the way this is just the end and hottest section which is 5m x 5m

I'm proposing to have a system that starts off small but can grow as the fish do and my finances.
so I'm putting in a 3000l tank that is partially sunk into the ground to allow the bed to drain directly into it. I wanted the biggest tank I could fit in even if I did not stock it to capacity so I had as much buffering space (O2 and thermal mass) as I could get. As the floor of the green house slopes the tank does not have to be sunk too deeply. So with the tank I'm initially putting in 2 grow beds. Firstly as the fish will be small and will take some time before they will produce enough nitrates to feed any more area and secondly it will give me time to save up for the next 2 beds.

As the silvers will be slowing down over winter I am hoping that I can utilise the second 2 of the 4 beds to run off a 1000l tank that is held in the highland section of the green house (this is air-conditioned to keep the temperatures down to simulate the tops of tropical mountains) and grow trout over winter. Then after I harvest the trout the 1000l tank will become the sump tank which will be used to put the new fingerling silver perch into. The system now is a traditional 3000l main tank with a 1000l sump and 4 beds. That is the plan up to the end of year 1.5. After that I propose to add 2 more beds to round out the system.

The green house is twin skinned and has been regularly getting up into the high 20s over June. I am hoping that if I run water through the beds during the day and the existing basic solar hot water system (think black poly pipe on the roof) they will help to heat up the water. If I don't run them overnight then there is a reasonable chance that I can keep the temperatures up enough to get perhaps an extra month or 2 of grow time out of the silvers.

I hoping to have the system up and running ready for the fish in early September.

Stay tuned.

Cheers
Marc

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My system
Marc's System

Man, that looks like a dream setup to start with . Will be great to see how it all shapes out.

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My Aquaponic Mini System

Looking good....wish I had a 5x15 greenhouse...sadly thats bigger than my backyard!

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Home System

System at my olds (deprecated)

Marc

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Unattended children will be given an Espresso and a free puppy


http://www.backyardfarming.com.au/phpbb ... f=24&t=270

Nice greenhouse Well nothing a good wash down with a gurney wouldnt fix

Looking forward to pics as the system evolves

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IBC system
Bigger system
Greenhouse system

Thanks Mantis Agree with the need for a clean. You should have seen it before these photos were taken!
I will post shortly the new developments and and a cleaner but unpainted greenhouse.
Cheers
Marc

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My system
Marc's System

Watching with enthusiasm, oh and welcome.

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http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=6817
http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=6856
viewtopic.php?f=18&t=30453#p570333

Hi all, back again with some more photos of the developing passion.
Despite it being winter it is hot work in the greenhouse but managed to begin lifting the 30cm of jarrah sawdust. Amazingly only the top couple of cms was discolored and had deteriorated the rest was a rich red color (which does not show up well in the photos. This was despite being almost constantly submerged in water over the last 15 years.



Then came the pond liner and black plastic, that I used to hold the water in and finally I surprised myself to fine that it had a slab base. After all these years I had forgotten. At least I will have something nice to stand on when tending the vegies.





Now comes the work of digging the hole for the tank and making up the bench stands.

Stay tuned for next weekend's work.
Cheers
Marc

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My system
Marc's System

So cool!

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~2010/2011~
~2012/2013~
~2014~
~Backyard farming~

looks like some 1 is having fun
thats some nice pond liner hope you didn,t stick the rake through it

Hi red beard - bought new rake and shovel so there were no sharp bits but the liner ended up with a few holes in it. It had done its job anyhow. Might use parts of it to line my old 1000gal tank that needs to be retired (too many patched holes) and use it as more grow beds. I'm sure to find some liner without a hole

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My system
Marc's System

back again after another W/E of work on the system. At least it is cold up here today (maxed at 9.5C) so work in the green house is not so bad. Dug the hole to put the 3000l tank in so the beds can flow back to this tank when the 1000l sump tank is used for trout and running separately. But I don't have to worry about that 'till April.
Anyhow managed to dig the hole without hitting rock, which for those that live in the hills would know how unusual that is. Rocks breed in them thar hills! And levelled it off.



It may not look like much but getting all that dirt out and the sand into a well sealed double skinned green house was a fair bit of work . I could not take the dirt out through the doors as they are too narrow (I never built it with having to barrow loads of dirt in mind or a fish tank and grow beds )

Anyhow, spent the rest of the W/E making the benches.





I just got to paint them next when it warms up a bit.



Now all I got to do is get the tank in and install the grow beds and I'm off. Well cycling and waiting for fish.
I'm going to try and heat the water an extra degree or 2 by putting the airpump (Pond one O2 Plus 4000 up near the roof and run it during the day. Most days over winter when there is a bit of sun it regularly gets to 30+C up there. Has anyone had any success doing this?
Cheers
Marc

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My system
Marc's System

Mantis you can see it did clean up well with the high pressure sprayer!

The wood came up like new!!

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My system
Marc's System

Very nice, and I love the duckweed beds!



Jeff

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Of course, Jehovah God created the ultimate Aquaponics System when he made the Earth! (Book of Genesis)

Hi Jeff, The duckweed bed is my old fish tank I had in the green house under a bench that I used to grow my crypts in and a few mountain minnows. After 15 years the mountain minnows are still there but I have given away most of the crypts. It will now be my duckweed and yabbie tank if I can find room for it.

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My system
Marc's System