Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Bring on spring


Plants in peeponics coming along

Nice Richard... Is that a small fig tree in the bed?

Its a dwarf pear EB, just to see what happens and a blueberry on the other side of that bed
Got a delivery of clay balls today and will be filling the third bed with them tomorrow

Oh right.. I've been thinking of trying a few fig cuttings from my tree, and yours looked suspiciously like a fig tree from a distance..

Yeah, the model of your system in the IBC manual is a bit behind how your system is now.... Oh well.... There's a few like that.

Thanks for the tour today mate, Great systems in play all round

Will be great to see them silver perch come on when the water temps rise a bit!!

Great to catch up again mate!

Got third bed up and running today thanks to Jamey for delivering these



Sure is easier filling a 500L GB with clay balls than carting and washing gravel. Filled the bed twice and drained it to waste then plugged into the system and water crystal clear



Had enough left over to refresh the small blue barrel bed in the greenhouse and fill it with clay

So new system is complete and after the clay balls stop floating up and down with the flood and drain I will plant out the new bed
The end of the vid shows the wicking bed with garlic growing and the compost bin with literally thousands of worms enjoying the spent grain from my brewing.

The clay shouldn't be "floating up and down" with the flood and drain... it implies that you're flooding too high...

Just noticed you're using the cheap Chinese clay Mantis.... which, even to this day hasn't the consistancy of quality control during the firing process... often resulting in the batch being "under cooked".... too much remaining in the clay balls.... and floating....

Well I am hoping it will wet and sink after a while. I have had hydroton do this before as well but I have never before filled a bed with clay balls only topped them

mix some gravel in with it if you find it isnt working out mantis

how much was the chinese clay balls per bag?

They will do it as hydroton does until they absorb the water.

The clay has no problems, iv used it for a fair while now and cant justify the price differnce.

Well I would never fill a 500L bed with hydroton at $50/bag, which is the cheapest I can get it
Why do you think we bust our guts washing scoria/gravel and carting the heavy shit into growbeds, its because hydroton is tooooo expensive

I genuinely want to know how much they are lol.

I paid $32 a bag here and i know someone that can do it for $26 or $28 a bag for a pallet.