Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Will need some additional filtration I bed. 50 gallons of grow bed to 300 gallons of fish tank is a bit uneven. Perhaps fill the sump tank with bird netting and add an air stone to help provide some extra filtration since the 50 gallons of raft bed on it's own with no additional filtration would probably only support 4 or 5 fish.

But looking good so far, keep up the good work.

Oh I'm not done installing grow beds by any means!

Thanks, I have a long way to go! These are the 150 gallon stock tanks for a total of 300 gallons of fish tank. They seem fine so far, but they were expensive. I plan to use a couple 100 gallon stock tanks for additional continuous flood grow beds, as well as using the old sump tank as a flood and drain bed for red wigglers. It's taking me forever to set this up....I sure hope I'll be ready for fish next month....

Got the new growbeds installed, so far these aren't leaking. They're a little wonky from the barrel having been distorted by sitting around half-filled with water for about 5 years, but seem to be working out. I temporarily rigged the pump tubing to fill the barrels and put the floating islands in. The lettuce seems to be doing especially well.

Lettuce, chard and basil seem to be growing well.

Nice setup you got there. I like the growbed support you made.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I didn't see any biofilter incorporated in your system, meaning that you won't be generating sufficient nutrient and potentially cause ammonia buildup in there. On raft style system, and external biofilter is a must, external meaning it doesn't behave as a growbed. Since you have those drums, you can add gravel in there while leaving 2-4 inches below those pots and it should work well. After around 3-4 months if growth is still slow then you should consider adding more growbeds (typical gravel filled growbeds) to the system...Cheers!

Ludi, are you same Ludi as in the permaculture forum?
The cracks in the poly barrels are probably due to sun crazing. Same is common in IBC's used for fish and G.B.
I do water cress in floating rafts with good results. When I move the cress to grow bed it wilts. I use grow bed in addition to floats and towers. Yes, the dirt gardens help but in drought are difficult to keep. My solar powered deep well pump only tields about one GPM. If you pump water out to dirt garden often you wont need a large GB to act as biofilter, and the garden will love it. In winter when less dirt is planted and watered is when the GB is really needed. Eat some of your fish in early winter to reduce the load.

Thanks, mahfudz, I will be having a biofilter in the form of a flood and drain worm bed, which I haven't built yet!

Spiritrancho, yes this is the same Ludi. I'm hoping to get some water cress started, as well as other edible water plants. My dreams are much larger than my abilities at this point!

Got a couple more tanks and moved things around a bit.



Why is there always a giant rock right where I want my sump tank to be?

Well that's Murphy's Law working for you Ludi.

Where thou dig for a sump, there shall be a rock, a huge rock indeed underneath thou chosen site

Can't wait to see you finish the system!

Looking good! I plan to add some rafts into my small system so im always looking for ideas!

Added a couple goldfish, who have disappeared into the dark depths of the tank. I see plenty of minnows.

My plants seem to have stopped growing. Not enough fish? I've been adding a little pee, but not huge quantities.

Any suggestions of what I should do at this point?

Mine was a small palm tree, thought this will be easy with my little axe. Took me 2 hours to get rid of it, then 6 hours to remove some of the roots then a few more hours of thinking @^!@ me. Then i gave up

I added a cloth bag full of sheep poo (poo teabag) to the sump tank a few days ago and the plants seem to be doing a little better, putting on new leaves, but not as fast as I'd like considering we're having quite nice warm sunny weather.

Here's a photo of my system-in-progress. I still have to finish putting wire on the house, and I need to put a lot more transplants into floating islands.



My BSF maggotarium and worm bin are to the right in the picture.