Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

this is my system...

if anyone has an opinion on it i would love to hear it.
as you can see ive already planted the seedlings cause i was a little to impatient with a little help with seasol.
after i jumped in to early with my 30 rainbow trout and they went belly up ratio of filtration to fish was not correct (ive learnt that now) after a quite a few hints and tips from an earlier thread.

any comments would be greatly appreciated..
cheers

Hey Troy, welcome to the world of AP.

Couple of points to help you out,

I have taken from your pics that you prob have around 150L-ish of GB, this will safely hold 5 or so 500g fish in an immature system.

Unfortunately when using a single IBC to create a system you become quite restricted with stocking levels.

To help understand causes of your fish deaths you can consider this info:-

Unsure of how you started everything but in case you didnt know, when you fill your FT with water you need to remove the chlorine (if filling from tap water), I personally fill my FT then keep an aerator in there for around a week or so to dissipate all the chlorine, then it will be ready for your fish.


When introducing your fish you need to do it slowly, if purchased in bags, float the bags in your FT for a while to get the temp right or if they come in an esky or such you need to share the water between them over a period of time. I have done this in the past by putting a litre or so of FT water into the esky then remove a litre and put back in the FT, eventually the water will equal. PH and Ammonia are your main concerns when doing this.

If you havnt already, you must have a BYAP test kit!! This will become your survival tool. Learn what the tests mean and live by them in the first few months. You need to know the discrepancies when introducing your fish and it will help you properly understand AP.

Another point is AIR! Trout are very oxygen dependant! Cant tell what you have but bigger is better, if you get into trouble you will find that bulk air will help you through. I see you have an overflow from you pump and that is good for water circulation and extra aeration. You can never have enough air.

Finally, Salt, learn about it, use it. It also will mitigate harmful nitrites and assist in fish health.
I run a constant 3ppt of salt. If things start heading sour, salt may just save you.

Oh yea, have fun with it most importantly and we are always here to help.

Mate that is nice and neat and looking good. Good work with the pics. Bit of a pain bout the trout - its always a bad job scooping the floaters and sinkers. Have you got a test kit? I cycled my system around this time of year and it takes a little while so a test kit helps to keep across it. Good news is while your waiting to cycle up - you can plan an extension! You could easily use fish emulsion in there to cycle up works ok for amonia content and feeds the plants also....

hey guys
ive filled up with tap water and has been running for a few weeks with 10ltr per min air pump as well as filling my gb every 15 mins with a 300ltr per hour water pump.
ive got 2 spare ibc's which i can see very soon they wont be spares think i will expand before i get more fish
ive bought a test kit which ive tested the water a few times with
ph 7.6
ammo 1.5
nitrite 0
nitrate 0
temp 9.6 (yep bloody cold)

again always looking for help cause if you dont ask you just dont get!!

Watch that ammonia level. Don't feed until it falls to 0.25 or under.

Dont think that will be an issue just yet....need some fish in there first...

i knew my first system wouldnt last long...after a few mishaps im on my way with an addition of my first system im adding on 2gb totaling 1050ltr gb 600ltr st 900ltr ft

already have plans for the next system which will be 1000ltr ft 2000ltr gb if not more and a 600-700 st(with help from people on here) ....... but cant be built yet due to me not finishing 1st system yet...


1st system consisted of 600ltr ft 150ltr gb now it has 1050 ltr gb 600ltr st (ex ft) 900ltr ft

system will be on auto syphons which to this day have had no problems with


any tips, hints, criticism, muchly appreciated

troy

Ok Troy, this is lookin better mate!

So its CHIFT PIST from what I can tell. Looks good, you have spent some time on I see.

Couple of Q's

*Do both GB's return to FT via the same pipe? It looks a little on the small side.

*How does the GB on the left get a feed from? I can only see that small retic pipe whereas the GB on the right has your overflow.

*Why isnt Barbie wearing any clothes? Also, its possible she may be drunk.

*Why is your dog checking the diff oil level on your ute? Is it that you have been too busy with your AP?

gday charlie

return pipe is a bit small but it is only running the little gb at the moment hopefully tomoz i can get the other bed online by using 90mm pipe as return...

it is a chift pist and piping will also be connected tomoz to the 2nd bed and then third

third gb will be installed over the w/end....

answers to your q's

barbie is naked and she loves it!!!
thats the b*tch that keeps stealing my bourbon

dog is not checking the diff oil he is probably licking the road kill off.(dont worry animal lovers i HAVE not run over anything) except 1 or 2 cats (only joking)

Forget about barbie being drunk, I think the dog is an alcholic, it's obviously trying to get the whine out of the diff.....................

Got any updates troy???

Where are ya mate!!