Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi Guys,

Just thought I would start a thread to tell you guys about my new system and hopefully get it peer-reviewed and some advice.

My wife came to me and wanted to tell me about this new thing she had seen on Better Homes and Gardens. I rolled my eyes and said "here we go" as she was explaining. She said, nah nah, its really good, so we watched a couple of videos and I was convinced to build a system.

Now, some might say I have become addicted to researching and talking about Aquaponics.

I was telling my good mate about it the next day and he was keen as mustard too, so we looked on the net and saw an ad for IBCs, so we went down to get one each to build our systems together. LOL!

Originally we had just planned to buy the IBCs and when we arrived at the place selling them, they had cheap deals on 44 Gallon Drums too...and we couldn't resist.

Because I had done a reasonable amount of research, I knew that we could potentially go from a simply cut IBC GB / IBC FT, to possibly a full IBC FT and some Drum GBs with a sump and turn the system into a CHIFT PIST design.

The system we are building is more or less a proof of concept, before we build my mate's system. The smaller GBs also suited our Townhouse's limited space.

Equipment purchased for my system so far:
1x IBC
2x 44 Gallon Drums (4x 166 Litre Growbeds)
1x Aquapro AP3000 (Rated at 3000LPH @ 0 Metres), we will be pumping at 1mtrs, so its rated to about 1900LPH @ 1 Metre.
Steel to make frames
PVC for plumbing

What we have done thus far:
-Cut the IBC and cleaned 3 times with 1. Solvent B - 2. Commercial Grade Grease Cutter - 3. Bleach/Water
-Cut drums and painted with White Knight RustGuard Epoxy Enamel (Fish Friendly Paint)
-Welded up some stands for them to sit on
-Started plumbing

Design decisions that I have made:
-It needs to be portable (as we are about to put our house on the market because we are building 3 townhouses out the back and are going to move into one of them in about 8-9 months time).
-CHIFT PIST
-Continuous Flow (at least in the beginning)
-40mm SLO (Solids Lift Overflow) with T at the bottom of tank to collect from across the bottom
-Elbow out of tank with 40-25mm reduction
-25mm GB plumbing as pictured, each GB has 10x 6mm holes.
-GB Drains spec as per the BYAP IBC Video Tutorial (can someone tell me the official name of this design?)
-50mm Drain from beds all 4 beds to sump
-20mm outlet on Pump to 25mm return to FT
-6 north facing and 6 south facing hole on return to try and stir the water (even though its a box shaped FT ).

Decisions not locked in:
-Rainbow trout (number undecided)
-Washed river stones

Unanswered questions:
-Does this sound like it will work?
-Do I have enough grunt in my pump?
-Will the flow of water fill all the holes in the GBs? I have spoken to some mates; an industrial designer, mechanical and electrical engineer and they were all like, umm...maybe.

Appreciate any feedback or comments. I will post some more photos, these ones I had on my phone. Will go and get some more recent ones soon.

Jeez, you have moved quickly as the story on bhg was only on last week. Good work, and look forward to more pics

Haha, thanks mantis Yes, as I said. Obsessed :\ What has my wife done to me? She knows I love stuff like this

Lol sound like you are hooked Idzy. The name of the drain mechanisms include stand pipe, media guard or surround and cap. Is this what you meant Have fun with your new project, I am sure it will work!
Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk

nice looking system you have developing there idzy
one suggection, increase the size of your SLO, to maybe 90mm. i think 40mm is just a tad to small

90mm, wowzers, that is mega. Okay. Thanks for the heads up. I did have concerns about the size, but didn't know quite how big to go.

Okay, so the rain died down a little to the point of being only torrential now.

Here are some real life pics of my explanations.

Looking good... post more pics and welcome to the addiction

Greeting's..

nice of you to join us..

Nice Looking system you have planed..

a few thing's, other may say I'm wrong but I would rather be proven Wrong..

As a suggestion maybe line the 44gal drum halves with something as I'm not to sure how long they will last[Rust] with water flowing thru them..

I see that you have painted them.. is the Paint Fish safe..?[ie does not leach out toxic stuff..??]

Other than that it Looks Great....

Juergen

Hi Jeurgen,

Thanks for the concern. Fortunately the paint I used is both submersiblem fish safe, rust guarding and non-toxic. It is one recommended by the paint shop for painting fish ponds. The brand etc is in OP.

Welcome to the addiction guys!!

Its so much fun building from scratch.

Just so you know, a 44 galon drum is 205L, this means you have 4 x 100L GB's.

Have you guys got all the necessities for getting a system started? Like a test kit and seasol etc. The reason I ask is that there is a little more to it than stated on Better Homes and Gardens...

Thanks Charlie, that is my mistake. You are correct.

In terms of test kit and seasol, nope I don't have. I also don't really understand how to cycle the system yet either.

My wife said that maybe we should put some Goldfish in first to test the system, making sure they don't die.

Yea there is a bit more to it than you first think, I watched that better homes and garden episode and thought to myself..Wow.. some people are really going to get caught out with this.

Please dont think Im trying to scare you out of it but all Im saying is that I just wish that I had spent some time on this forum before getting started. So yea, read, read, read. There is a wealth of info here and everyone is more than willing to help. Post your every move and keep the pics coming cause we love em!

I could bang on for ages about getting your system started and cycling but it may be best to start searching around this site and see what you can learn. Heres a couple of tips to get you going:-

Get your piping sorted first and run your system without media to make sure it all works then put your media in.

Get a grow media around a 20mm aggregate, lime free.

When your system is running, plant your plants straight away and add a capful of seasol once every few days for a few weeks before adding fish. You can pee in it now and then to add humonia if you like.

Goldfish are a popular breed to get it all going for sure. Stock low and take it slow. It can take 6 weeks or more to cycle, longer in winter.

Always stock fish according to your GB volume. 20-25 fish per 500L of media. This formula will support your fish to around 500g.

Oh dam, I did end up banging on.....

Okay, so I thought I would give everyone an update. Things have progressed quite a way since my last post.

I have changed the design in the following ways:
-Upgraded spec on SLO from 40mm to 90mm
-Upgraded from 3300ph pump to 7500ph, also due to tolerances in pumping heights
-Added an overflow onto the SLO so that excess water can go back into the Sump
-Added a T just before the end of the Spray Bar with a length of pipe that goes to the bottom of the tank. The additional flow of water with new pump was so damn loud, this has improved it and spraying is less intense. Was thinking I might be able to add an air pipe into the T, so that it can provide some more aeration through a venturi type setup, still working out how to do that though.

System has been up and running for about 3 weeks. I got a Freshwater Master Kit (thanks Charlie) and have been monitoring the water levels every now and then and noticed the ph has slowly been dropping. I have a bunch of different plants in there and have been feeding Seasol (thanks again Charlie) directly into the SLO from the top so that it goes straight to the Growbeds. The ph is 7.5 straight out of the tap.

Current water levels:
PH 6.6.
Ammonia 0.
Nitrite 0.
Nitrate 0.

The fish were in PH 7.0 at the shop and I rang the lady before putting them in and she said this level would be fine. They will be able to acclimatise.

I have just added fish, hopefully not too soon. But have only added 50mm fingerlings. I got various varieties of Goldfish. 15 in total. The lady said these are good hardy fish and will be more resilient to changes in temperature and levels in the water, while I learn. Plus my wife wanted them, haha. I do eventually want to put some trout in, but it seems like a lot more work to have trout, so through Summer I think I will just stick with the Goldfish.

My plans:
-Add a 40mm reducer to the tank overflow and neaten up the pipe works.
-Add some more piping to the bottom of the SLO to collect more solids.
-Add timber to finish the outside and make it look nice, maybe some bench seats at the same height as GBs.
-Add some herbs to the GB with space set aside.

I will add some photos soon

Questions:
How does this sound?
How are my water levels?

Welcome idzy!
I doubt you are cycled after just three weeks and just with Seasol. Expect the ammonia to go up then a while later the nitrite levels, then when they both go down near zero things will be safe for the fish.
Are you adding tap water straight to the system? Do you know if it has chlorine or chloramine in it?
Great start BTW, how's your buddy's system coming along?