Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Evening All,

Firstly, here is my welcome thread which gives a good overview of my initial system; http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=11462

In short it's a basic system, made from a few old tubs I had laying around. The system has been running for about 10days now, and ammonia levels are now dropping... went with the old pee ponics approach to start with, but probably overloaded before I actually researched - still system is cycling tonnes of Nitrates, just waiting for nitrites to drop off before hitting a few daily tests!

Still after 10 days this is how the plant life is looking:


First Capsicum appearing woohoo!


Lessons Learnt

Constant flow creates a few problems. Initially I was massively under supplying water to most parts of the Grow Beds. Daily monitoring and drilling has rectified this significantly - however to a large degree I know have somewhat botched irrigation system, that I will need to fix up in the future.

Initial drill holes were too small, and were getting clogged up, so applied bigger drill bit to sort out. Flow is now a lot better, including overall bed coverage. I would guess this should also assist in oxygenating the water too.

As posted on previous thread, best lesson learnt (and should have already known as I am a designer) is Keep it Simple!

A draw back with the current constant flow is that the water level is at times constantly flowing over the stem part of the plants. I have noticed the plants that are thriving are receiving the delivery directly over their roots rather than stems, and plants receiving it over the stems are either struggling or have died (god bless their souls).

Next Stage for this system

As this initial system was really designed as a test, to get a feel for everything, have a play with some ideas, learn how to get the cycling process going then I will be adding to this system in the future.

The current fish tank (without fish) will in time convert into a grow bed. I have a spare tank exactly the same working as a base to hold up the grow beds. What I plan to do is get hold of a 250litre pond system (probably from Bunnings), keep the top beds for smaller plants/herbs. Cut groves in the top of those so that the constant flow is actually underneath the bedding, thus saving the plant stems as mentioned above. These will flow into the two bigger tubs which will then have a flood and drain approach.

The way I see it in simple format is that if I fill the Pond to 150lt of water, it gives me a 100lt buffer to allow for the extra flood and drain action - so I would assume the water would move between 150 - 220lt in the pond depending on flood and drain times. The system would give me about 110 - 140 lt of growing space, a tonne of first hand knowledge and experience and hours of fun! And I still don't have fish yet!

But before I expand that system...

I was in bunnings today and managed to pick up a few bargain storage tubs:


System two will comprise:
2 x 57lt grow bed tanks
1 x 145lt fish tank
1 x 78lt sump tank

This one really is a test to get my head around the whole flood and drain system, using one pump and a sump. I will design and construct a frame to hold all four pieces over the next few weeks, before starting the cycle - which I hope can be speeded up by borrowing from the smaller system.

Now i have my head around the concept on the whole in terms of pumps, syphons and overflow from fish tank, my only issue is how to get the pump functional in the sump. Does it flow constantly? Does it work on a timer? Can you get it functional only when there is enough water in the sump? Any advice from you guys would be much appreciated

In the meantime, this is my official thread for a tiny system, but one that will hopefully expand over time! Cheers

I love your tiny system! Very neat and great for a balcony etc..
I don't mean to be negative but those plastic tubs from Bunnings are very weak and brittle.
It doesn't take much to put a crack in them. It's almost impossible to drill a hole in them without fracturing the plastic. Try it out first, drill some holes, and fill with media and water, bang em round a bit...
Have you thought of using the blue (or other) 200L plastic barrels ?
Very tough, can cut 2 different ways for different shaped growbeds.

Put some soft wood behind it when you drill, don't press too hard, nice high speed drill, slightly blunt drill bit is better, tends not to snag the plastic.
I went through a lot of lunchbox size GB's in my micro system figuring that one out, lol.

I like to run the drill then let off on the trigger, and only put pressure on the plastic as it is winding down. I tore up some thin plastic like crazy with it going full speed.

You can get drill bits for plastic, or you can make them out of a regular bit. You have to grind down drill bit to a point. This gets rid of the sharp edge on the outside of the bit. This sharp edge is what cracks the plastic. I am a helicopter mechanic and we have to drill platic windows all the time, and if you use a regular or unmodified drill bit they will crack. Also run the drill as fast as you can with very little pressure. The idea is to melt the bit through instead of actually cutting through.

Thanks guys!

Yep already cracked a couple of tubs from bunnings lol - went a bit cowboy on the drilling and destroyed one hehe - so replaced with 2 stronger blue tubs below! Was going to implement some form of syphon system, but after a nice little trip to Backyard Aquaponics, went for a simple drain approach instead.

Here is the frame done, nicely supporting the weight of the tubs - and with some vigorous testing to prove it works too. Now to fill the cracks, paint the frame and actually get the system tested. Supports the weight of the tubs nicely, will reinforce for a bit more stability before I finish the frame.

Looking like about 110lt fish tub/tank with similar grow bed size. All tubs nicely supported on all sides, with weight distributed on both the base of the tubs as well as the handles/lip as well. Wood also supports any bowing which may occur due to weight. Will reinforce the fish tank slightly more - altho I have been running a test for over a week with awesome tests and a massive amount of water in there all hope hoping this system is functionally cycled by the end of feb!



As for my mini system it's nicely cycled now and added 5 comet goldfish yesterday! Already harvested 2 chilli's and have a lot of other vegies about to kick off. Had to create some quick (nasty looking) shade - but will hold nicely until I upgrade to a better working system. That was my learning system, but already performing very nicely - so once I get the one above fully functional, I will then go back and fix up this system.



Then it could be an IBC job, with some additional beautification!

As for the plastic splitting, what I did was something I was taught at school when sawing through plastic (I think... it's been a few years)...

I applied masking tape to both sides of the plastic, ensured the bottom of the blue tubs was supported nicely, enabling me to focus pressure on the hole for drilling only. For the overflow pipe, as DuiNui mentioned above, clamped the side onto some wood, applied the masking tape to both sides and drilled away, worked like a charm, no cracks or problems! I still have some concerns, but am fairly happy with the tubs I have now, all are above average bunnings storage containers and capable of supporting the water and/or media quite fine, without much in the way of support... but being conservative I have covered every angle I can!

Also @DuiNui, are you located in Chiang Mai? I was visiting the Elephant Nature Park there in June last year, wonderful place, was sad to leave

I wouldn't be worried about the blue tubs at all, they look like some ABS or similar plastic. Much thicker, more flexible and stronger.

They can get very brittle when exposed to the sun for a season, you might want to paint the outsides if you want them to last a few months.

Nice! I like the custom stand.

Well its fair to say, my tomatoes and cucumber plant are going off!!!



Which is awesome... but not quite as awesome as finally getting system 2 complete and started on a fishless cycle (thank god the weather eased off a bit). So here it is, 108lt GB space, 120lt FT, 78LT ST. Flood and drain system, 15mins on, 15mins off. Still need to add a few little bits, but by and large its up, running and very functional



Overflow pipe from Fish Tank into Grow Beds.


Full frontal image before plants and trace elements added


And finally... next to the original system - which is still doing pretty well, even though I am gagging to tweak and improve a few bits (when I get some dollars)


Will update in a few weeks once I have some growth happening!

Neat, looks like evolution in progress!

Thanks Dave... will actually try and have a proper plan when I either create a new system next time, or mod the original system

Still its quite nice throwing these things together on the fly!