Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hey folks,

Ive read tons of other peoples "first system" posts and now I feel strange writing my own. =D

Been slowly piecing together my system from free, or as close to free materials as I can.

Started with a 50gal fish tank that I got for free on craigslist. Then I ended up with a 100gal tank free from a friend!
Now I have them both linked together =)


Pump: "Rio 600" - its about 100gph at the height I have it... I would have bought a bigger pump but my test system was planned to be smaller... bigger pump will come soon tho.

Grow beds are concrete mixing tubs, I have 3 and theyre about 15gallons each(60Liters)
total = ~50 gallons of growbed to about 130 gallons of fish tank ( my tanks arent totally full)

(I didnt finish putting media into the beds yet because im still messing with the siphons)

I made my own bell siphons, which is what Ive now been fussing with a bit for the last 2 days... They started as simple bottle-in-bottle design. Today I modified them (see pic)
My standpipe is now the same 1/2inch hosing that I use for my pump-to-growbeds! it seems to work MUCH better because I have pretty low inflow from the pump.
Im working out a little funnel @ the top of the standpipe to help pull the water in to start the siphon more consistently.


Right now I have 23 little tiny goldfish ~1inch long.
in like 3 days I have 7 channel catfish coming too! theyre small also i think ~2-3 inches each.

Ive only really started cycling the system today.(with media anyhow)
So heres my first readings! - yesterdays too.

1-29-11 -- PH 8.5 / Ammonia ~.7 / Nitrite 0 / Temp Low50 High 60
1-30-11 -- PH 8 / Ammonia ~.7 / Nitrite 0 / Temp Low50 High 56

Apparently I got a water test kit that doesnt test nitrAte, but it does test nitrIte... it also tests Phosphorus tho, would that be useful?

This is an outdoor system with NO heater. Im aiming to build the most cost efficient system possible. This is about as cold as it gets in my climate tho, so it shouldnt be too bad. I expect the water to never really go below 45F, and if so only for a few hours in the coldest part of the night.
More often it should stay closer to 65/70 naturally. I may add some passive heating elements...

Red lava rock for my media, I like it so far. Cheap, fairly light, washed pretty easily once I figured out how to do it =P

Pretty simple setup so far! Im havin fun with it, it slowly starts to look better each day as I find new materials to replace the old ones hehe.

Yup! More updates will follow this week as it all comes together more =)
Comments/Feedback welcome!

Nice start My first bit of advice is to aim for the water level to sit below the surface of the media, perhaps you can add more rock so that the water level is about an inch below the media surface. This will help prevent algae growing on the surface as it is exposed to sunlight. Hope this helps and we look forward to seeing more photos as time goes by.

I would also put a gravel gaurd around the syphons so you can:
1. adjust the syphons freely
2. cut roots by simply rotating the gravel gaurd

going on your theme, you could use 2 litre coke bottles.

One more little thing....

cover the front of your fish tank as algae will build up...

JT

[Im havin fun with it] = Congratulations, you have passed the first test!

[it slowly starts to look better each day] = I am not gonna worry about you much, I'd say keep doing what you're doing. If I could say one thing...
Put up at least one picture daily. Keep this thread updated, it'll keep you safe from big errors! The experienced ones around here can spot a potential problem from thousands of miles away.

Your test kit, ammonia and nitrite, that's really enough for now, esp. if you can do pH as well. Don't need to watch nitrAtes, not a life-or-death issue like Ammo and rItes.

Great momentum going there, I'll be watching. Do lower the "tide" and darken the tanks as mentioned before.

And post pictures and often.

Rick

To the right of the system, is that a blue bar-b-cue? Final destination for the channel catfish? Or a future water tank?

more little bits of progress today.


i was thinking the same thing about the plastic bottle gravel gaurds =) and i added more media to the beds + lowered the "tide" a little bit.

siphons work pretty well, still adjusting a little but im stoked.

i kinda want to see the fish so maybe theres another way to deal with algae other than covering the front?

ph is too high it seems... ~9 today. it was between 8 and 8.5 yesterday/daybefore hmm.

ammonia is sitting ~ .7

no nitrite.

systems only really been running 2 days tho =) .. and i turn it off @ night to save the temperature.

oh yea and the blue barrel was a freebie thats gonna be for rainwater i think!

more updates tomorrow!

if you don't paint it, at least cover it with something that you can remove,, if left exposed the algae will build up on the glass so much that you won't be able to see in anyways..

how bout some of those nifty algae eating fish?

You will find that once you go through the pea soup phase AND your system is in balance, there will be less algea,

Your water will be a tannin stained tae colour.

I don't think they would be able to keep up to be honest. With all the nitrates that will be produced and with the sun you will get an algae explosion.

How can you tell the difference between the good bacteria and algae? My fish tank sits under a window that never gets the curtain closed and has been there for about 6 weeks. I have started seeing a little bit of grey/brown stuff growing in my water bridge siphon pipe, but not anything green.

You would need a few of those algae eaters with a tank your size! I like watching them burn around munching on stuff.

You can see algae
If it looks like it is growing (green, brown, black) then it is algae. Algae will generally try anchor itself to surfaces, not like bio slime stuff which is just coating everything and easy to remove. Of course an algal bloom will just totally inhabit the water (green water)

so a little update, but no pics today.... i been getting tons of stuff done thats only semi related to my aquaponics setup, landscaping, moving rosebushes, preparing to build a frame/plastic sheeting enclosure.

i am still fiddling with bell siphons, but they work well enough for me to just run the pump all day while im doing stuff. -- i have really low flow from my pump, (~120gph @ the height its working) so im workin at getting them to kick on better. sometimes they just drain at the same speed theyre filling. its getting better tho, working with reducers and longer drain runs to increase the water speed.

i also added 7 ~2inch channel catfish yesterday!
now i have 11 goldfish and 7 cats in my 100gal tank, and 10 goldfish in my 50 gal tank.( they are connected via water bridge/siphon)

i had 1 goldfish that i quarantined today because he had a funny looking white spot right @ the base of his tail. and also a loooong strand of multi colored poop comin off him =)

im a little concerned about my PH. it started around 8.5(4 days ago) and has been holding @ 9 now, i HOPE. but thats as high as my test kit goes.. so i dont really know... been cycling water thru my lava rock for 3 or 4 days now.... my tap water PH is about 9 btw, and i used de-chlorinating treatment before i put the fish in...

my ammonia was ~.5/.7 for the first 3 days, now its hit ~1.0
thats good right? little ammonia spike will help start the bacteria?
nitrites are sitting @ 0 but its only like day 4. =D

the temp swings a lot too, at night it drops to 50-55 pretty regularly, and during the day it goes up to 65ish. (its winter now)
dont know if the, as much as 15degree change would be bad. the fish seem to "wake up" when it gets above 55.
ive started feeding them only after it warms up about 1030 - 11am

i'll get some pics tomorrow =) gonna put batteries in my good camera cause my phone sucks!

im lovin' working on this, makes me excited to get up early every morning =)

sorry for the lack of updates but ive been slacking getting batteries for my camera, and not much has been happening. just running the system and waiting for nitrates.

i still got 7 catfish, a couple goldfish bit the dust over the past few days... not sure why, they were just floating @ the top when i woke up. all the others seem fine!

ive also been doing HUGE amounts of work on my soil garden as well! i build two 12x3 foot raised beds for some "conventional" veggies. dug them out and then filled them with good soil. i started seedlings in a tray with a wide variety of veggies also!

i also built a compost bin out of pallets and have done TONS of landscaping
next on my list is building a chicken coop for 5-6 chickens, which will be arriving in about 6 weeks!

and now i got nitrites!

yesterday i had a reading of .25 and today i got .50!! - i dont actually have a nitrAte test.. i only can test for nitrIte..

its only been 2 weeks since i started cycling!

ammonia jumped up to 2.0 and then dropped down to about 1.0//1.5. hopefully it will keep comin back down.

i promise updated pics verrry soooon! probly tomorrow lol.