Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I am glad to be part of this forum. I have just started fish farming and chose to do aquarium tilapia breeding at home then transfer fingerlings to earth ponds at a grow-out farm. Having Aquariums at home has lead me to considering aquaponics so I'm quite new at this but the possibilities seem limitless.

I am in the process of planning a system. Given my location with several challenges the least of which is unreliable power - a system that runs on as little eletricity as possible is paramount - since I've got to hook it up to my home's standby battery-backup

I have looked at Travis W. Hughey's manual 'Barrel-ponics' and the flood-and-drain system described is really cute and simple so being the experimental kind that i am, i just thought i'd adapt it but make mine a little larger - I got loads of mouths to feed. Scalability is also important.

I'll upload sketchup images in a moment but Let me describe it:
[mygarden01.jpg][/sbiko]
[mygarden02.jpg][/sbiko]
3 IBCs to be cut; 3/4 bottoms for fish tanks; 1/4 tops as grow beds inverted in the cage with timber joist underneath for support.
A timber frame made initially to support flood tanks - 4 barrels but I got carried away and decided to do 3 DWC troughs up top and NFT out of 4inch PVC drain pipes below.
I am considering running a 3speed 90watt/1000l/hr circulation pump to move the water from the fish tank to the DWC troughs and flood tanks. By gravity water from the DWC would come through the NFT back into the fish tank, in the same way water from the flood tanks will be released by flush valve into fish tank via the gravel growbeds.

I reckon this system will be great for me to showoff all three aquaponic systems at work.

I have not done this practically but any early trouble shooting would be very much appreciated.

Hi sbiko

There is some interesting stuff happening on the subject of low power systems at the moment.

It might be worth having a look at my system thread (link is below) from around January 2012 on, and this thread here on low energy systems

And a general search of the board for low energy system would be a good idea as well.

Another thread worth looking at is the [url=[url=http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=8621]BYAP system trials[/url]]BYAP system test[/url] thread, that tests different flooding regimens.

And everything else in this forum is worth reading as well

Good luck!

Fixed that link for you Bull

I finally got the Admin to sort out issues i had with picture uploads

Here are the pictures of my system I had been trying to make available

gallery/image_page.php?album_id=48&image_id=307

gallery/image_page.php?album_id=48&image_id=306

Looks good.

Are the brow beds on the IBCs constant flood, drained by shifting water up, or siphon?

And do the plants under the blue barrels get enough light?

Yeah I think light could be a bit of an issue there perhaps for some of the lower plants... Interested in seeing some more details sbikom certainly a compact design..

Thanks for the reviews,

The grow beds are going to be flood-and-drain. A simple flush valve installed at the bottom of blue barrels will be periodically opened and shut. The water would then flow out of the grow beds by gravity.

We generally have 12hour days most of the year-being right on the equator so I was not too worried about sun light for plants under the blue barrels - I'll watch out for that nonetheless.