Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

After much waiting for various works to be done I am now able to start setting up my system. I have had all of the gear for about 3 months but have not been able to set it up due to a back yard renovation being done.

System consist of a 1000ltr fish tank and 2 x 400ltr grow beds on a timed flood and drain method.

I have the fish tank full of water with the air stones running in it at the moment to age the water but i need to cover it with some thing the temperature at the end of the day is like a warm bath i reckon i will end up with stewed fish if i put any thing in there as it is. I am on the hunt to get a temperature gauge to measure exactly how hot it gets. I want to put barramundi in there, i have been told they can tolerate up to around 30 Celsius no problems but Im sure its a bit hotter than that at the end of the day.

will put up some photos when i work out how to do it on my ipad, cant seem to be able to at the moment, if any body has any tips please let me know.

Hello and Welcome UpNorth,

I think you will need Tapatalk on your iPad to be able to upload pics - costs about $3.00 from memory.

You can get digital thermometers which you put the probe into the tank and have the LCD display sitting outside, or just get a floating thermometer.

During the summer days (and hot nights) you may want to just run constant flood as this may help keep the temperature down a little bit.

Greeting's..

A few questions..
What fish..? Barra.. Nice....
Why Flood and Drain..? Why not constant flood??... to keep the water temps fairly constant..

Can you go a regular tank 3-5000lt partially buried in the ground and convert the IBC into more growbed's..

A Larger volume of Water is more stable..

Juergen

Might of worked the pictures thing out.

Well only one photo at a time for now....any one know how to get 3 photos loaded through tap talk ?

Work in progress.

Looks great Up North, very neat and tidy, thumbs up

It certainly does look good. Just watch the middle of your growbeds. You may need some additional support there.

The system been running nearly a week now without any fish because my water temp is still too high its getting up to around 35c (still waiting for the shade sail man) but mechanically is going great after I put a couple of breathers on the water feed lines. Couldn’t get them to balance the water flow because one or the other would end up siphoning.
Last Sunday I dosed it with about 100ml of Seasol to get things going, it sure did I have an algae bloom to contend with now so I have just covered the fish tank completely to block out the sun, hopefully that will fix it in a few days.

Also thought I would do some water tests as well, that was a surprise, ph was up around 8.5 and the other 3 readings very close to zero, so have been slowly adding some acid to bring it back down, hope this is right. I think the ph got that high because I had the tank filled and was running the pump in it while I was getting everything else set up and had a paving block on top of the pump to hold it steady, must have had a fair bit of lime in the paving block.

Also took your advice Arbe and put the extra support under the grow beds.

Will post some photos over the next couple of days.

Exciting times UpNorth!

BYAP do a floating thermometer, Ive had one for ages and it works a treat. You can order it through the 'shop link' at the top of this screen.

I wouldnt be too concerned about you PH just yet and will settle in time. When your shade goes in you should get some plants in asap and keep going with the seasol and maybe after a beer on the weekend add some humonia. Might aswell get the ball rolling and work on getting cycled till you get some fish sorted.

In regards to your temp, mine runs constantly over 30 and my SP are loving it, eating mad and really packing on the weight. Nothing to be concerned about.

And yea, keep a lid on that FT until you get the shade up as it will turn green real quick and takes forever to disipate.

In regards to adding photos, after you browse and add the file just browse and add a couple more photos before you submit your post and they will all load in together. Alternatively you can add them in line with the button at the bottom left of the text box.

good luck

Thanks Charlie, yes it is exciting times. Ill have a crack at the humonia this very evening.
I have purchased a thermometer for the bath tub from Bunnings that I have stuck on the side of the tank for now but will look at the BYAP one.

I have planted some mixed lettuce, Parsley, Kang Kong, Pak Choi & Bok Choi that are going along well for the moment.

I dont know whats wrong with me I can sit there and stare at it for hours watching the water cycle round and how the plants are going.

So if I understand right your saying just leave the ph alone for the moment and wait for the rites and amonia to kick in and run thier course?

yep, thats the addiction...it only gets worse too, wait till the fish are in



I suppose what I mean is for the moment just test it once a week and see how it behaves, high PH will lock out iron to your plants and you may find your plants becoming yellow so get yourself some chelated iron and put a measured spoonful into your standpipe and keep up the seasol for trace elements. Its not unusual to have a high PH in the begining, if it stays up there we will tackle that time when it comes. Usually messing with PH in the begining just sees it bouncing back and PH swings are what do the big damage to fish so let it season a bit first.

My pH started around 8.5 and dropped to 6 over about 7-8 months.

It is now a stable 7.6 since I dumped a couple of kilograms of shell grit in my sump.

Re the sitting and watching part. Better to do that than tinker with your system. I often sit out at mine with a cuppa or a scotch (depending if it's before or after midday).

yea dont mix those up Arbe...hmmm, actually sometimes its fun to mix those up

see how this goes with photos