Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Success!

She's working a treat now with a smaller diameter piece of polypipe on the bottom. Thanks for all the help!

Now i am going to fix it into final position and add my gravel. Will give the bathtub another leakage test and then its all systems go!

O yeah also got my 20ah 12v battery i got on ebay today. Pump is working fine and battery is good to go.

Yay!

have you had a look with the plastic bottle for a bell? It's actually quite interesting to watch

Hey no i just wanted to get it all set up and the gravel in. Got lots going on! Plus my little boy keeps chucking scoria and gravel into the bath and then anything he can get his hands on...

But i was fascinated by the small setup you had me makeup. So simple yet so genius.

So i dumped in all my gravel mix but not quite got enough. But its looking good. Now i need to find a smaller tray as the first GB. The one i was planning on using is way too tall now (at least to gravity feed the sink) without standing it up an extra 25cm or so.

I am thinking small gravel for last top up to make it easier to put plants in.

Does anyone use zeolite? Its available as bbq fat absorber and have used it in soil mixes in place of perlite. It probably floats but maybe not...

I think people have trouble with things like perlite blocking pipes and pumps and things.

Yeah makes sense. Its also way more expensive than gravel.

Saturday should get some. Probs get the pump and dc stuff tested out and improved (fuses, switches added) tmrw. But maybe not as we due a heavy rain...

You've got most of Saturday morning... and the rain shouldn't be that heavy... and will be gone by Monday...

Should have it all finished by Monday night...

Man, put that whip down

Be getting the gravel monday so yes its a good possibilty!

K guys got some more progress.

Picked up some small riverstone stuff and a new plastic tray for the 2nd gb. Its lead and bpa free which is nice.

Fitted a switch onto the pump and fired her up. Only to find my battery is now empty. Ran for all of about 2 secs. Get er charging now so be full steam ahead tmrw morning.

Last photo of the setup so far.

Planning on having plants in pots (bottom feeding/watering) in the tray so they always in 1-2cm of water.

I shall watch this thread to see how things go with a solar panel, battery, and pump. I think you have a neat little system there.

Hopefully the remainder of this post doesn't sound too negative:

The battery went flat already? Was it fully charged when you bought it, or leave it on the solar panel for a couple of days before you used it?

Hope that thing is still good. Might try to disconnect everything from the battery and leave the panel connected to fully charge. Then disconnect the panel and test the charge. Leave everything disconnected from the batt and wait for 24 hrs before testing it again. If you are losing significant charge, then the battery is on its last legs.

I've got two of those deep cell batts that I carried in my truck to run a small fridge, laptop, and microwave. Both of them look nice and new, but both don't hold a charge worth a darn.

Keep tweaking the system. Things will work out.

Yeah thanks its coming together nicely now.

The battery is brand new from ebay (100% seller) so i reckon its good. I have had it charged all night so now i plan on running the pump non-stop to see how long it lasts.

I will take readings from the full battery and when its done.

Got a great book on 12v dc that is my bible for any solar projects.

All of this looks good... and forgive me because I am very new to this as well.... but... the thing that jumps out at me with your beds being directly on top of the fish tank like that, how will you know if any of your fish die and if they do, how will you retrieve them without having to move heavy elements of your system? Just thinking outloud.