Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Morning all

short introduction:

I'm an ex Safrican living in Israel.
Aeronautical engineer by trade.

New to this bussiness.
In the process of setting up 1000 liter FT with 400 liter GB.
Intend to grow Talapia and fruity vegetables.
have just discovered that I'm going to have to stock my FT at much lower rates than I had hoped to.

Cheers
Thabo

Welcome to the forum Thabo, all the way from Israel, wow, how did you get here?
I am always curious to hear how people find about about aquaponics.
Look forward to seeing your photos

hi all

got interested in this when a friend moved here from South Africa and set up his own system.

how did I find you guys? GOOGLE!!! (it's my friend )

I started setting up a couple weeks ago and have had some slow going but will get there in the end.

Bit of a wake-up to discover that you cant really stock at 1 fish per 10 liters water (although it didn't make all that much sense anyway). I had intended to start small and build up my stock as things progressed... no sense in buying a lot of fish only for them all to die because I'm still low down in the learning curve...

I'll post some pics later...

by the way, wondering if anyone knows weight of crushed stone per liter and how much water a liter of crushed stone will hold (i have checked 1/4" crushed stone and found that a liter weighs 1.6kg and holds 0.4 litres - total weight 2kg per liter. but don't intend to use that size stone)

Try filling a litre container full with stone and measure how much water it takes to fill it up then use that percentage for your grow beds and you will be prety close.I used this method to estimate how much air was in a silo of wheat and a few years later some expert was quoting the same figure.It's 38%.

thats what i did with the 1/4" crushed stone.
My back-yard is full of the stuff as we have a play area for the kids with swings and we didn't want to lay grass under them.
Once I buy the stone i will be able to check that size too but in the meantime I was wondering if anyone has tried it themselves

so, as promised, a few pics of what i'v been up to

here's the theory. will locate the grow beds above the fish tank and regulate flow rate to grow bed by use of valve which will send excess capacity (if it exists at all) back to the tank. this can aid with oxygenation of the water



ran a whole bunch of tests on a prototype siphon to see what was most efficient and how i would need to set things up.

here is my first attempt





realized that the flow rate was way too low so went over to a bell siphon.



still wasnt quite fast enough especially when the water level dropped to about 10cm. I was worried that at some point the out-flow rate would equal the inflow and i would be left with a system that could neither fill nor drain properly.

next step was to experiment with a longer pipe at the base of the bucket



it worked a charm as you can see from the graph below



next it was on to the building stage:
got an ICB and cleaned it out.



warned the kids that if they misbehave they can sleep outside

cut a flap into the top so that i can fill it all the way and still close it so that it is kid-friendly and cat-unfriendly



began building a stand made from a wooden pallet to support the grow beds above the tank



finshed product:



chopped a couple 250 liter barrels across the waist



and now have 4 100 liter grow beds positioned over the tank



i have a 3000 liter/hour submerged pump which will provide about 1000 liters at 2m head.
I began setting things up per the sketch below, but found that the valve that came with the pump leaks and will need to be replaced



in the meantime i have just fed the pump straight back into the tank and am cycling the water that way.
not doing very much, but i have hung a bucket with moss from an existing mature pond in the tank so that i can start cultivating my bacteria.





it'll only be next week at the earliest that i get around to getting all the remaining parts, so in the meantime I'd appreciate any advice from those who have done this before me.

I will probably use crushed stone as grow media, although i may just decide to use volcanic rock as it's significantly lighter and i am a bit worried about my stand's ability to support the weight.

I will probably also strengthen the stand a bit before i load up the beds.
am a bit worried about having to do something like this:

Shalom Thabo,

I live on a Moshav in the Negev and have read about this subject and am looking for people in Israel who have done BackYard Aquaponics...

Do you live in the south? I would be very interested in talking to you and see the work you have done..

Best regards

David B.

Ok... and I haven't built mine, so I'm really a spectator... but, other than managing a 'gravity return', why do you have your growbeds so high? You have to get a ladder to check them. One of the 'joys' of AP, I thought, was keeping your plant material at waist level for easy access.

Your system certainly has a tidy footprint... but you have to get to the grow beds to plant, check for pests, and to harvest.

Here is another question?

The system seems very simple, one pump only, and i liked that it does not use a lot of area... BUT...

What about the sump tank?
Isn't it keeping the temperature of the water constant and making unwanted particles sump to the bottom of the tank where they can be removed?

In principle you could make a sump tank between the grow beds and the fish tank, and still use gravity to make it work. Only you would let the water exit the sump tank a bit over its floor level. But i am not sure how this would cater for the need of constant temperature.

Best regards and Behatzlaha..

db

Hi thabo,

I am also in Israel. Where are you located? I would love to come see your system in action. I am new to the game and watching videos to learn about how to make it happen.

Hi, I live in a Moshav south west of Jerusalem and my son and I just took the course with Livingreen.co.il and in the process of setting up a back yard system with 4 grow beds. But haven't been able to find the necessary fittings and grow beds so I am just hiring Livingreen to do it for me. We also just finished a Internet course. Would like to meet and see any operations in Israel.

The promised land. Nice. Hope to take a visit someday.
Nice setup, subscribed