Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

It was probably time I added my system into the mix.

I currently have approx 50 SP & 4 gold fish swimming about and the plants are starting to take off since the addition of the SP. I had to make a change to the overflow for the fish tank after several SP were sucked into the sump with the goldfish. The SLO was also amended after I found a SP spat out on the GB riverbed gravel. I don't know if this was the cause of death but I have not found any other evidence of deaths as yet.

The SP have been in for approx 2 weeks now with no major issues some APers face but it is still early days. I hope to get a few yabbies on an easter trip to the family farm but these may be hard to find as the dam was repaired six months ago after the dam wall gave way after the QLD floods in 2011. If I can't get any I may get some red claw.

Water quality and readings are excellent, very stable. The only thing I have not been monitoring is water temp. I can't seem to find a heavy duty floating thermometer. As like many of the addicts here the expansion planning is underway, primarily for additional water, 2000ltrs and additional growbed (as pictured).

I still need to mount my air pump and setup my backup system but like many I suspect the old lady while she has a love for fish my pay still needs to fend of the real world.

Thank you to the forum members for your time in answering everyone's queries and sharing your experiences.

Such a unique design, I love it James

Plenty of room for upgrades too

Here are my plans for current & future upgrades.

The IBC frame will eventually be trimmed and a cover added. The 5100 ltr/hr less the 1.5m of head was overflowing the fish tank quite a bit so a spray bar now helps to aerate the water.

I was quite surprised by the amount of vibration the pump had on the sump and even the connection to the FT. I now have the pump sitting on 75mm of foam (fish safe) which has removed almost all of the vibration.

While only a temporary location my air pump caused ripples on my FT water and alot of noise caused by the vibration of the timber in the top rail. The rubber isolation pads has eliminated this.

I love watching the goldfish play in the turbulence. They seem to be quite social with each other. The water is surprisingly clear, the biofilm on the bottom hides this...

Picked up 4 IBC's on the weekend for $80 a pop (delivered) and got stuck into them. After cutting they were high pressure cleaned scrubbed and pressure cleaned again. They are now filled with water in the middle of the yard with come duckweed ageing over the Easter break while I am away.

These are for stage 2 comprising of FT2, backup water, growbed & water tank off the downpipe. Will take a few weeks to sort out

Love how you put the most important component of the system into the design . Without this part everything would die.

Off to the farm tomorrow for 3 days. I will be coming back with some yabbies or redclaw (I hope), and was wondering if filtering wasn't a problem how many can I put in 1000ltrs with heaps of poly hidy holes?

Put together the first part of my backup system.

Tested battery for about 4 hours, will run for longer but I wanted to get it installed. Pump does 60 ltr/m and churned the water nicely, it has a 6 tube manifold with large stones on 3 and nothing on the others. The polystyrene enclosure is temporary but should keep it well protected.

I might also add a strobe light with a beeper onto it for the times the circuit trips and we don't notice it in the house.

I was out taking my boy to the movies and was away for 3-4 hours. The old lady turned on a whole heap of appliances, and left the house to get some milk (walking) at the corner shop and while she was out the circuit tripped and my new backup system installed a couple of days ago did it's thing.

She was only gone for an hour but it goes to show your backup plan will be needed at any moment and it must be automatic!!!

Hi James

Nice Save with the backup!............. A must have for any system, DAM what have i done with mine!

I had a report yesterday that the neighbour found a squashed something with claws on their driveway. No idea how the bugger (yabbie) escaped from the tank.... All my pipes are above the waterline and air hoses are protected.

Came home today to find a piece of timber I had holding a small tarp over my sump must have been dislodged by some wind and it fell into my sump knocking my spray bar. The spay bar started shooting water in every place other than the sump. Yey!!

Pump was off the bottom so the yabbies are fine but probably miffed and the FT is fine. Sigh.

Because I've been taking it easy I haven't bothered with the next stage of the expansion (spare emergency water) and it's come back to bite me. Since before easter I had some water sitting in some IBC's ageing after cleaning with some duckweed AP gravel etc and hoping it would go green. It didn't. Time to empty, clean again and get my spare water online.

I started had to remove the water from the ageing IBC so I removed the safety screw from the IBC outlet lever, firmly but gently pulled to open and the handle popped off. What the F$#k.

1. Is there a trick to opening these. This one has never been opened. It had the foil still in place.?
2. Should I be concerned the water did not go green in the sun, even after seeding it with every piece of slime I could find? (Duckweed grew well) It had coolant in it.

Bump.

1. Is there a trick to opening these. This one has never been opened. It had the foil still in place.?
2. Should I be concerned the water did not go green in the sun, even after seeding it with every piece of slime I could find? (Duckweed grew well) It had coolant in it.

Did it break the shaft or just the handle? On some of mine the plastic is cracked around the shaft, so i just sealed it permanently from the inside of the IBC.