Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi all. I'm only very very new to the whole idea of AP, but nonetheless have spent the past few weekends scouring salvage yards with my copy of the BYAP 'bible'. Everything now found, I sent hubby off to the shed today to put it all together for me As of this evening I now have a 1000L IBC set up, with about 200L having been cut off for the growbed. The growbed is filled with red scoria and hubby assures me he's set the pipes and whatnot up as per the 'bible'. Despite having had a look around the forums, I was wondering if anyone could answer some questions which still remain for me, please?

Should I start out with guppies, or some other cheap fish, to 'condition' the water? If so, how many would be ideal?
I'm in North QLD, what would be a good eating fish that would keep a family of 4 in decent supply?
When do I get to plant something?!

Apologies for the basic-ness of my questions.

You can started out cycling the system for about 4-6 weeks fishless and add some ammonia, or have the old man pee into it every couple of days. If he is on medication he shouldn't.

Test your water every week, yes get a test kit. Most I believe swear by the API Master Test Kit found in most aquarium shops and I believe BYAP shop.

If you must add some fish add anything you can get your hands on. Guppies, goldfish, etc. Being north QLD your eating fish could include anything except trout. Barramundi, Silver Perch, Golden Perch & Jade Perch come to mind.

Good luck, don't forget to add some photos of your system as early as possible so the know alls can point out some things that might cause some problems.

James

I've read that if you have a pond/aquarium/dam/lake find some timber, drift wood, filter media and place in you fishtank to get some bacteria into you system to kick start it.

Your going to need to build a larger system to keep your family in "decent supply", Maybe 5 Barra in a new system.

Plant now, add some Seasol.

Thanks for the replies! I will endeavor to get some pics up later on today.

Also, I forgot ask, how many growbeds can I have off the one IBC?

You can have quite a few off of one IBC. The important thing to know is how you are running the grow beds. In constant flood, you don't need to worry about fluxuations in the water level, but in flood and drain, it will fluxuate. That is why some, like myself, have a sump tank to handle the fluxuations, yet keep the water a constant level in the fish tank. I'm not sure any one has reached a "maximum" number of grow beds, though if you have that much space, you could always add more fish tanks too. The more growbeds the better, as that is what filters the water for the fish. If your plants show that they're not getting enough nutrients, then you may have to stock more fish, but that is a nice bridge to cross later. So back to the answer to the question, if you are running constant flood, almost no limit. Flood and drain, as many that keep you at reasonable water levels, meaning that if all of your growbeds are almost full, there is still enough water for your fish to swim comfortably, and when all are drained, you are not overflowing.

Oh yea, and never apologize for asking basic questions! Sometimes when the answer is right in front of us we can't see it!

Welcome Chooks. Glad to see that your hubby responds well to the cracking whip
Hope that you both enjoy the addiction equally.
When you have hashed and rehashed the AP system and any expansions planned for the future, you wont have any energy to discuss the children (or dog, or garden, or neighbours etc)
Makes for a very peaceful existance!
Enjoy the ride.

Here's some pics of my new system. We did the best we could, so any advice appreciated.


Set up is under the back stairs.


Grow bed.







Apologies the pics aren't bigger, photobucket won't let me resize them.