Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Well done Arbe!!

You must be proud. What fish have you got now/ going to get?

Nice going arbe, looks like a great haul

Good to see another sucessful trout harvest...

Where are you Arbe!!!!!!

Been too long mate, we need an update

Not much happening with my system. Currently fish less.

Have corn, lettuce, chilli/capsicum and a few other things growing. Corn doing well, chilli/capsicum covered in aphids, lettuce has bolted to seed, tomatoes died.

Not too worried as I am currently working on relocating so figuring out how I am going to move it all (along with a redesign)

Long time since an update.

Had restocked the tank with 20 Koi. They are always hungry and like to greet me in the same spot each time I go to feed them.

I had one which was flashing so I added salt.

Then had a problem with all my plants dieing. I think I added too much salt.

Purchased one of these:

It confirmed I had added too much salt with a reading of 4 ppt - even after adding a fair volume of water to dilute it.

Replanted last weekend with lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli and spinach. The chilli, capsicum and parsley are still going strong despite the salt (they have been in there the whole time).

So far everything has survived, which is better than about 2 weeks ago with everything dieing within 48 hours.

I also improved the hand-off to the grow beds. Originally I just had the uniseal directly into my 90mm backbone. Over time this began to leak.

I have 90 added a 90mm 'Y', screwed an endcap on it and then used a uniseal:

Hi Arbe, good to see you popping back in for an update.

your refractometer looks.....well.....exactly like mine.




I have run my system up around 5ppt in the past (mainly for the yabbies) and usually around 2-3ppt now without any plant issues, I will admit some plants dont like it but the rest flourish.

p.s. are you still moving?

Yes - still moving. Currently planning the house - well my design is with a drafty to be drawn up nicely before getting engineering approval and then council approval to build - so the move is still some months away.

Buying a shed/workshop this week so I have somewhere to escape the elements while building (will be an owner builder - literally)

Yes - my refractometer does look exactly like yours.

I hope your going to biuld a sytem into your house or better yet....in the living room....Ive always wanted that. Good luck with it alll anyways.

5000L of water in FT is a lot of thermal mass - could be an option to even out the temperature fluctuations? I wish I'd known of AP before I built my passive solar house.

Whats the latest Arbe

Trouble with that is that your woman then expects to be sparkling clean and isn't happy when she finds out it's not going to be sparkling clean.

Arbe, if you ever have problems with uniseals leaking you should try a little product I use in plumbing applications call Fere-pre (spelling?) its an epoxy sealant, comes in two tins one a base the other a hardener, mix it together WITH WET HANDS AND IN A BUCKET OF WATER. It will harden and seal under water!

I think the reason my uniseals leaked is because I drilled the hole into the side of a 90mm pipe. It wasn't the best fit and over time with the pipe moving a bit (getting knocked when performing mainenance) the seals got slightly broken.

The new solution works well.

Regarding the house. I did consider putting a pond/tank in side but so far have not included this because I couldn't think of how to incorporate it neatly.

There will be a large AP system installed somewhere on the block - for which I plan on using my current tank as the sump.

Isn't your current tank 5000L? How big will the FT be if the sump is 5kL?