Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

great to see you on the AP bandwagon guys and the growth is fantastic.

I'm in exactly the same position, having just installed a 3000L FT and 3 BYAP growbeds in April. I'm also cycling with 60 trout (but 15 of those have since been moved to my first 1000L system after the silver perch were harvested).

It took about four weeks after the trout went in for me to get to zero ammonia and nitrites, so if you haven't cycled yet, it won't be long.

Have you had any problems with algae in your FT?

cool Dandm. Nice to see it all coming along really beautifully for you. You have put in a huge amount of work well done

Thanks for the kind comments everyone. We are very pleased to have taken this next step. It always was a plan, but we really wanted to make the best use of the swimming pool first and learn about fish. We are really glad we did.
Bythebrook, four weeks on and the ammonia is zero and the nitrites are dropping, down to 1 yesterday (from 2 last weekend), so we are well on the way. It is so, so tempting to feed those hungry little fish on demand, but we are still taking it slowly until both ammonia and nitrites are zero, hopefully this week the rate it is going. We haven't had a problem with algae in the FT-there is a coating on the plastic but I gather that is normal and the water is nice and clear. Hopefully it will stay that way, but who knows once we start feeding the fish in earnest.
It certainly is great to have those feisty trout again! The perch in the pool have slowed right down with water temperatures now 16-17 degrees, so a bit of a feeding frenzy with the trout will add a bit of interest!

We finally fitted a decent net to cover the FT.

Also cleaned out the baby yabbie IBC and was pleased to see lots of healthy yabbies, including these little ones making a home in the holes of the bricks-multistorey!

And checked out the seeds sprouting in the grow beds...can't remember what they are though!!

What size pipe are you using for the netting? I was going to use 20mm pipe, with four T pieces equally spaced so I could bend other pieces over the tank to form a dome. I was using the natural rim built into the tank. Unfortunately, when I started bending the pipe, it kept breaking at the joint of each T piece. I didn't want to glue the joints, because I wanted to be able to remove it. Have you managed to do it with a smaller pipe?

We had only two joins in the pipe (having a circumference longer than the 6metre pipe lengths made that necessary)- when we tried doing it initially with left over pipe and had four joins it wouldn't stay joined even with glue. So the less joins the better when it is curving so much.

Ours also fits into the natural rim, and we just made that little pokey out bit to go around the pump pipe. It works well, though we did put a couple of self tapping screws in the very last join to help hold it in place, and all that bit was glued (though not the join in the circumference). It just lifts off the top of the FT as needed and wedges back in place on the rim quite easily (hence the bit that goes around the pipe).

Why are you hoping to make it a dome? That seems to add a complication. I am pretty sure ours is 20ml too, but the less joins the better we found.

All looking fantastic
Those sprouts are carrots me thinks

I have just read this entire thread from Oct 2008 through to the present and it as amazing. The consistency of your fish harvests and the growth that your fish have achieved each season is inspiring, to say the least. Well done, dandm!

I have the pump in the centre of the FT and the outlet pipe rises up above the FT and then to the growbeds (which are at right angles to each other). There is also another pipe which returns water directly to the FT, creating a swirl. I wanted a dome so all the pipework would be under the FT cover. I designed it this way to minimise the number of bends in the pipe, so the top of the pipe is in line with the top of the GB stands.



A second reason for wanting a dome is that I have seen Faye's pictures of trout leaping out of the water at feeding times. I didn't want to have a FT cover that would stop the trout leaving the water. At the moment I have a shadecloth cover draped over the pipework, but I don't want to add load to the pipes, as the pump outlet could be under stress.

The idea of fixing the joints with screws is a good one. I'll give it a try, with just two T pieces instead of the four that I was planning on using. Your FT looks like a 2000L, which is identical to the 3000L except for the depth, so the rim etc of the FTs are the same.

Aha, all makes sense now. You may need to glue all your T pieces etc out straight, then screw in each join, so it is only the very last join that is under tension. We also added a wooden dowel in the pipe at the join and this seemed to add strength and hold it in place while it was put under tension.

Good luck!! Post a pic when it is done!

Well, ammonia and nitrites are both zero, nitrates are 40....the plants are growing and the fish look happy.....

I have a couple of questions now though due to the weather!!!
1. The water level in the FT has risen up and is now touching our net cover. It is a pretty good net, so I don't think the trout will get damaged on it, but when they jump they do bump into it.
Should I lower the water level for the fish....or should it be lowered anyway for the benefit of the whole system??
2. I am not sure if it is because of the excess rain (we DO need it!) or settling of the media but there seems to often be a bit of surface water on some areas of the grow beds and I was wondering if it was needed/worth adding a bit more grow bed media to it?
3. We have been feeding the fish three times per week the last week as the nitrites continued to drop, now both ammonia and nitrites are zero we will start to feed more often/more. Which is the best way- still small feeds but now daily...or increase the quantity...or both We really want to!!!

Any suggestions gratefully received!

I installed a bulkhead fitting in my fish tanks to pipe excess tank water to another part of the garden.

Here is a photo of the bulkhead fitting on my smaller FT


I screwed a 19mm tail fitting onto the end, added an inline filter to prevent the fish accidentally entering the pipe (apparently trout are adventurous), and as much 19mm poly pipe as needed to the end of the filter.

By using a hole saw and drilling from the outside of the tank I didn't add any plastic fragments to the fish water.

We maydo something like that. At the moment I am siphoning- it got to overflowing with all today's rain!

I used to siphon. I prefer the bulkhead fitting, that way I don't have to stand out in the rain trying to lower the water level. I don't even have to be home for it to work! It's good when you hear the rain coming down at night, knowing that the tanks can't overflow.

Could your FT cover float off if the water level got high enough?

This site shows a better image of the bulkhead fitting:
http://www.wetearth.com.au/Threaded-Nyg ... d-Fittings