Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Now that our construction has finished and we are beginning to cycle our system, I thought I would start a new topic.

We have CHIFT PIST. Because of space limitations, we had to build vertical. I didn't want to waste growing space in the greenhouse, so I decided to bury the FT and ST. Water is pumped from ST to the GBs with two valves that allow me to feed back water straight to the FT or ST to balance the flow to the GBs.

We have a timer setup to run the sump 15min on and 45 off. Each growbed has a stand pipe with a weep hole we have tried to calibrate to drain it in about 45 minutes. Water drains from the GBs into FT and we have 2 SLOs connected from the FT to ST.

We used river rock pea gravel in the beds because it was cheap. A real pain to clean and even after we cleaned it good, there was still a lot of dust that settled in our tanks. I would like to clean that up, but will deal with it later.

Water test: ph 8.3, Amonia, Nitrate, Nitrite all 0

Got some creek water about 5 gallons worth and added to the system. Hoping that will have the bacteria in it.

Added 250 ml of lemon juice today and will for the next several days to see if we can reduce the PH.

Now for a few pictures. Sorry it is hard to see. The space is limited so taking photos is kind of a pain.

Here are the two lower beds.

Here is the upper GB. Building a box and using EDPM was the easiest way.

Notice instead of using expensive 2x12 side boards, I made sturdy sides with 2x4 and plywood. Plywood on edge is extremely strong.

My boys and I thought about if water is coming into the GBs too fast, we want to have an overflow. However, we thought we would make the overflow increase its rate as the water rose, thus we cut a V in the overflow tube. It was just fun goofing around.

Here is the GBs viewed from outside the Greenhouse.

Question: Do you have to wait to start planting plant seeds? My wife is the gardener and I would like to cut her loose to plant some plant seeds.

thoughts?

well done, what a beautiful system

If the water is flowing , yes sure plant away.

A bit of seasol will help the plants along. I think it might also be called maxicrop. About a cap full or so should do the trick.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

Maxicrop plus iron here in the U.S. - Not certain on the amount (I use it very infrequently). Seasol may not be the same amount.

lookin good...

jT

very nice!!