Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Yeah my dogs will be the same

i have a cover which i have to make up going to make it out of shade cloth which i hope will keep the dogs out. I guess i just got to keep an eye on them plus going to get goldfish first so i'll see what they are like with them

Thanks for the comments

Well i thought i would get most of the set up done seeing as i had Friday off. Seems i was totally wrong.

Friday i spent most of the day shopping for pipes and connections seeing as the bunning near me was really crap. So Friday was a big let down. I didn't have much time left but i did get to cut up my IBC's and put them in place.

Taking apart the IBC


All my pipes and fittings as well as tools


Nicely cut IBC with cage (Cut to 350mm)


IBC's in place around the SPA (sorry getting dark at this stage on Friday.


Sat. Painted IBC's nice green colour. You can also see the bricks i'm going to put the IBC's on. (right side)


Had an idea with the cover. I was thinking to put shade cloth over these 2 aluminium frames. Just need to be cleaned up a bit.


Forgot to take some photos for the rest of Saturday and Sunday but i got all 4 IBC's level on the bricks.

On Sunday I cleaned out the spa and put some clean water in. I made an auto syphon and tested it, which took forever, on one of the top half of the IBC's. I also found out that the lids on the IBC's have holes in them and was slowly leaking. So changed my mind and started with the bottom IBC made another auto syphon. The syphon worked and then started moving the blue stone in. Which took ages as well, as i had to move it by just a bucket.

I tested the water, which i got a very high PH reading . I might need to test the water that comes out of my tape to see if the issue is with the tape water or just the spa.


Once one of the IBC was set up i found out that i have made a stupid mistake. I had swapped around the IBC bottoms which means the other bottom didn't fit in the other bottoms cage. Which now means that i have to take out all the stone and swap the IBC cages around. As it was 4pm already i just packed up and will swap them over next weekend.


i'll post some more photos tomorrow to show the final setup.

Theres that green paint again

Looking good mate

Looks like my PH test on the water was right. Here is the results from this morning testing.

Spa water


Tap Water which is lower


Looking at the results i might just empty out the water in the spa and start again. As you can see the water isn't that clean anyway as i washed the Blue stone in the water. You can also see i can't put the one of the IBC bottoms in the cage as it will not fit.



i have my air going in which i might do a video of it as it doesn't look like a lot of air.... does anyone have a video of there air in water?
Also the quick connections on the right isn't water tight which means when the pump is on it drips so i will have to remove this.


Blue stone in but needs to be removed next weekend

Come home to this last night.

Dogs thought it was something to play with.... looks like i have to buy a new one.

Looking nice, I can see were it was on the picture above and get them some toys to play with. Or they will find some thing to play with i.e pvc pipe, black hose i see who knows. I use a lot of tree stick/bark so they don't eat the plants and i cant stop them form digging holes, they love to lay on the cool dirt.

Yeah they have heaps of toys just need to hide the stuff that sticks out too much.

Weekly Update

3 beds are done. Was having some major issues with the first bed still leaking from the lid. which is why it is not done.

I had the beds running most of Sunday all ok except one bed doesn't want to stop just needs a bit more tweaking. Brought some seeds as well as some strawberry plants.







Next week i will clean out the spa for the finial time which i hope will make the water a bit cleaner. I still need to disconnect the old spa water pump, filter and air pump. Goldfish will also go in next week along with the plants and also do a bit if touch up painting on the IBCs