Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

been watching the forum for a while reading up on other peoples systems, and what can i say what an awesome forum.

i have always been interested in fish, i have 2 fish tanks and a fish pond, but wanted to try something new, i came across aquaponics when i was surfing youtube dont no how i stumbled onto it i was looking at 4wd vids, but once i saw the vid i was hooked, i decided to go with lots of water as if i learn't anything from fish tank more water more stable the system.

here is some pics of my system i started today, i have 2 X 350-400L grow beds a 1000L fish tank and 2 550L sumps. decided to go slightly deeper grow beds for better filtration. still got a bit of work to do but getting there.

plan is to also get a solar panel and a battery to run a 12v air pump 24/7 and see how that goes, if it works out might look into getting the whole system running on solar but see what happens down the track

the next step in the system is deciding how i am going to connect the 2 sumps, if i am going to have them joined with a pipe so they both fill and drain at the same time or have one constant height like the fish tank. plan is to have some yabbies or maron in the sump. or put fingerlings in there to keep the cycle going as the fish get bigger.



i built a overflow into the fish tank which will overflow back into the sump if the water levels get to high.




the outlet to the growbeds




outlets to the grow beds with valves.





bell siphon, tested it with the hose works well.





not sure what fish i am going to stock it with atm

Looking great there fishyink, welcome aboard :-)

quick update,hope to have some gravel in my system by the weekend and the system up and running. not sure if i am going to paint the containers yet or what type of gravel.

added the pump today, picture of intake and pump atached

Nice system!
To connect the sumps, just use some uniseals, super easy and work a treat

quick update, added some paint to the fish tank and grow beds today, couldn't get the bladder out of the frame of the fist tank as the outlet coupling is sealed in, so painted the frame aswell, thinking i might put some shade cloth over it aswell not sure if i like the colour yet. see if it grows on me or what it looks like dry.

Wow! That is the first non green paint I have ever seen on an IBC. Please keep the color, or if you do paint it a different color, make it not green.

quick update added the gravel, added some plants, tested the water, to my shock ph was around 8 after the system running for half a day, so i tested the tap water ph of 8.3, can any one make some suggestions ?

added 400ml of sea sole to the system before i added the plants and after i did the water tests added a teaspoon of urea until i figure out how to bring my ph down to and some fish to cycle.

ph 8.0
amonia 0
nitrate 0
nitrite 0,

My system has been running at 8 or above for some time. It is not really a big deal, there were some signs of nutrient lockout, but now that the ph. has dropped to 8.0 things are going strong. If you are really concerned, hydrochloric acid will bring it down. Obviously do it before you add fish.

cleaned my aquarium filter into my ap fish tank today, see if it helps with the cycling process. and with the warmer weather added some 50% shade cloth to one of the grow beds for some shade for the seedlings. used the left over braces as uprights and some trusty cable

ties to hold it together.
amonia about 0.20 and nitrates still around 8.1

wish i washed my gravel before i put it in the grow beds the water is still pretty dirty.

going to add half a dozen yabbies in the system to help the cycle get going.

added some feeder barbs out of my pond, they been breeding like crazy, added about 15. probably become live fish food if they breed well in the ap system, there in my constant height sump atm. in my second sump i added 7 small yabbies and some PVC homes for them


Been monitoring the temp of the water, the highest its got to is 26, and lowest is 19 early morning. normally around 22-23 depending on the weather. hopefully it stays this way for a while and i can look at adding 10 barramundi for summer would love to got some a bit bigger than fingerlings. so i can grow them to decent size over summer.

no nitrates or nitrites yet. and ammonia still low at 0.15-0.20. pH doped a couple notches with the last rain.

not much seems to be happening ATM, hope fully it starts to cycle soon

bit the bullet and started buying components for my 24/7 backup system. bought a 100w solar panel and a 38l/m air pump. i have a 100ah battery already. plan is to run the air pump of solar 24/7.

here is some of the maths.

the air pump is 18w 12vdc.
18w/12v= 1.5amps

1.5ah x 24 hours = 36amps

36amps / 4.5h sunlight x 12v = 96w solar panel i need to keep battery charged

the solar panel i got has a battery management system to make sure the battery isn't over charged or discharge.

cant wait too see how it runs and weather i will need more solar. worse case i can use the 100w solar for camping with my portable fridge and get a 120w solar panel.

average sunshine hours for Perth region. my calculations were on 4.5 hours of sunshine.
Jan. 11
Feb. 10
Mar. 9
Apr. 7
May. 6
Jun. 5
Jul. 5
Aug. 5
Sep. 7
Oct. 9
Nov. 10
Dec. 11

The math is a little different. You have the draw since correct, however the supply side is different. Most panels are actually around 17 volts, so check that and plug it in. If that is the case you would need 136 watts.