Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Got a fair bit done over the past few days. Have sorted out the standpipes and media guard thingo. Got all the gravel in - now just need to decide on whether I splash out on more hydroton, or another trailer load of pea gravel...

Still need to fix the transfer pipe leak, then top up with water, add fish and plants. All good!

Nice progress Curly, have you got something supporting the base of your growbeds other than the tin plate from the IBC?
Will you be putting more holes in the media guard, if that is what you're holding?

Wasn't planning on putting any more holes in it, no. Figured that rotating it periodically should clear up any roots, and if not, the diameter is big enough to put my hand in there. Am I off-base?

As for supporting the underside of the half IBC, I haven't done anything else to it. Scratched my chin for a while and looked at the IBC with the most load in it and couldn't see any deflection at all.

Hopefully I'm not sticking my head in the sand a bit...

The holes in the media guard give the water flow entering your grow bad the opportunity to flow through at a more even track through the media covering more media area. What you have done may have the water entering the bed then tracking straight to the bottom from point of entry.

I think you will find your filtration wont be as effective sorry.

Ok, no problem, I can have a crack at adding some more holes if I get sneaky with the dremel! Cheers.

My thinking was that if I'm running constantly flooded (which I was planning on for the first few months at least), the water would enter on the top surface, and then drain via the bottom only. I figured this would give a pretty even distribution. But I can see your point.

The only systems I've played with in the past have had siphons, so they're fully drained every few minutes.

I was planning on manually draining the beds (by pulling the standpipe out) from time to time too. This should be helpful from a filtration point of view?

yea mine is CF and I put a bell on maybe once a month to fully drain the beds, removing the standpipe completely will be the same

I like your progress curly, looks great champ!

Happy days. Leak fixed, extra holes drilled, GBs topped up, seeds scattered. It's been a good day!

Thinking whether I can get a few advanced Trout in soon for the rest of winter...

Yea go for it, you still have 3 months at the least.

Thats if you can get trout

Oh - they're difficult to find? Golden Ponds still the best bet?

Im not too sure Curly, give them a buzz.

You could try woodvale aswell.

I have some nitrites! Have planted some seeds too...

Exciting!

So a quick update. Looks like we're almost cycled - ammonia and nitrites are back at zero. I thought the Nitrites were never going to come down - they sat around 1.0 on the test kit for ages.

Water was looking pretty green until recently - amazed at how quickly it cleared up. Within 24 hours it went from maybe 200mm of visibility to perfectly clear.

Currently have 2 SP and 3 Rainbow Trout in separate tanks, so will probably try and get a couple more trout for a while and then replace them with a heap of SP fingerlings when the weather warms up.

First proper meal out of the system last night. Pulled two trout out, both pretty small -biggest about 300gm. Killing them isn't fun, it feels completely counterintuitive to cut their heads off after spending months trying to keep them alive...

Tasted great though, chucked them in a pan and fried them up. The smaller one did curl up as soon as he hit the heat, is that common?

Plants doing ok, constantly snacking on snow peas and radish. Salt has knocked a few other plants around a bit, but they're recovering...

All good!

Woohoo! Congrats on first harvest!



Nah, you're looking at it the wrong way. Once you change your goal from "trying to keep them alive", to "trying to get the most meat" it will become easy. But this only comes from fish keeping experience.

In fact, every time I loose a fish...all I can see is a "free" feed being buried in my garden. Throwing dirt on $ signs.

I wouldn't bother with AP if I didn't think I could eventually optimize my process to save money. I recon I saved $$s on fish this year, but have fallen short with veggies.

Can you separate the accounting of the two?? I don't know, but I've got to justify time and effort away from the family somehow. Not everyone's family is happy with them spending hrs in the garden.