Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

The 12v float switch to ensure that the sump does not overflow if the power goes off and to return water to the main tank as it fills from the spray bar. Once the float switch gets this covered in gunk it does not work that well.


From left to right. Spray bar (back up aeration), return from grow bed 1, return from grow bed 2, return from sump, 12v backup return from sump. The 3 returns from grow beds that go to this tank have barrel unions to allow them to be redirected to the sump if needed.


With the shade cloth back on this side of the greenhouse all the algae disappeared in about 2 weeks.

You have so much tank space!

How many silvers do you have? You could chuck them in the smaller tank so you can run more trout/barra

Hi Ryan Took the advice from the forum and invested in tank volume and backup systems then whatever money I had left went on the rest. The one mistake I made was having a 1000l sump. It should have been 2000l so the trout had more room to swim.
My 30 trout (now 25) maxed out my nitrates to 800 over winter - yes I was overfeeding but not by too much. Even with my growbeds all planted they were not using the nitates as quick as I was producing them.

My wife is demanding that I have more trout next year but unless I have more grow beds...

Barra are not much good up our way as it is too cold. We are easily 3 to 5 degrees cooler overnight than Perth and need a series of hot days and nights for my tanks to get over 25C.

More grow beds for you *HIGH FIVE*

I wonder if you could have a few more grow beds outside that you run flood and drain over night to help reduce your water temps. You would have to be close to all year trout then? Of course that would only work if your night time temps dropped below 23ish deg C.

Probably could grow trout all year round but it would be marginal and would be stressfull for me and the fish when those heat waves arrive. You just need some overcast weather from a trough and the night time temps wont drop and then i'm in trouble.
This year I will record my max and min tank temps against the outside temps and see if it is a possibility. If so I may get some triploid(?) trout so they dont produce eggs etc (I vaguely remenber Gavin telling me something about it when he delivered the trout this year as there are suppose to be some triploid trout in with my lot) and give one or two a go. I will need to check with Mathew on a few things as I know he does it and gets some very nice sized fish.

Even though the greenhouse where 3 of the grow beds are is open at one end, the temps are high enough for capsicums to continue to grow and fruit right into winter. These pictures were taken at the end of June

Just one more reason to have a green house. One day... One day......

and then there are the egg plants. They fruited all through the winter and are still producing.



and continued to grow all winter


The Capsicums did slow down towards the end of winter and by mid September I had pruned them all back ready for the new season. The great thing is we have bought our first capsicum last week and will probably need to keep buying for another 4 weeks till the current crop are ready. The new shoots from the pruned capsicums have flowers and fruitlets on them already.
PS - The chooks love aquaponics.

Pulled a couple of fish out again this arvo to cap off a great long weekend. One was a monster that jumped out of the net as I was transferring to the bucket, so he lives to eat another day!
One that stayed caught was just over 1kg and 38cm and the other just under 900gms. Not bad for 5.5 months (went in just after Easter).
A lot less fat in them this time since they have been on a diet - only 500gms of food a week for the last month or so.

Only 23 left and the silvers are eating like pigs as long as the temp is above 14C

Apologies for the blood in the photos.


Noticed one of the fish had only rudimentary anal fins. I'm sure if he had had them he would have cracked the kg


On the larger of the 2 fish i noticed white marbling through the flesh after they were cooked, any idea what it might be?

those things are stonkers!!! awesome!!

thanks iceman.
they tasted great as well, with the aquaponic salad.

Do you tie a rope around your waste when you go to feed them in case they grab you?

Just about Ryan. Fair amount of water loss which can be a tad embarrassing when it wets the front of your pants (particularly when your off to work)

Feeding time is energetic and very colourful.
I have some video but need to work out how to post to you tube etc.

Just to show that I do have normal shaped trout

and another


and the top one is a female (the pink fingernails are a dead give away )

Very impressive fish mark. Nice work!