Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I never started a system thread for my first IBC system which I set up in Jan 2012, but figured the upgrade to dual IBC was a good time to make the effort to take some photos and write a few words.



The first IBC system has been running well as a timed flood and drain config with ten Jades which Wildfire was kind enough to give me in April after I killed 50 Silvers with an ammonia spike and ph >8. I was overstocked after gaining my initial knowledge? from info on some online resources much less sensible than BYAP forum. I should have read the IBC of AP first. The GB is filled about 250mm deep with expanded clay ball media. We have grown tomatoes, chillies, herbs, and loads of lettuce. The Jades are eating well and the system runs consistently at unreadable levels of ammonia and nitrites.

In preparation for summer we decided to add a second IBC so we can have twice the grow bed area and can stagger the fish growth between the tanks. I bought a black plastic IBC that had contained fibreglass resin. I’ve only rarely seen black IBC’s for sale and thought they would be great for AP. The guy who sold it had already washed it thoroughly with acetone and when I got it home I used a stiff plastic brush to scrub it with vinegar and bicarb (per ccBear’s advice) to get rid of most of the residue. After cutting the IBC into GB and FT I went over the inside carefully scrubbing off any small remnants with a plastic kitchen scourer, then left the two sections out in the sun for a fortnight to air.



Over a couple of weekends I assembled the second IBC as a separate timed flood and drain system with the GB filled about 300mm deep with expanded clay ball media. Both systems sit on a base constructed of treated pine sleepers. The system has been pumping away for a week to let the chlorine burn off from the water and today I joined the two FT’s with a PVC water bridge. The water bridge has two U-shaped ends as described in this BYAP thread and the ends are covered in plastic mesh cut from sapling sleeves to prevent fingerlings moving between the FT’s.



To provide redundancy there is one pump in each FT and the hose from each pump has a tee and feeds water to both GB’s. I put a ball valve in line to each GB from each FT (so four valves in total). I bought two 24 hour timers (1/2 hour increments) so I can stagger the on time so each pump runs for half an hour every two hours. The pumps fill the GB’s in about 5 mins, so the GB’s spend a half hour full, drain for 20 mins, and sit empty for 10 mins.







Now I’m planning to get about 20 Silver Perch fingerlings to go in the second FT. By the time they have grown a little I’ll have started harvesting the Jades.

Thoughts and feedback most welcome. Cheers all.

Beautiful system Tallman

Great looking system there! Like the idea of joining the to as this may help the new one cycle faster. I would change that metal media guard though, I think I read somewhere on this forum that you should not have metal in contact with water.

Looks like stainless steel so ok, systems looking mate.

Looking good there Tallman great to see the jades are doing well, they should be good to go in summer sometime yummo

Yeah, it's stainless so I figure it's non-reactive in an AP environment.
Thanks for the feedback and encouragement guys,

The Jades have been great, Wildfire. How's your sprawling system going mate?

yea good mate I've got a heap of chilli plants in there which are going gang busters so I should be able to make some hellish sauces this year

Score on the black totes! Fiberglass resin is easy to render safe, just catalyze it. It should just pop right off of the polyethelene. Any that is left would be no different than any commercial fish tank.

Hi Tallman the system looks great I think you have inspired me to do something about expanding my system will have to do some ground leveling first though.
Noel.

Wildfire, I get the impression your whole AP setup is just a life support system for chillies.

yea lol I just got some more seeds in aswell here are some recent pics of some of the plants

It looks like wildfire's rosemary has also taken over. I removed a rosemary TREE to build my system.

My aphids have taken an absolute thrashing since these awesome little allies arrived. The little spiders are doing their bit as well. Cool!

yep I'm thinking of turfing that rosemary I have two different kinds in there and the other has a better flavour.


Tallman do you have those little jumping spiders? its fun to watch them ambush things

Yeah, I have got those. And a few others that build webs. I generally pull out any golden orb weavers that move in as it freaks me out when I walk into their bloody rope-like web.

PS. I took the photos above with my pretty crap camera. The credit to Peter Chew is for the species ID. His site http://www.brisbaneinsects.com is fantastic.