Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

It has taken since July, but Evandale Primary now has a simple IBC system up and running!

Nearly everything in the system has been donated to the school by families, including all 13 fish currently living in the tank. The School Association has also payed for the majority of the materials, making my job - of planting, fish feeding and teaching the kids - very simple indeed.

The tank cycled for around two weeks without fish, but the system was vandalised during that period so I'm still checking these fish are ok for a couple more weeks before I add any more.

You'll see in the photos the annoying vandalism that was done - clay balls in the water (sending it all cloudy) media guard packed full of clay and the white rocks that line our garden paths. The pumpkin seedlings that had been planted were removed and thrown into the water, but remarkably they have survived, despite spending most of a weekend afloat.

We've improved our security, and hopefully the novelty has worn off now. The water is much more clear now, the media bed is working very well as a filter.

I'll just post those pics to begin with, and I also need some advice on the quantity of fish to keep. Usually the tank is filled to around 600L.

Cheers in advance,
Grubb

And more pics:

Well done, and bravo for teach AP in school. Sorry to hear about vandals.

Good to see another school system pop up.

That vandalism really gets up my nose, so disrespectful.

Vandalism is what puts me off suggesting AP for any of the 5 schools I work in. It would be heartbreaking for the kids if the fish were all floating or worse Monday morning.
Not much or no security around the schools here

Stuff like this drives me nuts.

Clearly some delinquent needs a good clip

Good on the school for running an AP project, my boys primary school has chickens they care for. the boys kinder has gold fish and raised chicks from eggs and learned all about them. they would be gutted if some heartless muppet decided that it needed to be destroyed, and then we also have the three guppy tanks, the AP system and the Chooks at home as well...

And some parent needs to start parenting.

Ohh too true!!

give the kids a clip, and turn around and give the parent two!!

That's beautiful work Grubb. Makes me look at my own IBC hackmanship in shame.

I hope that the vandalism does stop as the biggest shame would be if the project is abandoned due to the action of some bad apples. My son absolutely loves our setup and would spend hours after school, sitting with me, ask questions and get all excited as the pump starts each hour.

How great would it be if all children can learn about nature and the food that they eat, in part, by watching an AP system grow and develop?

Oh if I'd put it together, the fish would be asking for transfers elsewhere. A handy parent did all the work, I just had the idea and co-ordinated the project.

Anyone got an idea of how many fish are needed to power this thing properly? There are currently 13 fish ranging from very small to 15cm or so. I'm assuming that's not enough nutrients for the plants?

Cheers,
Grubb

How much filtration have/what is the volume of your growbeds?

There's approx. 200L of media, if that's what you're asking?

Also, how much evaporation should I be expecting? Losing >100L a week here atm.

Yes - that is what I was asking. 200L of media or filtration would allow you to grow 6kg of fish at harvest size. Assuming 500grams each at harvest time, that is 10 - 12 fish.

100 litres of evaporation sounds high. Not sure if the size of a system makes any difference but I would probably put about 80 - 100 litres per week into my system but it has a total water volume of around 6000 litres.

Thanks for that mate. I've just found a few threads on here of people losing 200L+ in warm, windy weather, and that's exactly what we've had. The system is a little open to the elements too, so that could be a factor.

Already got 12 goldies in there, so we will cap that there for now. I assume they'll grow to similar size as some of the smaller food species?

Nope... that's 8 to 10 fish max... for 200L of filtration...

With the current 13 fish... you should have adequate nutrients for your plants.... and before they become any where near 500gm.... you should have twice as many plants... because you would have added the other 200L grow bed you need to support that number of fish...