Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Phase one is one tank and one grow bed as sold by BYAP in Perth. Great product and good service. Thanks to them. I had an old fibreglass rainwater tank left on the property which I cut in half. The bottom half is the tank for phase one and the top half will be for phase two once I fibreglass up the holes.
Filled with bore water which is drinkable out of the ground. Threw in the battery backed up blower with two stones and a pump (8kl/hr from memory). Tossed in 7 SP and they all swam around like psychos on the surface gulping, then sank to the bottom "dead as". Rescued them out with a broom and ran them to my koi pond. Pushed them back and forward under water and brought them all back to life!! They are probably retarded now now....
After running the blower for a day tried the SP back in the main tank. All good. Piped up grow bed and added 25 more silvers from fergusson's. Delivered and acclimatised for me. Great service thanks Gavin.
Had an algae bloom which has now dissipated after putting a lid on the tank made from a garden shed that got blown down. The PH was very high due to ground water use and I made the mistake of using acid to get it down before I read about the PH coming down as part of the process. Took a couple of weeks for the nitrates to appear as I have kept the feed rates low to keep the algae down. The plants have now started to grow. Saw the fish for the first time last night as the algae has cleared. They are smashing the food and are super lively. 30 fish in about 3000l+ of water means things change slowly which is good for a beginner.

Mistakes to date:-
1) Not letting O2 levels build up before adding fish
2) Assembling the grow bed water filler pipe incorrectly (see photo). Will redo but it still works OK.
3) Using acid to bring down PH
4) Making the GB drain lines common back to FT. This was a concious decision as it was easy, but will need to be changed.
5) Installing tanks above ground. Should have dug them in to allow the GB's to drain by gravity.

Good to see you have started a thread Frosty... sounds like you have had quite an adventure so far. You in good hands here

Charlie likes to touch all the members. LOL

photo resize using

http://pixlr.com/express/

no admin rights to my confuser ATM

That is a nice big tank you have there - with a second one ready for expansion.

How are you returning water from the growbed to the tank?

ATM I am returning the GB to the original fill port of the tank, which is not great. I have done that because I cant get over the top of the tank lip without making the grow beds higher, which would make them inaccessible. I have got some 40mm tank fittings now though so I can punch a hole in the side and return them that way. I have the second grow bed now (not shown yet) and that is also tee'd in so now the return flow is restricted even more. Phase two is coming real soon where the second tank will house 20 barra.

I am not sure whether to seperate the two systems and have one grow bed per tank?

like

System 1) tank1 GB1 30 SP
System 2) tank1 GB1 20 barra

or

tank1 30 SP :- GB 1 and 2 from existing pump from tank1
tank2 20 Barra:- circulated to and from tank1 using tank 1 pump to tank2 with gravity return to tank1

first option requires purchase of second pump but thats OK, need it eventually anyway. First way is easier, second way better from an isolation perspective for diseases. Having the systems joined might give me better control of nitrites via larger overall capacity.

Opinions??

Have you made the height of the growbeds taller already or are the stands directly on the ground?

Yea Id run 2 discreet systems, trust me you will appreciate it in the long run.

Id get a cover made for that FT too mate or you will never get the algae under control even if its just shade cloth.

Stands pretty much on the ground. Sitting on one house brick but could go on the ground but I lose a bit of tank level/volume. They are fine on a brick though access wise.

I hear you Charlie, check the last snap to see the cover. Its my old shed that blew down. Even has a fish door!! The other half of the shed is for tank 2 when she is commish

Two discreet systems it is then. I will still install a jump between on the tanks as in the winter I want to keep my SP growing (slowly) and run trout in the other and may want to grab some GB capacity from the SP system to bolster the trout system. But by then the minsiter for finance may have approved GB3.

Second bed... needs to go onto second tank once ready

Readings
PH 7
Salt 2ppt
Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite 2 or 5 ppm (very hard to tell, probably 5)
Nitrate 10 ppm
Temp 26