Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Boy I'm copping a flogging here!

Bell are hard when you get too many, In my system they all fired at once and over flowed the tank.
Also with the on/off i only run the pump for 15mins per hour saving a little money, very little that is, but more mportantly if the power goes out i had at least 45 mins of water returning to the tank and oxygenating the water.

In Gidge this is a Big +

I learned something very interesting today... Cleaning and shovelling pea gravel has nobs on it! 2 grow beds full, I'm going with clay for the other 2!

Haha sorry erro, didn't mean it to be like that... I'll take every bit of advice I can get, then put everything I'm learning together and do it the way I see viable. There's so much contradiction in ap from what I've seen and read, so I recon its just about having a go and seeing if something can work for you, and if that happens to timed flood for u then that's good. I've got a 1000l sump so it can cope with all bell siphons firing at once if it needs to.

Nah, just folks voicing their different experiences. There's no single right way to do this stuff, and it's helpful for us newbies to get info from a variety of perspectives. If not for that, my system wouldn't be half as good as it is already!


Sent from my iPhone, typed with my thumbs.

what should i do? ....


1. run fishless until trout season
2. silver perch from now and throughout winter to the next barra season
3. throw some marron in until trout season
4. get some big barra and keep them until trout season

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm the dilemma's!

Get some Koi off gumtree and then flog them back on gumtree when you are ready for trout. Easy to keep, $10 deposit per koi (refundable when you want trout)

haha, not a bad idea..

Large barra at Golden Ponds, already plate size, keep for 12 weeks, celebrate end of summer with bbq and then go with trout.

I like that Idea, I might do the same!

+1 large barra, then trout:grin:

ahhh crap. missus just checked the credit card statement. she no happy! ooooops!

$100 of blue metal and some fish is all thats left to have the system at least running and growing .. nothing shall stand in my way muhahahahaha!

sorry babe, if your reading this, didnt really mean that! hahaha

Just throw 20-30 yabbies in there, Plenty of places close by to get them, they are free.

You can eat them when you are ready!

update time.

still bits and peices to do, but all in all, the system is up and running, and i've planted it out.


I added about 750mL of charlie carp and about 400mL seasol to kickstart the system. I also cleaned my aquarium pump and filter in the aquaponics fish tank, it was filthy, so im expecting good results from doing that!

i've got 3 beds on siphons, and 1 on constant flood. im using the constant flood bed instead of having an overflow from my fishtank back to the sump. Still have 1 garden bed to put into the system, but i cant bring myself to shovelling blue metal anymore this week!


Bed 1 has lettuce and tomatoes
bed 2 (constant flood) spaghetti squash, leb cucumber and snow peas
bed 3 Berries!! - blueberry, boysenberry, raspberry, strawberry
bed 4 capsicum, chilli, brocollini
bed 5 (constant flood also) will be herbs


So i took some photo's today and did a water test. obviously early days, but im in no massive rush to get fish in there yet.

What month is a good in perth to start rainbow trout? And how much should i expect to pay for 30 odd fingerlings?

Cheers all,

Seems to be a lot of that going around.

Will marron survive in the above water quality?