Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Well, people, system one is complete. Bar a bit of tidying up of the greenhouse plastic and power cords etc, system one is complete. System 1.5 is the fingerling tank which needs one more growbed then it's complete so now comes system 2.

I have decided that dirt gardening is not for me. Too many weeds, too hard to keep everything successfully watered. Although I do have a strip of dirt which will be convertedover to vegies for stuff like snow peas and corn.
I have a nice sunny spot in the corner of my yard behind another shed which is begging for an AP system. I am of the bigger is better brigade, and I have sourced a 5300 litre holding tank which I will be coupling to 7000 litres of gravel grow beds. The tank is round, the gravel beds are rectangular, and will use existing besser block plots as stands, with timbers across the besser block beds for support. I just need to find someone to make the growbeds for me at a reasonale price. I think the tank manufacturer custom makes stuff, so I am waiting for his reply on that. His last email came back in less than 24 hours, so I feel like I can expect good service from him.

My biggest downfall with system 1 is lack of sunlight in summer. In winter it will rock as all the trees lose their leaves and it will get about 85% sun for at least 8 hours per day.

System 2 will be built with a greenhouse cover over 3 of the 4 beds and bed 4 will be used for growing flowers (keep heather happy ) My current experimenting with flowers in the greenhouse just got riddled with fungus. We want to grow lisianthus and gerberas. The greenhouse will have roll up sides with shedcloth all round for ventilation as it is in full sun during summer and will get stiflingly hot without protection.

Anyway, all these plans are likely to change but at least it is a starting point.

One of the major changes I will be making is this system will have a sump that's top is level with the surface of the growbed gravel, and the water from the growbeds will be plumbed in at the base of the sump. Hence, if the power was to fail mid cycle, the sump would never overflow, the growbeds, would just stop draining. Also, if the pump in the sump fails, this will stop it overflowing.

kewl, get building man!

you clever fella!

Sounds great! Thats going to be a BIG system. Enjoy it!

I'll be following your progress.

You will be running two pumps right? What happens to the water when the pump from the fish tank keeps going and the sump pump fails? It has to overflow somewhere, unless you have a low water level cutout.

A couple of thoughts I had (I have been thinking on my next setup a bit lately) that may be useful. Your block slopes right? Can you use gravity to flow the water out of the tank into the beds like MF does (here)? I think it should be possible to run multiple tanks, all overflowing into one smaller tank (the top of which is level with the top of the main tanks) which houses the pump (or gravity flows into the grow beds). Water then flows back into all of the tanks and will overflow between the tanks to even the water levels if needed.

I have been trying to think of a way to keep more than one type of fish in a single system (less pumps, plumbing etc) and that was what I came up with. In my next setup the tank will be the lowest point, one pump to the grow beds, gravity feed to the sump, gravity feed to the fish tank. I am hoping to keep goldfish in the sump and silver's in the main tank. I would also like to incorporate yabbies (multiple tanks for breeding and growing) but I think due to space limitations I will need another pump from the fish tank for this.

Nova

Hi Nova, I would have a low level cut off in the fish tank.

Have considered a MF/VB style, and still may do that. Just that it would need a 3000 litre sump

What type of fish are you going to use in the new system??
More Barra perhaps?

More room for fish then...

Nova

Nah, silvers I reckon. One trhing I have learned is it is a lot easier to use fish that are suited to my climate rather than trying to replicate the environment in which a tropical fish may thrive.
Barra maybe once it all gets fully established and ripping along when I know I can get them to the plate over a summer. ATM, I am going to be left with some of my current stock over winter, although some will be ready to eat within a couple of months esp if the current hot spell keeps up. I fed them nearly 600 grams today, and the weather is heading for 40 degs over the weekend so temp will be a nice steady 28 or 29 most of the week. At that temp, you can virtually stand there and watch them grow LOL.

Snap, LOL.

No weeding or digging certainly makes AP very appealing.

Nova

I think I have already blown the budget without buying a 3000 litre sump tank too LOL

600 gms!!!
How many fish is that you are feeding then?

about 230

As my system proves url=http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=43&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=345]here[/url]- I am a big fan of the 1 pump system with water pumping from sump to fish tank and then gravity feeding from tank to grow-bed and grow-bed to sump.

I credit MF with bringing my attention to this method - however it is essentially the way that many tank based recirculating aquaculture sytems work (through use of a venturi drain). I reckon there is a lot more that we can potentially learn from peope experienced in recirculating aquaculture. While there are a lot of people here with some hydro experience, there seems to be few with commercial aquaculture experience. I would encourage those that do have this experience to feel free to share more of their experiences :-).