Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Great work iceman. Those are some solid growbed stands!

they wont be coming down in a hurry!!

Progress!!

Finished off digging in the sump

three beds with stones from old system, and the final growbed is in

the last growbed is full of hydroton and will have mainly root vegetables


the drain... 90mm storm water pipe from the growbeds
(not quite finished, still need to brace it a bit better)


the drain... 90mm storm water pipe under the fish tank to the sump from the growbeds
(not quite finished, still need to brace it a bit better)

the three SLO outlets. the left is a smaller one for a swirl filter and the two larger ones on the right feed the growbeds


the last two growbeds (i took a pic of the first two but it didn't save properly)

started to cycle the system tonight, well one growbed at least. will need to get a trailer full of scoria to fill the remaining three growbeds

well 24hrs on and the small Rio Hyperflow pump is running the constant flow system perfectly, seems to be keeping up well.

if i did decide to run the siphons i'll definitely be upgrading the pump to something with a bit more fire power.

Sys looks great IM.

Ive got the 26HF and its a cracker of a pump.

Cheers Charlie,

the 26 is on the cards, i'd love to add some vertical gardens and if i do i'll use a small 12v solar water heater pump with an amazing head height.

on a side note i think i have decided to get a few tandanus catfish and silvers. i may get some trout just so i can have a harvest this year.

it won't be long until i get working on the electronics to control it all better and with backups etc

Looking good. Are you going to fill up those growbeds

Its a hard one actually. Only 9 weeks till trout season

Id personally consider fish-less cycling with CC and get the system ready for trout time. You'll be growing veg anyways and any SP you get will become dormant as soon as winter hits as well as they will need to be separated. Just my opinion.

Im not sure how cats and trout go together. Probably a size thing Id imagine. Big eat little etc.

yeah i know its very hard.

i'm going fishless for now, will hold the silvers and cats in dads system until i'm ready.
While i have the trout the cats and silvers can sit in the sump and being constant flood the sump is basically always at the same level.

also where we may be getting the natives from they are advanced sizes, approx 5-6" so that will help with some bullying issues

Great looking system IceMan
How many fish will you be stocking it with..

Thanks Rob,

early on i'll have 6 catfish and probably a dozen silver perch but these will all be fingerlings, possibly 5-6". and while they are small i'll probably get 30 or so rainbow or brown trout for over winter.

The trout will be in the main fishtank and the others in the sump, the sump has a constant 500 litres and will house the natives no problems.