Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

So now that I have my first puddle running something along the lines of an aquaponics system, I thought I'd better post it.

I'm using a bath as the FT with about 300 ltrs capacity.
The growbed is about 120 ltrs and filled with cheap chinese expanded clay and sits on top of the bath with an aluminium strut under the front to stop it collapsing.


Fish at this stage are a bunch of paradise fish, and goldfish, which I'm trying to sell off.
The goldfish are caught from my 50,000 ltr pool which will hopefully become part of my 2nd system (I'll start another thread on that one).
There's also a bristlenose catfish in there to control summer algae. He will need to come out before the weather turns cool as he is a tropical fish.


The pump is an Aquapro 1050 from Bunnings.
I'm guessing that at a height of about 50cm I'm still getting about 750 ltrs or more an hour.


Flood and drain for the growbed is achieved by a HPM electricity timer for the pump which allows water to siphon back through the pump via an inline filter which catches broken bits of clay etc before they hit the pump.
The timer is designed to be set up in 15 minute increments which at the moment is set at 15 min on and 30 min off.


The pump pumps water to the bottom of the growbed and "hopefully" depositing any crud in the bottom of the growbed and the overflow pipes take excess water from the top where it will "hopefully" be clean.


Vegetation consists of a bucketful of ornamental grass, some Swiss chard and a bit of mint. I did scatter a packet of cress and a packet of water cress over the top but that isn't doing very well after germinating very rapidly in the beginning.

Looking good there megapuddle.

Any reason for the 15/30 time? Not that it matters, just an unusual number for around here.

How cool is that last pic where all the goldies are lined up in a row.

What I did that seems to work great is my timer to flood the grow beds does so every 2 hours. However, I have a pump timed to constantly pump into a solids filter when the beds aren't being flooded. I know that sort of system isn't popular here since everyone likes redundancies and reducing chances of mechanical failure but it helps ensure the roots get plenty of oxygen.

Does anyone know if the DO (dissolved oxygen) requirements for roots is higher than the fish? It is what I am under the impression of, but now realize that I haven't actually seen proof.

Two things that come to mind. First is that you want to deposit the water someplace accessible. Infer the media is asking for trouble from root intrusion. Second the mint will soon be the only thing in your growbed. It will take over, and then really clog your inlet. I would probably change your arrangement to have the water enter on top, then use a standpipe with a media guard to drain. A small hole at the bottom of the stand pipe ensures that the bed drains when the pump is off.

Simple.. but effective Batty...

And we aren't opposed to external filtration.... especially if the system isn't flood & drining through the grow beds during the night...

And I often change the timer frequency.... to 15/30... during hot summer months....