Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi guys. After trying an simple IBC system I am trying my luck on a much larger scale. To be honest I think it's too soon for me to be attempting such a large system so I'm going to build it in fazes.

It's going to be a completely hidden system. I'm building it at my parents place and I want it to blend in 100% with the natural environment. So the goal is to have the system working with nothing showing but the reflection of the water in the fish tanks and the plants growing from the GB.

I am posting so I can maybe get some feedback from you guys and avoid any problems that you may have come across.

From the plan below you can see the fish tanks on the right. They will be 5m long x 1m wide x 1m deep. They will be dug into the ground. On the Left will be the grow beds which will be blue barrels cut in half (length wise) and raised from the ground with the soil obtained from digging the fish tanks.




The dig started yesterday with a JCB digger. We needed to straighten out the land before we got started as there was a 0.5m height difference between the 1st Fish tank and the last one.



Digging of the Fish tanks. We almost hit the power supply for the house in the 2nd fish tank.



I'll keep posting my progress.

Andy

Crieky mate, are you going to feed your whole country with that system.

What fish are available in your part of the world.

hi freddie,

I think It's big but it may take a while to finish, I could do 3-4 fish tanks and then do a few more. They don't have to be done all together cos its modular. But i had the digger so I though, let me dig a few FT for now.

I can get tilapia and craw fish. I havent done much research into any other fish but it seams there are plenty.

A couple of tings come to mind, firstly, why use barrels instead of IBC growbeds? You get far more growing space and it costs heaps less in all the plumbing. Secondly, how are you going to stop rain run off from entering your tanks? Also, is there a reason go 5 x tanks instead of 1? You could segregate the tanks for different fish sizes/species and you could save yourself having 5 pumps or 5 overflows to check...

I can't find any IBC's mate. cyprus is a small island with huge water problems, when people see and IBC they take it and find 100+ usses for it that usually have to do with storing an extra bit of water. I can find barrels easily and they are cheap.


I will build a small wall around each fish tank it will hold the lining and keep water, dirt etc away from the fish. The wall will be around 40cm tall.


The main reason is to make the system modular and easy to maintain. I can shut off of one tank and repair it if i want to. Also I don't plan to buy thousands of fish to get the whole system cycling, i will do this in stages. Might take 6-12 months maybe more. I won't get 5 pumps, i have 1 big powerful pump which will pump from the last fish tank and all the fish tanks will be connected. I will have a system where I will alternate which fish tank to pump from and switch it manually every couple of weeks. That way it will pump from FT#1 then FT#2 then FT#3 etc. Also, I can use some of the FT for other uses like water crest or fingerlings, or cray fish.

Mega system there Andy

I wish you the best of luck. Take it slow and learn as much as you can. Take into consideration power and water usage.

Out of interest... Are you Lebanese, Egyptian or Turkish??..... Your right in the middle of it!

Thanks Charlie,

I am Greek-Cypriot. Cyprus is a small island in the med a few miles away from Asia, Africa and Europe. Mediterranean literally means the middle of the world.

Good stuff mate. It certainly is going to be a big system. I like it

You guys inspired me, haven't been on any other forum.

I registered for another forum, saw some bad advice and never went back.

This is the best forum on the net for AP by a long shot

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I'm not quite understanding how you will be able to cut off one tank if you want. Seems like from your diagram that they are linked in series so if you cut off one tank you are breaking the chain. Makes more sense to me if they are in parallel. Am I missing something? .

Thats some impressive earth works Andy

Sure is nice earthworks and looking forward to your progress. Just a shame you cant get ibcs but if you cant you cant