Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi Lee, The Grow beds will have steel stands available that will be made "lay flat" for ease of transport and will easily assemble with 12 same size bolts.

The fish tank will sit directly on the ground.

Regards Murray

Hi Murry,

I'm imagining a stand that is kind of like a low table that will bring the grow beds up to about waist high so you don't have to bend over or something like that?

I've just measured up my available space allocated to me and I reckon I could get a fish tank and two grow beds in. I am excited to get one started and can't wait to see your "glass" tanks Murry.

I haven't been able to to get Joels book yet so this is all new to me but will there be any more tanks needed to make the whole system work or what?
Anyone please feel free to answer.

Lee - I am also yet to read Joel's book (it is on its way to me in the mail as we speak) but have been reading and posting to boards of which Joel is a member long enough to know that if you want to run your system at full capacity (ie maximum number of fish for the capacity tank you have) you want to aim for beds that have twice the capacity as your fish tank (ie a 2:1 ratio of bed to tank). This means that if you are going to operate a 1000l tank (as an example - I do not know what Murray's tanks will hold) you would want beds that in total have a capacity of 2000 litres (huge heh).

On measurements provided, Murray's beds will hold about 600 litres. If you have 2 of them (approx 1200 litres) then you could have a tank of about 600 litres - if wanting to run with maximum numbers of fish. Having said that, I don't think it is necessarilly a good idea for beginners to run at full capacity. If you read the threads related to redundancy (in particular backup power supply) you will get the idea why. Therefore there is no reason why you could not run a good setup with only 2 beds, you just won't be able to have as many fish.

I am in the process of getting a test system going, which will use a 400 litre tank that I aquired recently and 1 of Murray's grow beds. I will be able to run at approx 75% capacity.

I will have to decide whether I get my welder out and try and make my own stand, or just buy one off Murray. I reckon the later sounds pretty attractive - knowing the depth of my welding skills (non-existent).

Hope this helps.

Ooops - that was me (Veggie Boy). Get caught by that loggin problem every time.

Thanks Veggie boy,

I'm up there with you on the welding skills too. I reckon if I could make something like that I would most certainly give it a go, but if there is a kit out there that could be bought and put together with all the bits and peices needed all the better.

Murry will this kit come with a set of instructions and will we need a glossary of swearwords at the back or will the assembly be relatively easy?

I think I should start reading more topics to get a better understanding of all of this.

Thanks again,

Lee

In one of the other threads Murray mentionned something about using 50mm angle to make the stands. I have a tendency to try and make things difficult for myself, so automatically thought that the stuff would need to be welded together. However drilling holes and using bolts is another option

Hi Lee,

Yep, have a read through of the discussions that have been happening here, as well as hgaving a look at the pictures and info on my website http://www.backyardaquaponics.com. This should give you a bit more of a grounding in ideas.

Aquaponics can be very variable depending on what you want from your system, I'm not sure exactly how Murray is going about the designs of his tanks and support structures but I'm sure they will be a very useful tool in designing and building a system..

Have been looking at your website earthbound and it is really exciting to see the results of your systems so far. The plants grow so fast and 9 kg's of tomatoes off one plant is awsome. My family goes through alot of vegies in our groceries, mainly because my wife can't cook meat and won't have any thing to do with it in it's raw form, plus it is so flamin expensive. I'm getting excited just thinking of the possible savings we could make on our food bill in the near future.