Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

1 school term on and its holiday mode again.

Have changed the pump to a sump pump and re pluming the fittings.

Found a part at the local farm supplies that fits the IBC thread - have connected both sumps with a hose.

Now I just need to get it plumped, rocks, water, bacteria, fish
Oh and I have some miniorb which I'll put vertically up the sump/growbed and then top it with jarrah decking.

All finished minus the rocks and fish and some wooden edging.

Finished the plumbing - went with an external blue barrel and sumbersible pump in it (easy to service) which is plumbed into the other 2 sumps.
The return to sump tap is on about 2/3rds so that the speed of the fish tank filling doesn't overflow, also because the pump is in a small sump the other sumps only feed in 40mm pipe and the pump sucks dry if the tap is not on 2/3rds.

Peaceful trickling sound when pump is off.

Here are some pics

Might have to make the 40mm ibc sump to Blue barrel sump bigger, the pump sucks really hard and empties the blue barrel quickly, Or I could just fit another connection

YAY!


Still washing some dust off the scoria for this growbed.


I've got more than I need - perhaps some blue barrels


The water is brown - will this become clearer with cycling? or do I have to connect a hose up and empty it out on the garden?

Looks good. The water will clear in time

Thanks to you Mantis

I've put some kang kong (water spinach) in that had out grown its pots - is this okay to add plants?

Should I add some seasol or charlie carp?

You can cycle it either fishlessly with Charlie carp or with fish, but if I was you I would do it with the Charlie carp then get some trout in a month or so from Ballarat or Central Vic native fish

I've put some charlie carp and seasol in - a few splashes straight out of the bottles.

Amazingly the water spinach has picked up this evening and is not drooping.

Am I able to get goldfish just to keep the kids happy? or would they not like the charlie carp and dirty water?

Also I have the time to install some more beds - I have heaps of blue barrels.

Any idea of how to setup blue barrels ? How many would my system be able to handle?

In this setup, with the return to sump tap pipe, what could I utilize this with? i.e a filter?

No fish yet until the ammonia and nitrite drop to zero. Or you could drain all the water to help flush out the muck from the scoria , replace the water and let it sit running for a day then add some goldfish.
Blue barrels can be cut in half length ways or through the middle to make two big pots. Lengthways gives you the biggest surface area for planting but the pots are good for large things like dwarf fruit trees etc
If cut lengthways the sides need bracing of some sort to stop them bulging out. Timber frames are often used for this

Check out Dons system for lots of ideas with blue barrels

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=9505

Also Nats systems

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=10908

Cool. Don's system is massively awesome, jealous.
I've seen nats one - very cool fish tank.
I have heaps of barrels cut circle pots which I could convert.

Should the beds empty within the 45mins off pump time?

Looks great dude.


The 15 on 45 off is just another guideline thrown around. Its very flexible.