Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Nice to hear from you Freebz. Sorry to hear that you've been having a hard time.

ok time for a long overdue update
have expanded the IBC system to include 2 half blue barrels cut laterally set up as a sort of wicking bed, sorry no construction pics, have converted my raised garden beds to basic wicking beds, lined and half buried a bucket in the sand as my reservoir, got this years wheat and barley crops sown last week, and went on a big killing spree today, got 3 kg of Barra fillets out of 28 fish which I'm rather chuffed with considering I got them at 3 inches long in November... still not gonna do Barra again just too boring, hey just hide.

will post pics when I get there

Hey Freebz, I'm still to start on AP and have a noob question about part of your system.
On page 1 and 2 of this thread there are pics of an IBC system you welded.
I always thought the frame for the GB on top just sat on top of the FT frame but it looks like yours are welded together.
How did you manage to fit the FT in if that's the case???
Looks like a tight squeeze, I'm guessing that the two metal frames are still able to be separated?
Probably a silly question
Cheers

on my IBC the base is screwed on, so just slide in the tank then position on the base and screw them together

Wow that is quite a bit of filletting Freebz. How long did that take? They are not the easiest of fish to fillet I find, what did you think? Good effort.

Ahh, thanks Freebz.
Very nice setup you have btw.

I found them pretty easy pretty much like herring, it's trout I'm scared of... too many bones.
7 hours from start of catching to the last fillets. did a bit of tank maintenance in there too while I had the pump out to break it up a bit. everything sits in there better now so very happy

so we got some rainbows from Gavin a few weeks ago which are going great hitting those pellets from about 5 mins after putting them in.
as promised pics of the additions to the ibc system and our ultra low tech wicking beds.
the barrel beds are a hybrid wicking bed / grow bed they have about 4 inches of expanded clay balls then double thickness of 80% shadesail then brickies sand the water is F&D sort of, max level is 3 inches draining to 1 inch deep

we had raised garden beds that needed some attention so they got dug out to half a meter and lined then filled in with a mostly buried holey bucket wrapped in 2 layers of shade sail in one corner to be our reservoir then drilled a hole at the opposite end and pushed a pen in to be the max fill overflow, seems to be working well after all this rain we have been having...

time for an update

everything has been ticking away pretty well, we lost 3 trout, 1 constipation, 2 nitrite poisoning due to a ph drop, but that was a while ago.

the chilli bushes from last year have started to fruit again


i pulled out this bugger on friday but only got to weighing and pics today, was supposed to get to thumb size anyway after i ate the first few i got over radish so let this one grow for the hell of it.

well pulled my first trout for the season, he came out of tonights feeding frenzy missing a few scales and was upside down after 10 mins so had to pull him. when i gutted him he had internal bleeding so he was definitively stuffed. weighed in at a respectable (for this early anyway) 350g and he was one of my smaller ones.

Hi Freebz!

How do I always miss your posts, dude thats one kick ass raddish!!! Wowsers.

Sorry to hear of the trout fatality but Im sure he will end up in a good place

Hi there Freebz, just had a sticky beak at your thread. Great work.

I really like your hybrid wicking / grow bed idea. How are they holding up??
You said they are F/D, are your levels still 3"' flooding to 1"" drain which is 1"" below your shade clothe?
and are they time based or constant F/D?

Cheers Muzza

the 'wicking' beds are still going strong, have had a problem with roots finding their way through the shade cloth and carrots with square ends, but have managed to germinate and grow seed that i haven't had any success with before. might have to try it with a deeper bed next time.

yep flood height is 3 inches, 1 inch below the cloth seems to work well, i did try it higher but when it got the same height as the sand it ended up making the sand go sloppy more like a mud puddle than a GB, made it easy to pull roots out though.

they are F&D on a timer 30 mins on - 30 mins off just tee'd into the other growbed on the ibc with a swirl filter on the drain back into the tank origionally to catch sand but that proved not to be a problem with the coarse sand after i washed the dust out of it.

Cheers for that, now you got me thinking