Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Well this is a link to my system viewtopic.php?f=18&t=14429
I had to build the whole thing to fit in my greenhouse which I built specifically for the aquaponics but the size was very limited by the width of the terraces so the green house was only about 2.2m x 6m... tight squeeze if you look at some of my pictures.
because I had limited space i needed to keep the sumps as close together as possible but still have access to where they were connected so my sumps were connected by 20mm polypipe fittings and I added flanges to the sumps which meant drilling into the tanks ( if I had more space I would have done as you said and connected the sumps together with their own existing taps ) I am now going to add another 20mm pipe above the existing ones because it has trouble keeping up with the flow and to reduce the chances of a blockage, I will probably also add ball valves so I can isolate the sumps if needed to empty them or maintenance etc )
Now if you can use Ebay from where you are then maybe you could get something like this to connect them http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/1000L-IBC-Wa ... 2321d44fbe
l though you would need 3 or 4 so i guess it would get a bit pricey.
Do they have any irrigation shops where you are? if they do they would probably have flanges etc like these http://www.reefaquarium.com/2012/aquari ... ng-basics/
Maybe you already know all that though, if you can't get a hold of any of those types of items I imagine it would be possible to connect a large hose between the IBC taps perhaps holding them in place with ring clamps although I would be careful tightening them too much as perhaps the plastic taps would break under the force.. you could maybe insert some kind of ring of PVC inside the tap exit to reniforce it when tightening the ring clamps...maybe

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IBC Greenhouse System http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=14429
Wicking Bed http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=17747

if you dont want problems swtch to constant flow

I had chop 1 and 2, I was worried all the time that my fish had water or that I run the water pump dry

you can run multiple beds without any problems

viewtopic.php?t=12029

Tom77

Thats an awesome looking system and looks like you have made great use of the space you had available. Hopefully ill be able to look at getting more systems up and running in the coming months but we shall see.

So its not been too long (less than a week) since I last complained about the high ph in my system, over the last few days I have been testing my river pebbles to see if they are in fact limestone, to test I jist grabbed a selection of the pebbles and dumped them in a tub full of hydrochloric acid the pebbles bubbled for a few seconds and didnt start again, doing the same with stone I actually know to be lime stone the stone bubbled continuously as the acid ate away the lime, so I am confident its not my stone thats keeping my ph in the low nines, everyone has told me that high ph is normal in any new system specially ones that havent been cycled properly like mine, what worries me is I dont see many people complaining about ph quite as mine sitting in the low nines constantly.

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Update:

Well as things have been getting on my ph has dropped to around 8.4-8.9 and hopefully I will see it drop further in the coming months. One of the problems I was having with my plants was that it was just too hot and the grow bed was getting too much sun and seemed that everything was dying off slowly so as things were dying I replaced with new veg and covered each of the new seedlings I planted with make-shift humidity tents made out of 2ltr drink bottles I had been keeping for use as plant pots etc, with one of those over each seedling and my rubbish makeshift shade cloth cover things seem to be doing better in the grow bed, however I will be doing a better more permanent shade cloth cover over my growbed so that the plants can get full sun in the morning and be protected from the harsh afternoon sun. Will post some new pics once I have got that put up although it could take a while. so watch this space

Great system you are working on there,also from what I can see you have a well set up rangie,at least the back end.

Hey there RoverV8 Always nice to see another rover v8 fan! yeah the system is starting to come right but probably another few months before a start seeing it at its best.

The rangie is my toy racer sadly however my driver and I haven't had the funds to get back in to the off road competitions here of which there are many, I mean just driving down the main roads here can become an off road competition with the way people drive. Currently (and for the last 2 years) we are cutting out old rat chewed wiring and re wiring it to have just what we need to make it go lol.

So Just wanted to give and update on my system.

So far so good, I still haven't found a home for my excess fish sadly as most of my mates in the local AP community are busy with work and haven't been building new systems and I have sadly yet to build myself that big 3 growbed 1000ltr FT system but I will be pushing to offload some of my fish otherwise I might just build myself a nice garden pond and release my excess fish into that.

Other than the over population the fish seem really happy and are feeding very well despite winter having rolled in although my heater isnt keeping up so will just have to start feeding the fish a little bit less for now. We do get plenty of hot days here in winter so they will be hungry and feed like crazy on those days.

I have added a radial flow filter to my system (I know this is most likely not necissary for a system my size but you know what I had the materials and the inclination to build it so why not)

I copied the design used by a chap named Rob Bob on youtube on this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVzNcU8EnwU

its such a simple design and even after a couple of hours it started working a treat. I will post some pictures in due course so those that are interested.

Still having a little trouble with plants getting sunburn but I am still using my pitiful excuse for a shade cloth cover over the AP, I will be building a better covered area soon as I can but with work and a myriad of other responsibilities it is proving difficult to find the time to do the job right.

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Hi Rob,

Am also in Lusaka and looking to start an AP experiment. Please could you give details of how I can contact you. Would love to get some more info before I start.

R

Hey Rob,

Thanks for the tip on the water and bricks. The bricks should work really well.
Meeting up would be great. COntact email, number, location???

R

So Its been just over 4 months since i got started on my current aquaponics system and have a few changes to the system that I have made since my last posting about my system.

First major change is I have emptied out all the stone in my growbed, (if you remember I was using river pebbles)
Basically I had to do this in the end as I was getting really terrible results with plants, at first I thought it might be just nutrient lock out due to my ph being constantly around 8.5, but a nearby friends system has the exact same ph but is getting pretty good results other than a bit of yellowing, (in my system my plants are just slowly dying and wilting constantly).
Anyway eventually i nailed the issue, it was the stone basically becoming solar heaters during the daylight hours and causing the root systems of my plants to rot slowly but surely.

My solution has been to empty out my growbed and place a 3" layer of locally made natural biochar and then a further 3"-4" layer of my old river stones (this turned out to be a mistake but ill explain later), and then a last 3"-4" layer of broken red clay brick which I got from a friend in exchange for 40 or so of the smaller fish in my over stocked tank.

The result has been fantastic a couple of weeks down the line my plants are doing very well and showing fantastic growth, my fish tank water is pretty much crystal clear now partly thanks to my handy filter I added a month or so ago, but mostly thanks to my new improved growbed media.

Sadly my ph is still solid at 8.6 and has been for last week or so, I cant think that it has anything to do with my river stone that is still in the growbed as the friend I mentioned earlier with the same ph as mine has had red clay brick beds from the very beginning and his ph is pretty much identical to mine, however his water came out of the borehole at ph 7.2-7.3 and has risen to 8.6 mine came out of the tap from city mains at 8.2, basically im just pretty much stumped at this point as I have tried a few less harmful ways of dropping ph (e.g white vinegar, lemon juice, small water changes using pre-treated ph 7.0 water that I have stored, and all of those have not really made any difference.

So is my system just being stubborn but will come down given more time? or do I have another problem that I have overlooked?
Any help would be appreciated.

Just a few photos of my grow bed taken randomly over the last week or so in order from oldest being the first and newest being the last, sadly I cant add more than three photos in one post so ill have to take some more in the coming weeks and give a proper visual progress report.

Thought id add the latest photo of the growbed too just for good measure

Here is a link to some higher quality photos for those of you who want to take a look:

http://s1288.photobucket.com/user/african-rob/library/

Well here is another photo bucket link to the latest photos of my system.
The growth since adding the top layer of broken brick to the system has been spectacular, pretty soon it will actually be properly producing us some decent veggies at a decent pace.
There are a few additions plant wise, I have added and old dying basil bush to the system which now seems to be picking up fairly well as well as having split the bunches of leaks out so they arent all in one place and they now seem to be growing very well.

http://s1288.photobucket.com/user/afric ... 31-07-2013

Hope you all like!