Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I started with these on my lower deck back in November:



And built a couple beds for my upper deck:

Looks like a great start. I will be following along. Where in Texas are you?

Those look really nice. Considering building some like these. What is the cost per bed if you dont mind asking. Trying to determie if its cheaper than buying a low rubbermaid tote. Also curious as to where in Texas are you

I'm in Bayou Vista, just outside of Galveston. The beds are 3' X 6'. The lumber wasn't all that expensive, and I think I spent around $70 on enough EPDM liner for both of them. They were both going to be media beds, and since they live on my deck I decided to go with LECCA, which was around $400 worth for one bed. Needless to say the second bed became a raft bed.

This is what they looked like late November, early December:

The tank and sump live next to each other. The pump is in the sump and feeds a spray bar back to the tank and goes to the upper deck to feed the beds. Water from the tank goes back to the sump via gravity.



The only requirement from the wife was that it couldn't look like "little Appalachia," so I built a wall in front of the tanks.

Nice... To make roughly one of your beds would cost me around $100 without the media. However if a tank cracks is all out the window, with a liner the only thing that can go is the liner. That and you have freedom to shape it ad you need it. I sound like Im convincing myself Anyways im a few months from starting the build... Just have the tanks and drums... Want to try a few of the zipgrow towers or maybe just get the media and stuff them into a vynil fenxe post, will start a thread when things get going

I was having trouble with solids in my raft bed, so I decided to add a swirl filter. Unfortunately I didn't have any room for one. I finally decided to put it inside my sump tank. I've since re-routed the plumbing so it come in the side of the filter and I've added several sheets of Matala filter media on top that the water raises through before overflowing into the sump.

I built this vertical system. Had some strawberries in it this spring that did very well. Got some flowers in it now. Have about 15 goldfish in the barrel with a pond filter/pump combination. It flows constantly into the vertical pots filled with LECCA.

For what it's worth, I did have some trouble recently with the beds. I used 1 x 2s for the framing that the plywood bottoms sit on. Big mistake. Should have went with 2 x 4s, but wanted them to be as deep as possible. If I had to do it again I think I would have used 2 x 4s with galvanized hangers screwed into the 2 x 12s, and made the whole unit a little taller by adding a row of 2 x 4s along the top (or maybe two rows of 2 x 8s). Sorry for the photo being upside down, but I think you'll get the idea . . .



The crisis was averted by adding some additional 2 x 6 support "legs" in the middle of the plywood.

Nice looking system Jeff, bugger about the breakage there in your bed.. It looks like the wood ripped because there was just the one crew there. If you used something like a joist hanger you would probably be ok..


There are lots of different types you can get...

Yeah, I probably should have used those, but they don't make them for 2 x 2s. If you look close the other 2 x 2 broke in half at the knot. Next time I'll use 2 x 4s and hangers . . .

Here is what my media bed looked like around the beginning of June.

I have the same situation with the GB's on a deck and FT in basement(7' head). It is a challenge to keep it balanced pumping up instead of gravity flow to GB. I am still trying to figure out the best way to add a sump and swirl filter.

I have an Alpine Cyclone 3100 Pond Pump which gives 479 GPM at 15' head. My beds are about 12' above the pump. Probably could have gone with a bigger pump, but overall it puts enough water into the beds. The inlets to the beds and the spray bar to the tank all have ball valves on them so I can somewhat regulate overall flow in the system.

You can always do what I did and put the sump right next to the tank and put the swirl filter in the sump . . .

The best threads always have something break early on... I am sure you can come up with a solution that will impress all of us!