Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

One of the standard BYAP kit systems uses a 3000L tank... and 6 x grow beds... 2mtrx1mtrx300mm... timed flood & drain...

Does require utilising a sump (1000L), and a second pump... but the draw down on the fish tank isn't too significant... as the beds begin draining immediately.. even when the timed pump begins... and the float activated sump pump sends the water back to the fish tank pretty quickly...

Here's an installation based on that design... (fish tanks in seperate shed)... (dual systems actually)

viewtopic.php?p=294206#p294206

+1 for Rupert..

One thing.. I'm not sure if the Carp are jumper's But that will have to be an indicator of the depth of the fish tank...


Juergen

Or in the case of tank draw down.... their ability as high jumpers....

Wow, thanks for the input guys. I should have probably asked the question specifying that I want to stay with the same simple design of flood and drain. I think it might be a bit too soon for me to have a more complicated system, I will most probably do it in the future, aquaponics has grown on me long before I managed to have time to start, so It'll happen eventually. For the time being I'll stick to 3 GBs if I manage to get this new deal done, just to be on the safe side.

Hola 3dog!

Your system looks very neat from that sketch.
As you said you are buying the FT and the GBs, the commercial fiberglass ones, and according to your measurements the GBs will be more or less the same volume as a half cut IBC. I wonder why you have chosen not to use IBCs since they are very easy to find second handed here in Spain and they are a lot cheaper. I haven't touched the fiberglass ones but I guess they are stronger and they give more stability and durability. For now I'm going the cheaper way . Even if my current first tryout system ends well my next plan for scaling will be buying a PVC and liner pool for a bigger FT, they are a lot cheaper than a fiberglass tank and there are a lot second handed too, specially after the summer.

Hello everyone, after a long delay (moving to a different area included) I've managed to finally build my system.

I'm posting some pics and I'll do some explaining on the go.

More pics. Apparently I can only post 3 pics in one message.

Last pic. There are more things I'd like to talk about but I'll maybe space them out so I don't spam too much, not sure about the customs around here just yet.

I'll be happy to hear what you think guys!

Wow, 100 fish that size straight into a new system, will it not cause problems?

What kind of problems?
I've had other carps in ponds with much higher densities with little to no care and not once a fish died, on the contrary they reproduced in high numbers throughout the years.


I forgot to say they're about 5 cm long, they might look bigger on picture.

Carp are bullet proof.... trust me, Ive shot one before and it got up, punched me in the face and stole my cat. Strange creatures.

p.s. Sweet FT man! Looking forward to this one.

Pictures of your system is never considered spam. Post as many of those that you like. Spam is super obvious when we get it, and rest assured, you are not spamming.

They look a lot bigger, they look about 15cm ish compared to the hand but that could be the magnifying effect of the plastic bag

Some updates, pictures and further explaining of my system. I feel I'm not structuring the post as I should, but oh well ^^

So a little talk about pH, ammonia, etc...

I used tap water for the system, which is about 7.5-8 pH, I filled up the system, added the expanded clay and let the chlorine evaporate for 3 days, cycling the system with the pump.

On day 3 the pH had gone up to 8.2, which is weird, I thought one of the good things about the clay is that is doesn't rise the pH. Am I wrong in thinking that? In any case mine did raise it, I cannot think of any other thing that could cause it, as there was nothing else in there.

On that day 3, I added the 100 mirror carps, they were 5-8 cm long.

I thought it'd take a while for the nitrification system to fully work, but oh boy was I wrong! So I didn't test the water for the first 2 days after adding the fish thinking there wouldn't be much of a change apart from ammonia build up.

The third day I tested the water and nothing seemed to have changed, I tested ammonia: 0 ppm; Nitrite 0 ppm; Nitrates 80 ppm!

I couldn't believe the bacteria worked so fast, there was no ammonia, no nitrites and lots of nitrates, which to the extent of my knowledge means that all ammonia was converted to nitrites and then to nitrates.
I've always read how it usually takes weeks for all this to start, so yeah, I don't really complain

So as I saw that amount of nitrates I rushed to buy some saplings and I've had them planted since then, about a week.

Changes for the last week are ph 8 down from 8.2, again it seems to go down faster than I expected. And nitrates 40 ppm down from 80 ppm, so I guess the saplings did intake some of those nitrates. Ammonia and nitrites seem to be 0 ppm all the time, which should mean the nitrification process works well. Please anyone correct me if I'm wrong in thinking that.

I've been trying to find some feed for the carps, I have a contact for it but I think she's on holidays as I don't get any answers. Meanwhile I'm feeding them with bread, spaghetti and water lentils, I've had gold fish reproduce like rabbits on a sole diet of bread, spaghetti and insects so I know these species do well on that and I'm not too worried if the proper carp feed doesn't arrive too soon.



Finally I'll show you some pics of the saplings, water lentils and a black soldier fly caught in the middle of the night, which I'm trying to get them to reproduce to use the larvae as food, eventually allowing me to go off the commercial feed as much as I can.

Pic wouldn't fit in previous post.