Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi to all.

I thought I would share the progress of my venture into aquaponics.
The system:
IBC cut to give one grow bed and fish tank approx 750 l. Grow bed media - clay balls. Pump capacity litres per hour at 1.2m.

Clay media was washed and drained over tank. Not a good idea as it was impossible to remove all the sediment from the tank. Next set up I will probably get a bucket and drill holes in it and wash media in small lots.

System is a flood /drain using a Bell syphon. Very simple system but hard to get right. I used a 20mm drain tube (left over from making a distribution pipe). I had a lot of problems getting it to break the syphon and stop even using the air break. Had to reduce the flow into the bed. This was done by adding a bypass valve, which can later feed a second grow bed. Syphon action now stops after three burps of air are sucked in. Cycle takes about 7mins to fill and then drain before starting to fill again. This may be too short a time.

I have also placed a pot into the grow bed so that I could see the level to which the fluid was rising before the syphon kicked in. I will remove this so as not to get algae growth.

More to come

Welcome to the forum! Lookin good there. You have the redest brick house I have ever seen

Yea ha Meomia your on your way now mate, good luck.

Its a good idea to cover the sides of the IBC FT or just paint it to keep the sun of it, this will reduce the amount of algae build up and protect the IBC plastic from damaging UV rays

What fish are you going to keep and how many are you planning on stocking the system with ?

Hi all,

Thanks Charlie, and no its not my house it is the neighbors. I hope they enjoy the sound of trickling water. So far no complaints LOL


Blind Freddie, I was too keen to get set up to paint the plastic. Will try when the warmer weather arrives. Have got a thin film of Algae inside the tank.

The fish?

Threw four goldfish in initially just to "test the waters" but that was only for a week.

We have a local hatchery a few km down the road. Normally have a choice of trout or tout (rainbow or brown) but since they had sold out of rainbows it was down to browns. Their stock of 6000 rainbows has been sold for stocking Lake Wendouree so good fishing later in the year.

Only put 10 in the tank. Better a slow start than lose the lot. Three of the goldfish died soon after but one has a good hiding spot.

I think they have doubled in size in six weeks or is that me talking like a fisherman. I am trying to figure out how to weigh one to see how they grow over time. Feeding a handfull of food per day (on checking this varied between 6 and 15g) Water temp has been down to 5 degrees some nights.

Vegetables growing slowly. Not sure if this is due to cold and lots of frosts or not enough nutrients.

Fish +food = fish poo = vegetable food

Could possibly double fish numbers (they sell min of 10) and I think it would be OK in the cold weather. Not sure about later in year as they get bigger and the water gets warmer.

Does anyone have an idea of fish numbers per litre? When I kept aquarium fish there was a guideline of XXX inches of fish per volume ie if fish were 1 inch long you might be able to keep 50 but if they were 5 inches you could only keep 10 This was based on oxygen in the water.