Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I wanted to test the waters in aquaponics (pardon the pun) so I made a single barrel fish poop garden over the weekend. The green mesh is to grow climbing crop like tomatoes or beans from the bed down. I have added a log with a plant and 6 guppies into the system to get the nitrogen cycle established, they were still alive this morning despite the water being a fair bit colder than there heated tank inside. I will add some more in a couple of days if these ones hold out. I have planted some lettuce seedlings to add to the system maybe as early as next weekend.

In total the fully installed system has cost me $140 including some extra fittings I bought to play with the siphon and didn’t use in the end. Overall it went relatively seamlessly, the only thing I had to rework was the outlet piping diameter to create more back pressure so I could lower to pump flow rate and increase the cycle time to 4 cycles per hour, because of this there is an extra reducing fitting either side of the grow bed that wouldn’t be required on further builds. I also found that using a reducing fitting to increase the pipe diameter on the top of the siphon helps get it started a lot quicker.

Welcome Daniel, you even got pics uploaded on your first post. Nice!

More pics

The standpipe in this picture has been replaced with the 15mm one in the following pic

Last pic for now

Thanks Charlie,

I'm looking forward to seeing the lettuce growth once the system is properly up and running.

Is it ok to feed the guppies regular tropical fish food flakes and eat the lettuce?
Must of the aquaponics food I see is too big for guppies to eat, I think 1.8mm would be ok but the fry wouldn't be able to eat it, any thoughts?

Thanks Daniel

Nice little system mate, what sort of guppies do you grow ?

Thanks Blind Freddie,
They are just the standard fancy guppies you get at aquarium stores only with years of inbreeding they have become quite plain looking.

That has got to be the most symmetrical guard I've ever seen
Do you have a milling machine?

Thanks HairyCamel, I do have a hobby milling machine but the guard is marked out and drilled with a battery drill. I warped rows of 25mm masking tape up the pipe and found that a piece of 20mm aluminium angle rested parallel with the pipe nicely and used it to mark and space the holes up the pipe.

Very neat looking barrel system.

The pet fish food doesn't have as much nutrients as the aquaponics food. Just crush it up a bit for the smaller fish. It will also be cheaper.

Thanks, I would also like to thank you for your hard work in putting the single barrel build guide online, it was this guide that inspired me to go ahead with the build. I am looking forward to see what other barrel systems you come up with, I have an idea for a one and a half barrel system that I will build when my finance manager approves it.

Daniel,

Looks great. I have just pulled out all my snow peas and beans that were growing hanging over the side of the IBC. Great idea for having the mesh. My only wish, was that I didn't ignor what the plants did over winter and grew rather wild. I had heaps of growth and struggled to get to the tank. Actually, the wife had trouble getting to the clothes line. Snails ended up attacking the plants once they spread out on the ground.

4 plants were giving me 2 punnets per week once they started fruiting. White flowers ended up keeping the cabbage moths away too.

Thanks Dr Bee, I hadn't thought about pests climbing the vines I will try to keep the plants off the ground.

Neat and a perfect system for an school project. I am putting two kids to learn this for their upcoming science fair project. Will update when ready. Thanks for sharing.

That guard looks great. I feel bad now about the stupidly random pattern I did on my one.

Makes me feel I need to get of my rear and start a member thread for my system.