Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

After moving into the new house I've just about set up my new system;









FYI I've deliberately put the IBCs on an angle to catch most of the solids in the front corner

I just need to tweak up the RFF, although I've been thinking of making a filter from the blue barrel; using shade cloth to hold 100l of hydroton in the top half, a curved bottom with a tap to dump solids. Work in progress thought I might share

Thanks for sharing Belleye

you've been around for awhile Rup what do you think about the design/layout?

Not sure I'm following the flow...

Could you explain the flow... dual SLO's... balanced?...

And what's the flow to/fro the white RFF?

But nice and neat generally...

Both tanks will have water pumped from the sump below into them, were the water will flow out the bottom taps of the IBCs the top overflows are in case there is a blockage or if the surface becomes oily/dirty where I'll be able to skim it off by shutting the lower valves off.

The RFF (although I'm thinking of redoing it) controls the height of the water in the IBCs, a 40mm inlet passes through the bottom of the bucket and another 40mm pipe passing through the bottom acts like a stand pipe drains to the external grow beds.

Thanks for the compliment being space poor has made us focus on the aesthetics - Maybe in a few years I'll be able to head out the bush again.

Humm... a thought...

Make an RFF out of the blue barrel.. feed the RFF from both bottom IBC taps... outlet to your grow beds...

(You might need to raise the blue barrel a bit... to set your height in the fish tank...)

Use the white bucket for perhaps a small moving bed kaldnes filter... (plumbed to the RFF.. return to sump)

With a few taps here and there... you could then isolate either, or both IBC's... and just run them within their own RAS cycle if need be...

Thanks Rup I like your thinking, had never heard of kaldnes filters before.

Looks good belleye, good to see you get your next system underways.

Thanks Charlie

A bit of an update.

Built a larger swirl filter;



System has fully cycled and plants are growing quite fast;





Picked up 6 advanced barra fingerlings yesterday (120mm) and will get some more fingerlings this week (60mm) will see which has the best growth

Well things are progressing well;

The advanced barra's are looking very tasty, the other fingerlings didn't perform so well unfortunately with most of them dying. I've since bought 10 Silvers which I reckon have doubled in size in the last month. Scored about 15 yabbies from down south which are doing really well in the sump.

Cherries

Cherry Toms by belleye, on Flickr

Found the issue behind the lack of nutrients in the system;

Mint Monster by belleye, on Flickr


Mint Monster 2 by belleye, on Flickr

And I interrupted these guys eating some lupins.



I've been bypassing the fish tanks at night and then cycling them when the sump tank temp is above 21C. I've seen the sump get down to 19C and my FT will be sitting at a cozy 22C hopefully this will add up to extra grams come Easter

I might have to buy another pump and connect it to my Arduino to automate the process.

Love the yabbie vid mate. That water quality is pristine! Whats your secret?

nothing special it's a CHIFT PIST with a swirl filter although maybe the fish tanks and the sump tank being in the shed with limited sun light attributes to less algal contamination? Glad you liked it

Well the weather has prevented me from playing outdoors, and my thread is long over due for an update:

WP_20140514_003 by belleye, on Flickr

Got rid of the windows 95 screensaver.

WP_20140617_002 by belleye, on Flickr

And built a vacuum for quick cleaning of the tanks

WP_20140617_003 by belleye, on Flickr
WP_20140617_004 by belleye, on Flickr
WP_20140617_005 by belleye, on Flickr

The trout went off their feed for a bit with the water temps dropping below 11C, picked up a cheap timer for $9 and only running during the day has lifted temps above 12C, I guess come spring I'll reverse it to keep things cool. 1 advantage of having two pumps in the sump .

I've been doing the usual dosing with eco rose, seasol and rock phosphate (no issues with algae with the tanks in the shed) once a fortnight.

Angling the tanks was a big fail with the solids still gathering in all the corners. Come summer I might mount some net pots on the side of the shed.

Nice system. The aesthetics are nice
Your SLO from the tanks which T's off - do you problems with solids in this pipe? I would think the flow would go up and get swished around the top part of that pipe before going off sideways - but I like the idea of the overflow connected to this pipe - saves pipework and space.