Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Ah the old feed and forget stage, nice stage it is.

Feed and forget or forget to feed. At least the goldies can munch on algae since I never fashioned up a lid for the tank.
Off to visit the in laws this weekend and, as I am wont to do, stopped at the local pet store. Found a pump for my aquarium on the clearance rack for half price. Now the one intended for the strawberry towers can go back to the AP system.

Nothing new to report. It just chugs along. Harvested some cherry tomatoes earlier this year and the green onions have become self planting.

Rad system mate, just finished reading the whole thread which is rare for my low attention span.
love the idea and I think ill try one when I start my second system.

Thanks for the kind words. It really is a simple setup. The only thing I would change is to put both grow beds next to the fish tank in an L-shape. As it is the far grow bed doesn't seem to get as many nutrients. Just observing plant growth.
I would also use some real bulkhead fittings and plumb the airlifts through to the grow beds below the water line to get more flow.

I am in the planning stages of my second airlift system, Jimbo i am trying to figure out drag through the media which will affect the levels i finalise everything at,any observations from your system ?

Dasboot, I don't observe drag through the media in any measurable way. The only issue I have is algae and root buildup at the grow bed inflows. I have to clean them out frequently when the weather is warm and the nutrients are flowing(especially if there is a tomato plant in there). If I was starting over, I'd setup my inflows similar to my grow bed drains with the large vertical pipes for access. But, with the inflow pipe coming into the side straight from the airlift.

Nice build there Jimbo.

Just a small question on your airlift:

Do you have slits cut in the bottom of the bell or does it just sit on the bottom of the IBC? If so, where does the water enter from?

The bell bottom of the airlift rests just above the bottom of the tank and has a piece of plastic mesh attached to keep fish out.

Very inspiring post.
I have been asked to build an AP system for someone who has 2 IBC's and wanted 2 Growbeds and 1 Fishtank, so I did a search on the forum, to get some inspiration and voila, I found this!
Truly love this design and the idea of the airlift.
Thanks for sharing Jimbo!

I'm glad it helped. I would recommend using bulkhead or uniseals to run the pipes between tanks. I could run the water level a little higher and add more gravel if it wasn't for leaks.
The system is currently dormant because we moved recently. However, I have permission to set it up at my kids school!

I buried a PVC "T" the width of the grow bed as my in flow, and dropped a couple of yabbies in. I haven't seen them again, but there is no longer a problem with roots.

I did the same on the exit pipe but found the yabbies in my fishtank. There are a few roots at that end, but I think the nutrient rich end is always going to attract roots, but that end is an easy one to keep a yabby or two in.

how did the charcoal go in your grow towers ?

I have never thought about using that , and were constantly burning tree's here ..

Currently using filtration media that costs $100 per 1x2m 40mm thick sheet

which would be around 5x 2m 90mm towers

surly it would gain heaps of weight when the system wets them ?

might use charcoal for the grow beds how ever any PH issues ?