Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello learned ones, firstly thankyou for this wonderful forum. I have been bitten by the AP bug and most nights lately I have been trolling the internet and this forum.

I am in the process of building a 2 barrell system, 2 halves on top as grow beds with blown clay as the grow media and one underneath as the Fish Tank. I plan to put a bell syphon in one and a loop in the other, just to see how they go!

I need some help in a few areas please...
- Should my plumbing be 12mm, 19mm, or 25mm.
- For this size system what would the suggested pump size be? L/H and Head. ( bearing in mind I may want to add on 2 / 3 NFT,s later.
- Fish, what would be recomended for the tank this size, (~150 L ish ) and how many and what size fish would be needed ? I am in Bendigo Central Vic AU
- For a system this size is the retun water from the syphons sufficient to aerate the tank or is an air stone required ?
- Is there anything else I have left out ?
Many Many Thanks in advance,
Cheers Odo

Lots of questions... Have a look at some of Nat's systems, this might give you a few answers...

Use 13mm Hydro tube and 13mm poly fittings for the plumbing from the pump to GB and pressure by-pass spray bar in FT. Use 15mm PVC for bell siphon standpipe.

The safe fish stocking density is determined by how much wet gravel you have in the system, not the FT water volume.

If you're using a blue barrel cut in half lengthways for the two GB's you'll realistically get about 80L of gravel in each of those. If you keep the water level 40mm or so from the surface of the gravel to avoid algae and evaporation issues, then you effectively have only about 60L of wet gravel in each half, so 120L max wet gravel. In my kids single blue barrel system with about 40L of wet gravel we can run 6-7 x 10-12cm Shubunkins (Goldies) with good plant growth and no trace of Ammonia, so your 120L should be able to sustain 18-20 I'd reckon.

Excellent! Thanks Yabbie, I couldn't find the fish to grow bed ratio, thats good info. I have a load of 13mm and 19 mm poly fittings from other projects. So this weekend I should bowl over the tail ends of existing projects then get into the APs. Thanks again. Cheers Brenden

Earthbound, thanks for your reply, I got a lot of ideas from Nat, but couldn't answer those questions. Cheers Brenden

Odo,

Check out my build thread in my signature. I run a 2500 gallon per hour pump with an aeration bar, I have 33 goldfish in the tank. I am really glad I didn't get a smaller pump as I am now in the process of collecting materials to go much bigger with the system.

dont forget to show us photos when you build it.

a spray bar is not needed the pump Iv used for systems similar to this is about 1500LH you can see pictures of it all in the three barrel system

I agree that a spray bar is not "needed" to run the system but I like the idea of the water having more oxygenation to give me a bigger buffer time with power outages. I could put in an AC/DC air pump but for now I have not needed one.

Started building it today . Where do I find out how to post up photos ?

I think you need to post about 5 times before you can add photo's (not sure actually), but anyways, when you reply post there is the upload attachment section just below where you write your post where you can add an image from a folder on your computer. Make sure you resize your images to 800x600 and save a copy as not to alter your original. 3 images max per post.

OK thanks I'll have a play around with it and see what happens. Cheers Odo

I ususally post pictures from the Tapatalk app so I don't have to mess with resizing pictures.

Hey Guys have made AQUA 1. At this stage it has about 130-140 L in it, 2 grow beds with clay balls and is siphoning every 15-20 mins. I have put in 25 mls of seasol power feed and some plants (no fish, its too close to Christmas and I wont be able to attend it for a few weeks) Anway I noticed the the plants were being pulled down in the center and pushed out of the clay balls on the outside. I think it may be because of the siphoning action of the balls going up and down. Looking for ideas on how to keep the plants in the same place.
Thanks for your thoughts Cheers Odo

Well I think I have worked out the photo thing, so I am posting a pic of AQUA 1
Cheers ODO

Wow, thats really cool, odo. Great workmanship.

What fish do you have?