Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

i have being running an aquaponics system since mid last year. i thought i would upload some photos of my system.

my system consists of a grow bed made of recycled corrugated iron, a second hand wheely bin for a side tank where waste collects in the bottom and the pump lives away from the fish and a 1940s/50s cast iron bathtub i got off ebay for 10bucks.

some photos from my system

below are some updated pictures of my system. i have two loganberry plants growing and i expect to get 1-1.5kg of friut over the next month or two. they are also sending out 4-5 thick shoots for next years crop.

when i got yabbies i built a much smaller system. with just yabbies in it. it's a 100L plastic tub i got from bunnings. i built lots of hiding hole for the yabbies.

currently i'm growing rhubarb and i just added strawberries.

i also recently added 2 goldfish to eat mosquitoes. one survived.....

some great growth there!

My mum used to blanch the rhubarb (stick a big bin over it with a hole in the top) to get longer stems. Wonder if its worth trying with AP - my AP rhubarb is like yours - fairly short stems most of the time, but great big leaves

i thought my rhubarb was getting big too. then i saw the stuff at the supermarket to see that the stems are twice as wide so they are going to get a lot bigger i'm growing in a pot too as a comparison.

a list of plants that i am growing:
Rosemary, sage, oregano, strawberries( 3 varieties), cranberry, loganberry -thornless, blackberry -thornless, leaks, parsley, basil, muntries(native berry bush), a avocado & passionfruit

i also have a random tree that self-seeded but i cut it right back cause it was getting a bit too big

my biggest problem at the moment is slugs. so i've being avioding most things that the slugs like almost all veggies

have you tried beer traps?

they are on my to do list. seams like a waste somehow though. what i really want is to set up a frog habitat. frogs eat slugs and other pests.



of course i would like a massive system. my whole "backyard" is 2.9x1.8m in size. otherwise id have several IBCs

You can just use yeast rather than waste beer.

being eating the loganberries. yum yum....

Looks good and wow Ap spuds
Most of what I read said they didn't go well, should I rush out and plant some in the Ap or stick with the tyres

What sort of chill do the logonberries need? Think issue with ap spuds is blocked pipes. Also some debate as to toxicity if growing in tyres.

the spuds were alright however they were a bit slimy. also my growbed is not very deep 130mm or so, they really need 200mm-250mm+ because of the whole light turning them green. i also grow a butternut pumpkin in my system. not now cause of the slug problem. i suppose one could uct the bottom of a bucket and fill it full of aggregate.

as for the loganberries. the water temp min i got was around 4degC during the winter. i live in Victoria Australia. east of Melbourne. they go dormant during the colder weather but don't loose there leaves completely like raspberries but all the fruit is on the second years growth, just like raspberries. i have found that the loganberries in the aquaponics system are 3-4 weeks ahead of the the one (original plant) growing in a pot of soil out front.

next season i might have to make loganberry and apple pies!

systems doing well. taken another picture of the loganberries. very juicy and full flavored

anyone growing raspberries or blackberries?