Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Found a stack of old photos on my hard drive, a few of these will be up in the forum somewhere, but a lot won't thought I'd revisit some of the early days..

This was one of the first aquaponics get togethers back in 2006 out the back of my place..

Setting up a little demo unit in 2005..

Setting up Fayes system in 2007..



Realizing that one support on the frames just wasn't enough...



This first system took a while to sort out...

First moved into the shop in October 2007, that means we've started our 7th year here now.. Things were a bit different back then..

These were the days before we galvanized the stands, you could paint them to whatever colour you preferred. It was good to get all this stuff out of my carport and off the front lawn.



We didn't have an office back in those days.



After planting up the gardens around the shop it was time to build demonstration systems..



Somehow we've managed to keep the same glass lolly jar on the shelf for all these years, even with all the kids man handling it..



This old girl served us well for many years, I think she was about as old as I am and we ended up selling her last year to a guy that makes cannons..

Tomorrow we'll look at the ferocious beast in a pit..



And a simple method for distributing water to 8 grow beds.

Great stuff! Sometimes a trip down memory lane is what's in order.
I hope to have some memory pix to post in the next few years.

How did those galvanized cut up storm drains work out? Or were they coated inside with pond liners?

I especially liked the green house. I'm thinking of something similar on laying the floor out. I may use some washed stones and some local dirt to throw on top to make it look like it came from the local environment. Looks like about a 500 gal tank and a 200 gal res you had in there. How many fish did you have in them and did they only supply nutrients to the greenhouse GB's?

Yes, they are custom made and the steel is called aquaplate, it has a plastic lining bonded to one side of the steel. Fayes system has lots of details here.. viewtopic.php?f=18&t=1622 Well worth checking out.... Probably one of the best documented system over the longest period of time.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane Joel, great to see how it all started

An small BYAP get together in 2007, points for anyone who knows who's house this is (forum member).

Hmmm, guys standing around drinking, watching the women work in a mucky pond... Surely not normal behavior....



BBQ trout and silver perch has to be eaten at a BYAP get together..

First commercial BYAP install ever, early 2007.. This was a real learning experience. Stuart (Monya) was over in Perth from Adelaide so he helped out with the install on the day. Come on, they don't look lost standing there do they?



Came out ok at the end of the day though, even though we lost money on it and it took the whole day, that's what happens with your first one. Now a days this size system would be installed in half a day with no complications.

How effective was the water distribution bucket?

Good stuff! Having never been to Australia, I can only venture a guess. But I am betting it is Faye's house.

Bucket distribution worked well.. One was an inlet from the pump, the others were all outlets. I screwed risers into each hole, except the input one, the input had a couple of elbows on it to point the flow downwards and even the surface disturbance a bit. Then you can adjust the flow to each bed by either screwing up or down the riser, adjusting it's height. I think for memory I may have cut the cops of the risers off at a 45 degree angle.

No not Fayes house...

Tony from West Oz...

Thanks for the pics, kinda cool to look at the birth of BYAP.

Here's what not to do when you run out of flour...

Yes, that is a bottle of dry pancake mix... Yes I did try to use it instead of flour to dust the fish before crumbing them... And yes that is a bottle of vodka in the background.



Looks good.



But tasted a bit sweet....

I blame Stuart (Monya) he prepared the fish before I got to them...