Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Here is system number 2. Fish tank is an old fridge found at our B store (the station tip). the blue barrells have autosyphons on them. Takes about 8 minutes to drain and 17 to fill. I have the pump on a timer. How many cycles should I be doing a day to help the bacteria to start working ?

Hi Chrissy

How have you plumbed in the fridge?

Stuart

We've just plonked a pond pump in it and run some dripper hose up to the grow beds. We'll add yabbies tomorrow.

Chrissy

chrissy, the more the water flows thru the gravel the better so keep the pump running continuously if you can

the 'kiss' principle in full flight,
I love it

Yep, like Monya says, better to run the water through the beds rather than drip Chrissy, if at all possible...

with wide spread if possible

We've fitted autosyphons so it's flooding and draining. The dripper hose runs up the middle of the GB and is pierced on both sides so the water squirts out over the top of the GB. I have set the timer for 12 cycles per 24 hours. The gravel seems to be staying wet. We only went with the timer to save on power consumption but it doesn't use much anyway so I guess we are better off to ditch the timer for now and just run continually?

Should we still use the autosyphons while we are trying to get the bacteria to come and live in our GB?

Chrissy

yes and yes, Chrissy. Nice job.

cool, F&D will work every time

Thanks guys,
I removed the timer and also the dripper pipe going into the bed so the water flow is quicker now. Having a few teething problems with autosyphons but think they are improving now the flow is greater.
Added 7 yabbies this morning, that left 6 in our tiny tub!

Ammonia seems to fluctuate a bit in there,(system 1 that is) it's been going for about 3 weeks now, ammonia was 0.5 nitrates and nitrites were 0 5 days ago but now ammonia is 4. Did a half water change to keep the yabbies going. PH is fluctuating between 7.8 and 8.
I'm only feeding the yabbies a little tomato, carrot peel and lettuce every now and then. Does all that sound OK?

Chrissy

How do they go on the tomato?

They love them, the tomatoe scraps float on the surface, then the yabbies dart up and drag them to the bottom, they don't eat the core though, it ends up floating on the top looking very ragged.

We're not feeding them much else though so maybe their just hungry?

One other thing, if you can have your supply pipe distribute water just under the surface, you might lose less to evaporation. If you are in the desert, that's got to be an issue. I think Steve is the one that is a proponent of keeping the water off the surface. (Fill just below the gravel, fill from just below the gravel area.)

Also may want to cover the tank to reduce evaporation some.

correct, however i've got my hose pumping water straight onto the top of the growbed but only in one location (it works and i'm lazy) I have notice that when i moce the hose to give it a wider flow my evaporative losses are bigger, from this i would say that a distribution grid above gravel would have huge losses.