Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Found half of the dish dead this morning. I think they got sucked into the pump. They still haven't eaten however. I think I might have too much current for those little fish. When I incorporate the other barrel and 50 gallon tank it will cut that down.

Found one of my had over flowed. I hope my pump is ok. The water was barely above the pump level when I went out to check and the water was not reaching my grow beds.

I lost more than half of my water. Luckily the pump seems to be unaffected.

You seem to be having a bunch of HSM's all at once. Keep at it, you'll figure things out.

Stick with the cheap Goldies for now until you learn the system and what it can/can't do. As for the duckweed tank, you can still use the thing in your setup, just put a barrier in the middle of the tank. It only needs to protrude above and below the surface of the water to keep half of the water still for the duckweed. I'd toss a couple of small Goldies in there as well or you may find a bunch of mosquito wigglers hatched out.

Might want to put in an overflow pipe about an inch or so from the top that drains back to the fish tank.

Keep posting, we'll keep advising. Lots of pics help.

Young men: Nevah, Nevah, Nevah give up. Winston Churchill

Edit: And I wouldn't worry about phosphorus. Your fish food has plenty enough for the plants to eat. If you add phosphorus to your system you take a chance on overdoing things and killing the fish. Small system like this it only takes a dab of this or that to keep things in balance. Worse yet, algae likes phosphorus and you'll get an incredible algae bloom if you add it to the system.

I discovered the cause of the problem. Some of my floating expanded clay got sucked into the siphon and clogged the standpipe. I guess I need a better media guard. And an over flow.

I wasn't prepared for a water change so I had to get a chlorine filter. It's low flow so its going to take a long time to fill. The 4 fish that are left seem to have handled it well.

After my grow bed overflowed again I made a trip to the hardware store. I built a new stand pipe which is less likely to clog and a new media guard which does not float and has smaller holes in it. Slots actually. INstead of drilling a hundred little hole I used my skill saw and cut a bunch of slots around the pipe. They should allow more water through than the holes did while still blocking out the smaller bits of medium. I then used an old solder gun (cleaned) and attempted to tack weld the stand pipe in place. Not sure how well it will hold but it held in place long enough to refill the bed and it seems to be stable.

Hmmm, I studied the first picture you posted and correct me if I'm wrong, but it looks like 1" pipe drain, probably a 1" standpipe with a 2" bell and cap.

Is there just a straight standpipe inside the bell or is it an Afnan type with the top flared out? There may not be enough room inside that 2" bell for the water to drain properly. Are the crenelations at the bottom of the bell large enough to let enough water through?

And the media guard should have slots (or holes) all the way from top to bottom. The more water that can pass through whilst holding back the media, the better the drain will work.

Can you post more pics of the setup?

Sorry about the lack of pictures. I wanted to post videos of how I made it but that got sidelined because I dont want to post any video until I have a working system. I wouldn't want people to try and copy a flawed system and hurt the reputation of the concept.




The original stand pipe was 3/4" which I flared using a heat gun and a bottle. I also choked it down with a zip tie. It worked well at moderate flow rates until it started getting clogged. The 4" sewer pipe I used as a media guard didn't allow much clearance and it also floats making clogs more likely.


I will post more later.

I like using the plastic hardware netting that is sold with the fence stuff at the hardware store. I zip tie it into a cylinder.

The new 6" mediaguard is quite heavy and I tried to plastic weld it in place. The new stand pipe is shorter with a 3/4 to 1" adapter. The threads inside the 1" part seem to give the water a nice swirl as it enters the stand pipe.

The drain pipe is 1 1/4". Ive considered adding a trap to the drains. At this time I dont think its necessary.

The problem with welding or otherwise adhering your media guards to the bottom is that it's nice to give them a twist now and again to shear off the roots that always seem to want to grow down your stand pipes. I've had my beds overflow just from that when I wasn't paying enough attention.

I hadn't thought of that. I suppose cutting off the roots from the inside won't be as effective. I guess I could use an old knife and force it around the outside of the MG. It's something Im going to have watch for in the future I guess.

Just wasted an entire morning adding a trap to the siphon. Was told It will help start the siphon start at low fill rates. What it actually did was prevent my siphon from starting at all even at a high fill rate. I nearly over filled my grow beds again. Whats worse I may have ruined a $300 camera. I was filming my work and the only place I had to put the camera to get the shot was on a tripod standing in the duckweed pond which was already filled with water. The tripod fell over in the water. I put the camera in a bag of quinoa (I don't have rice) to dry after removing the battery. Hopefully the camera comes out ok.

See if someone you know has any of those little bags of silica dry that come in pool salt containers. It's counter-intuitive, but put the bag of silica and the camera (and the battery (and the memory stick)) inside a gallon size Ziploc bag and zip it closed for 24 hrs.