Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi all.

Aquaponics rock.

I have posted a total of 5 times since joining the forum last year. I am a serious lurker lol.

We built a system last May in a greenhouse that we converted out of an old horse stable. Not too crazy- one big IBC, a 30"x120"x12" fill and drain bed and a 4'x10'x1' dwc, chist-pist.

We grew lots of lettuce's, peas, spinach and herbs and even strawberries along with random greens. We ate a lot of salad out of the system! I also killed a lot of fish . I have had a rough learning curve to say the least lol.

My first mistake was the choice of material we used to cover the greenhouse. It was very sturdy (10mil) but was not UV stable it turns out. It cooked into flakes of toxic junk in less than four months. Bummer.

Then I overloaded the fish tank with 1-2" goldfish while I was trying to cycle the system. While I was out of town due to an unexpected death, every fish in the system died. I still do not know exactly why. I think either a serious ammonia spike, or toxins due to a bucket handle that I found rusting in the bottom of the sump when I cleaned out, maybe all of the crap that fell into the beds from the disintegrating roof. Oh well.. start over.

Well.. a month or two later and I have hit the reset button! I've ordered and installed a new roof. This one actually made to be a roof! It is white, UV stable, and diffuses a full spectrum of light while blocking some of the heat .

I added a couple of half barrel constantly full gravel beds and a swirl filter, did away with the mechanical filtration and routed the flow of water through the media beds on the way to the raft.

We have been quite cold here in the Sierra's and the system water got down to 40 deg F (about 4.5 C brr) so I added a hack propane heater and have since insulated all exposed lines and wrapped and covered the tank. It is running at 65 deg F (18.5 C). I could go warmer, but am being frugal with the propane.

The 300 gal (1135 liter) fish tank is occupied by some GIANT comet goldfish! 2 of them better than 9" (23 cm) long. A total of 15 fish, the majority are 2 inches or so (5 cm).

I have planted radishes, spinach, several lettuces, broccoli, cauliflower, peas, and a bunch of other stuff I can't think of right now. All from seed and most just broadcast into the gravel.

I added red wigglers and they are everywhere and awesome!

The ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates are all around 0 and ph is at 6.5.

All in all I am very happy! All of the sprouts are sprouting and the plants that are still there from the last round are doing great!

Check it out! I am loving it! I cant wait to post another video in two or three weeks showing all of the growth!


Here is a video that shows the system in a quick tour (sorry about the video quality.I suck at it but love doing it lol):



Here is a little longer video of the same:

Nice ZenDaddy....

Very interesting system. Thanks for sharing it!

hey

good looking system...

is that heating pot stainless steel or aluminum?

if aluminum, you will need to change it out to stainless steel as aluminum will leach
into the acidic aquaponics water

JT

Thank you JT. I will.
That is why I am here.

Where is aluminum a problem to the system? How does it effect the flora and fauna?

Neat!

Inspired by Youtube and finding myself with some extra materials, I made dutch buckets! Now I need tommies and peppers to go in them.

I think my phones camera lens was dirty.. terrible snaps. Oh well, you get the idea.

Everything's looking pretty good. Any new developments?

Nice use of space using the drain pipes to grow NFT pots.. dual purpose drain pipes

do you automate the gas heater somehow, or just manually run it when needed overnight??

Bet that grows some nice peppers and Tommies. I've been wondering if the small feed lines will block, let us know how it goes ZD. You may want to cover the top if you start getting algae growth. Last of all how about posting a pic of your system into the Bucket system thread with a link to this thread

Here's the beginning of the Bucket AP thread - http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=20384&p=436365&hilit=bucket#p436365

Thanks ZD

Hi ZD

Nice system you've got there. Do you get much trouble with the bridge siphons?
I'm sure I read somewhere they can give problems but to tell you the truth they would solve a mess of plumbing
issues and I've thought about using them myself.

I notice in your video of your system you have paint cans near the propane heater.
I don't want to be a safety Nazi but if one of those paint can pops from thermal expansion
you could have a real problem if it sprayed all over the propane heater. Just saying.

Good luck with the system.
I'm gonna subscribe to your thread and I'm looking forward to updates

theres a high chance that tiny pipe would clog with fishwaste

Issues with aluminium possibly causing Alzheimer's disease aside, there is also concern that that the acidic nature of aquaponics water may eat away at the aluminium, see this thread:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4128

If you're concerned about it, seeing your heater is all nicely setup already, if I were you I'd just leave it all in place and simply coat the inside of the aluminium drum with a potable water safe bitumen paint (pond paint). Easy. done.