Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi colours, just found your thread and have skim read most of it, I feel your pain as we are doing the exact same thing with the same size pool, ours was a salt pool tho. so far our pool isn`t any better than your pool if not worse!, what we have done is cover 75% of the pool with shade cloth, the rest with bird net to keep a cormorant out, had been running water through a swirl filter then into a DIY Bio-filter and back to pool. about 3 weeks ago I took a branch line off the feed pipe from the pump to run into a Foam Fractionator, and last week we took the SF apart and turned it into a sand / aggregate filter with air tube at bottom as mentioned earlier by someone, the water is starting to clear some as we can now see down to the second step LOL, we have 40 SP`s, 30 Bass, 2 goldfish ( initial water safety testers ), 25 mussels and 100+ Glass shrimp.....We think!, well that's what we put in there and haven`t seen any floaters.
Your question about putting scoria into your sand filter is what lead me to your thread, I personally I wouldn`t do it, but would go for the sand /agg barrel filter made from one of those red olive barrels, if you like I can post some pic`s of my set. Oh and also I have read that a pond has to season and go through the different stages of clearing before it will clear out, that's what I`m pinning my hopes on anyhow!.....,LOL,,, Alan.

Geez Alan, wish I had read your post yesterday!!! Hubby and I sat out there for hours with a torch sucking out the sand (we live on acreage and I'm pretty sure the stench killed everything living right to every boundary). Then we scooped scoria into the filter. I backwashed this morning and have run the filter all day today, can't see any change. I backwashed again this arvo and the water coming out was really clear.

I'm not holding much hope for this thing working and it would be more painful than its worth thinking about to remove the scoria through that little hole now. Who suggests this stuff?

My pool is 100% shaded with only a few cracks here and there letting the light in. It has been this way for about 3 weeks I think. I do believe it is very slowly doing something with the algae as the algae is now a very dark green, rather than the fluorescent green it used to be. Maybe cycling is the answer? Maybe it will take a while and as we are slipping deeper into Autumn I'm hoping it will make it all better.

What are you planning to do with your nitrates? I'm torn between putting in a large growbed in my pool area or pumping the water out onto my orchard to water the fruit trees. There is a few thousand dollars between each project. Maybe I will do both lol.

Anyone want to sponsor?

I'm still to check the parameters, was waiting for this major disturbance to happen first.

Ah bugger!, then I wont tell you how to get the sand out in about 5 minutes, sorry!, but rolling the filter on it`s side may make it easier to get the scoria out.

I`d be leaning towards the grow bed idea rather than the pumping the water out to the orchard, the water you use to replenish the pool might start the whole thing over again, with the nitrates in mine, I hope the Foam Fractionator will take care of this as I`m mainly doing the pool thing for the fish but that may change yet, you know how these things go.

enjoy the rain anyhow!

Hi Colours, here a link to the sand/gravel filter I am using, I looked at the ones snowt put up but thought they were a bit over the top for me, it`s in 2 parts and he has another one that shows how to back flush it as well....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNCvWW1hpIA

The scoria might just pan out. Lots of surface area for sticky bioslime.

Pool is looking marginally better, dark green and I can see to 1 st step. Parameters:

pH 7.5
Nitrate 0

Incidentally nitrate same in my AP tank.

Probably would've been better off buying a pool blanket and setting up growbeds. However I'm still hopeful that the shade sails will suffice when I build the growbeds. Trying to think of a cheap option just to use as a trial.

Ronmaggi I think you may be right. I'm seeing some improvement. With nitrates at 0 tho I'm curious to see how any vegies will grow.

We are crazily busy at the mo so what better time to spend the day procrastinating on all the things we really should be doing and make a growbed for our pool. Its small I know but we used stuff we had lying around and will be at least some indication of what will grow.

Avoiding putting in a bell siphon or other we opted for CF. I hope the little splash the water makes on entry will be enough to aerate the water so as not to kill the roots. If only the mint survives, no problem but I need the brassicas for a winter nitrate sequestering plant. Either way its a pretty cool water feature. Be nice to have the dollar to put in a landscaped one but this will do for now.

I think you need to add more scoria, to lower the water level below the media surface, otherwise the wet scoria will become an algae and moss garden.

Yeah I thought so too Gordon but we ran out of scoria (hence the little dividing wall). Might prop up the base a little more to raise it above water level. We could've put a standpipe in but we liked the overflow look. I think the mint will explode faster than the algae until it gets cold but then again my super algae bug knows no boundaries... Wooo

I wonder how well that tree is going to do there.

It's an aquatic hibiscus ronmaggi, supposed to be good up to a depth of 10cm. Didn't do well in the pool but maybe it will be more protected an sunny where it is now.

Well this is pretty cool. My 3 kids enjoying watching 3 frogs that have already taken up residence in the kale farm. Pool is getting clearer. At least 1m deep is clear.

Anyone know what water loving plants will thrive in winter? I've got the kale in but not sure my constant flood is oxygenating enough to keep them happy. The mint will die back, if the parsley survives the wet that will do. Maybe coriander, off to chuck some seeds in now...

Pool nearly clear to the bottom, will post pics when I can see leaves on the floor. Kale not yet dead, actually looks quite good although not much growth yet. parsley growing. My bath is full of plants and I need another bath (like I need another AP project, like I need a hole in the head).

Pool nearly clear to the bottom but can't quite tell cause it's dark green. But when I sweep, I can see lightness at the bottom. The algae that remains is stubborn and difficult to scrub off. I'm contemplating getting a blanket on a roller to exclude all light except for a tiny window to feed fish through and see if that will rid me of the last of the algae. Then I could simply roll back when kids want to swim.

But most if not all blankets let light thru, that's what they're designed to do. So I'm thinking of getting foam from Clark rubber if they have anything suitable. Prob need an air stone if I have rubber floating on the surface.

Any thoughts/concerns/advice?

Kale growing (slowly) as is parsley. Mint has rooted good and proper but no green growth yet. The days are shorter and nights colder.

I bought some aquatic iris for my bathtub filter. Have one more bath tub at my disposal, might put that in action next weekend.