Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Well, it's finally fired up and cycling. I gotta tell ya, after just a smidge of tinkering with the bell siphons, the first time they fire off is almost like the feel of a standing ovation. Feels GOOD! I must have gotten lucky I guess because I didn't adjust them but once and all 4 is working like a charm. Getting them just right was one thing I feared the most in the beginning because I'm new to all this but it's all good now thank the good Lord!

Please take a look at my video below and see how it's setup and if you'd change/add/take away anything.

The real trial with my "E-Z-Clean Dual-Stage Radial Flow Filter®" will come when the fishes get dumped and start dumping. It's working now, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will work like I've dreamed countless nights about how it SHOULD work. We all know that's not the case sometimes.

A big THANKS to everyone on here for your knowledge that's gotten me to this point. I look to go much further with this with continued knowledge from BYAP. Y'all are great.

I'm on the standard measurement system, but I'll try to give both for all you folks outside the US:

1000L (260gal) Fish Tank
1000L (260gal) Sump Tank
4- 300L (~100gal) Growbeds filled with 25cm (~10") of #47 river rock
100L (~30gal) Radial Flow Filter with removable 5gal bucket
1500 gph pump in ST




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Cugov11p5w

Fishless cycling.
Hummonia added on 4.12 and 4.13

4.13.14 readings:

pH 8.0-8.2
Amm 0 - 0.25ppm
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0

Nice job! You did your homework! I would plant it out and dose with Maxicrop w/iron or similar before it gets too hot.

Thanks. Encouragement is much needed.

Maxicrop w/ Iron ordered on Amazon will be here today or tomorrow (hopefully). My seedlings have sprouted good and I have a few more bigger Tomato plants to go in to help out before the seedings leaf out and are ready for planting.

Looks good. You have your EZ Clean RFF. Now just need to get some poo flowing to see how well it works. Some of the sediment in the water might go to there and the sump to settle out. I also like your overflows from the grow beds in case things do happen.

Only advice I have is to turn your camera to the side. Not many people have vertical monitors.

yeah, I noticed I should have held my phone horizontal after I posted as this was my first ever YouTube video. Go figure I'd mess something up on my first go-round. The next ones will be more pleasing to the eyes.

Can't wait to do a trial and error on the RFF to see if it works. I'll post a video after I get some fecal matter flowing and a trial dump.

Chemistry:
4.14.14
pH 8.2
Amm 0.25
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
(good dose of hummonia added after chemistry check. I was about to pop.....)

Great job guitarwes

Got a Nitrite reading yesterday. Pretty stoked. I'm a nerd. Don't lie, you know you were excited when you first got a Nitrite reading when cycling your first system!


This following is just for reference sake.

Date pH Amm Nitrite Nitrate Action after testing

Apr12 Dose of hummonia
Apr13 Dose of hummonia
Apr14 8.2 0.25 0 0 Dose of hummonia
Apr15 8.0 0.50 0 0 Dose of hummonia
Apr16 No test done .5" rain
Apr17 8.0 1.0-2.0 0 0 Dose of hummonia
Apr18 No test done 1-2" of rain
Apr19 8.0 1.0-2.0 0 0 Added 4oz Maxicrop w/ Iron + Dose of hummonia
Apr20 8.0 2.0-4.0 0 0
Apr21 8.0 4.0 0 0 Added ~25gal water after small leak
Apr22 8.0 2.0 0.25 0 Dose of hummonia. .5" rain
Apr23
Apr24
Apr25
Apr26
Apr27
Apr28
Apr29
Apr30

Cutting the IBC's


Figureing out the layout


Growbeds painted and setup (lots of work between the last picture and this one)

Continuation of the last pic.........


Sump dug with the help of my trusty yellow and blue heavy metal friend the previous post pic. Full of water due
to heavy rains before and after digging. Had to bucket water out to get the IBC in.


Sump sunk......

Rocks going in (another humongous job). Washed them in trailer before shoveling them into growbeds.


First bed full of #47 river rock.



Now that I got this picture posting thing figured out I'll take some pics of my plants and monitor the progress.

Thanks for looking.

Your system is coming along nicely, Guitarwes. I particularly like your grow bed set-up and may borrow your design for my next batch of grow beds.

Looks good. Will you fill in the soil round the sump tank? May need boards round the outside of the cage to stop ground water\soil pressure squeezing the inconvenience bladder if so.

Sent from my C6603 using Tapatalk

Also what ratio of water goes round the fish tank loop compared to the grow bed loop? A handy feature to be able to just circulate through either loop if need be, though I guess it does need more pumping overall. Will be good if trying to stop temps falling too much at night to just run the fish tank loop.

Sent from my C6603 using Tapatalk

Do you have plans for the sump? With that much volume, and natural oxygenation you could turn it into another fish tank and add a few more grow beds.