Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Greetings people,

I've been wanting to do this for years now and then opportunity finally kicked me in bum when 7/10ths of a duel IBC system was suddenly decreed no longer interesting by my neighbours kids and needed a new home.

Once I'd collected said un-interesting pile from my grateful neighbour there was some re-designing to be done.

After reading countless threads on this forum and picking a few brains my design consists of the following.


* CHIFT PIST system
* 2 x 700L tanks
* 2 x 150L grow beds, expanded clay media
* 1 X 340L sump
* 4500 LPH pump running 24/7. water flow is restricted by taps to equal the drainage ability.
* BYAP air pumps for each tank

The system is now completed and looks like this.





We have 9 goldfish currently going well and we are 3 weeks into cycling.

The pH is 8.2 but a lack of ammonia is currently my main concern. Humonia is being added as of yesterday so watch this space.



Eventually I'd like to stock one tank with Silver Perch and the other with the Trout/Barra.

All comments from my previous 'general discussion' thread were greatly appreciated but I'd love to get everyone's thoughts who visits this thread so please feel free to post a comment.

Cheers Al.

That's not a valid result for your ammonia test.
Don't know how to get a clear result.

Hi Gene,

I had wondered about that?

It has been clear from the first time I used it. Chemical might be a dud? The date is still valid !?!?

Cheers Al.

Good score getting the system from the neighbour.. by the way with your FTs that full your fish may jump out onto the ground sometimes especially when you move on from the goldfish… I lost 3-4 Jade Perch that way and had to make a bit of a wall above the tank to make them bounce back in

Hi Tom, yeah the water height is concerning so I'll have to do some internal walling as you've suggested and possibly netting on top.

In regards to previous comment regarding Ammonia test I did one this morning using both bottles supplied and they both registered clear. After about half an hour though one did turn a very pale yellow. Sample results below.

Does anyone know if the Ammonia test need time to activate or should I just get a new one?

Yes you may very well have a dud there with the ammonia test kit.. I have had 2 different ammonia kits just like yours there and have never got a clear reading… even after leaving it for only 10 seconds up to half an hour there has always been a colour.

But just to be certain use your kit to test some tap water.. which should return a yellow reading of zero on ammonia

hang on…. I just re-read your post… do I understand correctly that you used ammonia bottle #1 and #2 in 'separate' test tubes? because you are supposed to fill the water in one test tube then apply the correct number of drops from ammonia bottle #1 THEN shake with lid on THEN apply correct number of drops from ammonia bottle #2 THEN shake again with cap on THEN leave for 5 minutes…

Sorry if I am not understanding you correctly but just want to confirm thats is what you are doing?

Where did you get the sump from?

Sorry if I am not understanding you correctly but just want to confirm thats is what you are doing?


Tom ... mate you are totally correct.

I need to read instructions better. We have a reading now, ha ha.




Hi Continuum, regretfully I got it from Bunnings. It's not a bad sump, just a bad company in my view.

cost you a bit for the sump??

I was going to say earlier that the clear reading was missing bottle 2

Yep jay it did. $280 I think. Does the job and suits the location so overall I'm pleased with it.

Having a few algae drama's at the mo. I'll post some photo's tomorrow for comments.

Cheers Al.

OK so an update of the happenings over the last few days.

I was having trouble with the ammonia reading so resorted to adding humonia. At the same time I have this layer of brown/green algae slowly taking over the FT and some in the sump.

I had been advised on another post to remove fish poo from FT so I purchased a venturi action sucking device and fashioned it into a dodgy vacuum. At the same time I thought I'd clean the algae from inside the unstocked FT with the back sponge side of a squeegey. This clouded the water up but a day later it was all settled on the bottom.

I deployed the dodgy vacuum which was fairly random with its removal. It works by attaching a garden hose to one side creating a suction as the hose water passes through the head. I took my time to do a good job but this resulted in my sump dropping to half level.



I then left the system alone for a day.

The next day I did a water test and got some crazy results. pH had gone to 8.4, AM was 0.25, No2 was 0.5, No3 was 5.
No photo cause camera was flat, sorry.

Now I remember from reading other posts that when craziness occurs *DON'T PANIC*

So naturally I paniced ... but I had to go back to work and so did nothing.

Today (2 days later) I test the water and everything has gone back to zero with pH returning to 8-8.2.



I still have the algae in the stocked FT and I'm not sure if I should leave it alone. Both FT's are completely shaded from direct sunlight but the sump gets a bit in the morning. Comments please ???



The fish food I'm using may be why I have little ammonia in the system except for my own. Comments please ??? See next post

Fish food

OK so I've decided the scum in the FT must go. Cleaned it with a squeegee sponge and it certainly went cloudy. Goldfish in there somewhere. Stinks a bit too



The other FT is starting to grow slime again. I checked my rainwater tank and it's also in there which proves the fact this stuff doesn't need sunlight to grow.



It has also had bore water blended in it during last summers drought which would have added a lot of minerals.

I'm considering draining the system completely and starting again with a delivery of town water.

Water tests still show no ammonia activity since I stopped the humonia about a week ago.

Why did you do that? was it green slime or brown slime'?

Yep, should have left it as it was biofilm which is a living organism assisting stabilising your system. Unless your FT is totally blacked out from light it will grow which is totally normal. If you dont like the llook of it you need to totally black out and cover your FT.

You only have 9 goldfish which would be eating very little and now the cooler weather id moving in so that is what your seeing in your test results.

Feed fish as you can and leave it alone walk away and have a few beers. Tinkering, cleaning etc is only going to stress the fish.