Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

This was what I worked on today. Just getting a feel of it, nothing is perm. mounted or plumbed. Next week I will tie the system into the IBC totes and get water flowing. Then I will work on a filter. I only have 2 gold fish right now. Wanted to make sure I can keep them alive before going all in.

OK, this is a 12' by 10' metal shed. We are going to remove the tin roofing and install translucent green-house roof and see how that works. If I need more sun I will start removing the tin on the walls and install translucent panels on the walls as well. Just playing around with our ideas right now. Nothing is in stone.

I finally have water cycling the system and aerators running. I also have algae eaters and gold fish in each tank (without killing them) for 1 week now. Water is crystal clear and with test, everything is right on the money.

As you can see from the pictures, the idea is hooking all four IBC’s together with their drain valve. I used 2” PVC and hooked them together. I have 1 small pump cycling the water today. My plans are to upgrade the pump when I get some fish in the system, but not today while I am tweaking it and building it out.

OK, so today I have the PVC plumbed up. Filled up my aquarium that we plan of growing duckweed and a few crawfish in, used it to flush the PVC system out. Successfully, no leaks.

Next weekend we are going to hook the fish tanks to the PVC system, go from PVC to sump tank, from sump to fish tank. We are going to cycle/mock run the system for several weeks before we add a filter. We will add a filter, run several more weeks and then add some fish to the mix.

Also, we added a hinged net system around the in ground grow beds to help keep out the wildlife.

Right now we have the fish tanks cycling amongst themselves just to keep the water moving and not stagnant.

Love the hinged garden net. What a great idea.

I think you will definitely need a filter before the NFT as all the fish muck will accumulate on the roots otherwise.

The video of the heater does not work, but what sort of heating were you looking at? I like the idea of a black piping going through a large compost heap. (compost heating).

Absolutely. I am just undecided on what type of filter/filtration system to use.

So we added solar panels today. Have a wind turbine to install, just not going to get around to it this weekend.

Lots of shade around, do you ever get full sun on them? Some panels depending on make stop producing completely with partly shade. I had to discover that on my panel (soon to be extended and relocated to an even better location).

Cheers

Well, the day I took that picture (yesterday) it was cloudy and rainy. Where I have the panels, is in direct sun light for the better part of the day.

However, I haven't put a meter on those panels to see at what point they drop off, I am sure they do as they are the cheaper panels.



I used these same panels out in the field to power up devices on cell towers and they have worked marvelous so far. We have wind turbine as well, with 3 deep cell batteries and I have never been down in several years. I was going to take the same design for my stuff in the field and give it a whirl here at home. Problem is, I just don't know how many more pumps, etc. I am going to be installing for the aquaponics system. So for now, this is just a backup if the power goes out.

I am struggling with figuring out where to put a filter to get all the solids out. How I have the system setup (physically) is limiting I think.

OK, so we have water circulating from the tanks...through the 4" pipe, to a sump tank, from the sump tank back to the fish tanks.

We upgraded from (2) ECO 396 pumps to (1) 1500 GPH water pump from the tanks to the PVC pipe and from the sump tank we have a Eco 1056 water pump back to the fish tanks.

Now that water is completely cycling the system, water levels (Ph, etc.) are perfect we have some tilapia on order.

I still have not figured out a filtration system, but that is next.