Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Brilliant design on that pipe - I love it!!
So you don't have a gravel guard? for root cleaning?

So you have the pump on timed cycle? and it drains back through the pump?

No gravel guard - i figured that should it ever get blocked i might be able to "rod it out" from the top. Has not been necessary yet.

Cool thanks - and what diameter did you use?

It show/hides the pipework the opposite way around to normal

My design sketching is poor - its all in my head

It is 20mm PVC pipe. I wont go smaller - bigger is probably better for this,

I meant the design you have made 'shows' the outlet pipe (which is usually hidden under the growbed).

SO its probably a little neater on the eye.

My Koi picked up a disease - i suspect it is a bacterial infection and i have slowly been losing quite a number of the original population.

I have about 2ppt salt in the system but this doesn't seem to help. The water is circulated between a trout IBC and a silver perch IBC. The trout and SP is healthy.

Water quality is perfect!


The KOI is around 40cm so i am keen to keep them alive. At this length they are more than a $150 each in the shop! It means that my KOI is worth more than the rest of the system put together!


I started salt bathing (20ppt for 20 minutes) individual KOI today based on information from a koi forum.


Not sure if anybody has had success with salt bath treatment for KOI in a aquaponics system? Please let me know.

Here is a picture of one of the KOI that is really sick - lethargic and fins folded, Also have some red/infected spots underneath some of her scales. This is after s/he had a salt bath.

That sucks Gabe - I've not used it before, though have read potassium permanganate mentioned as an extreme treatment strategy - might be worth doing more reading up on that to see if its worth it if high concentration salt baths are not working.

Hi Matty - i lost the big koi in the picture last night (38 cm).

I salt dipped most of the other Koi. If i have more deaths then i will be trying the potassium permanganate dip this weekend!

To challenge any believe that expensive clay pebbles is necessarily better than cheap pea gravel from a garden center.

This picture shows rubarb planted at the same time in two adjacent growbeds. The clay pebble bed is on the left. Both beds are approximately 2 years old. . They are fed the same water and are the same except for the grow media.

Great demonstration and a very inspirational system and thread Gabe, well done mate.

I've just decided to buy 6 blue barrels in addition to my IBC's, can't think why!

Gabe I've noticed the same thing with a GB of Blue Stone and always wondered if it was the position of the growbed getting slightly more sun being on the west side of the other growbeds, or was the media just performing better.

I now have just started planting one of the same seedlings from each batch that I plant in the other GB's into the Blue Stone GB to compare the growth.

Using the cheaper expanded clay pebbles I've always thought they maybe retaining more moisture when draining than the Blue Stone, and in winter that would tend to keep the roots colder than the Blue Stone GB???

The Blue Stone gravel would only have surface area water and not be loaded with water like the cheap pebbles???


Stuart, any ideas on this one?

Maybe.

One of the reasons I've been attracted to volcanic stone (blu metal (basalt) and scoria (also generally basalt but occaisionally andesite) is that they contain many trace elements that are released over time.

That might have something to do with it Really hard to say though. Maybe the water being held around the roots could be part of it too but I would have though that would be an O2 thing rather than temperature. My Rhubarb has such a tight roots mass that I wonder if that could be an issue.

Anyone have a couple of thermo couples to check if there is a difference?

Another KOi started showing signs of something?

Decided to salt him as well in the "salt hospital" at 20ppm for 20 minutes.

I also measured him - 37cm - and it is one of the smaller koi in the pond.


I have since ordered potassium permanganate (thanks Matty!) so will be dipping them in this once it arrives.

I noticed a small fungal or bacterial growth on him/her. Is there anyone that can shed light on the white spot on the koi?

Is a copper treatment off the list of possibilities to keep the fish healthy? Would it harm the plants? I know it would wreak havoc on worms or other invertebrates, but would keep the fish parasite free...

The nice thing about hospital tanks is that your plants and invertebrates are not in it.