Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi All!

So i am new to this whole aquaponics thing, but we thought we would jump in the deep end and convert our swimming pool! We don't use it anyway and they are a pain to maintain. Not sure what we were thinking but it seemed like a good idea at the time...

To give you a bit of an idea of what we are hoping to achieve.

1: Grow fish to eat ( don't need a lot maybe 20-30kg a year)
2: Grow veggies (again not heaps but enough for 2)
3: Make to pool look more natural, we don't really care about swimming in it again.
Seems simple, yeah?

The pool is about 55000L and concrete. We stopped putting chlorine in it about 4 weeks ago. Within a week we had boatmen and the odd wriggler in it so decided to add a couple of plants and see how they fared. They went ok with new shoots coming up and more wrigglers appearing so about 2 weeks ago added more plants and some gold fish, about 12, 5-7cm long ( figured on using the gold fish as guinea pigs before adding to table fish). All the plants seem healthy and the fish seem fine, though don't see them much.

At the moment the water is green and murky, but the fish and plant seem fine so not to worried.

I will keep you all updated with the progress, but for the moment a couple of questions.

Do you think that we will need much extra aeration with such a large body of water and low fish stocking levels?

I am thinking of using river gravel for my GB from the local river, will it be ok?

Cheers!

Pictures please. You get a lot more responses that way.

The extra aeration is always handy to have on hand but depending on stocking,turn over etc etc maybe not essential.
River Rock is fine to use i went this route in the beginning,it does have a lower BSA to some of the other media and you need to sieve out the finer bits to improve its function.

Use the search button and check what has already been done. Start with The Puddle thread. River gravel give it the vinegar test, hand full of clean gravel in a glass and cover with white vinegar. No bubbles good, lots of bubbles do not use.

Google search on pool conversion will also give you results. Cheers

Thanks for the tip with the vinegar, hadn't come across that one yet. I have come across a few of the other pool convertions which has helped a lot though not The Puddle one yet. Ill read up on that thread tonight!

Cheers

Nice spot!

I think its begging to be an aquapoics system.

This is my fav pool conversion..

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=4396&hilit=pool

Nice pool and patio area. Do you know how the retaining wall and the brick wall around the patio are structured? Putting a grow bed where the railroad tie planter is would be a big increase in the dead load above the retaining wall...

Good point! Hadn't thought of that. I think its a slab on brick pylons but not sure, will have a look tomorrow just to check.
Thanks!

Leak tested the GB today!! Couple of small ones to sort out but just about ready for the gravel... Once the gravel is in I will trim up the liner and secure it properly.

Any thoughts on having the water inlet just in the one corner or should I set it up to fill along a rail?

Woohoo!! Got the GB media dropped off today so hooked in and got the bed filled. Went with crushed terracotta for the media. Its a little bit lighter that the river gravel I was going to use and it does have the sand in it that the gravel would have.
I had a sad little passion fruit vine in a pot so put it in as the first plant. Anyone know how they go in a GB?

Might be a pain to do, but could you bury the return pipe in the pavers?

If it was me, I could see myself tripping over it and going for a swim

Looks good though!

looking Good SR, are you doing flood and drain or constant flood?

with a long bed it may be better to run the feed pipe along the length so you get good flushing.

do you have room for more GB's

do you have a media guard around the standpipe? if not it will be a pain if it blocks with roots.

Its set us as timed flood and drain, 15min on 45min off. It takes about 7min to fill and then just drains at the same rate as filling for the last 8min or so and then takes about 15min to drain the bulk of the water with a little trickling out for a further 10min or so.

I had thought about having it fill from both ends or the whole length but I am going away for a month in a couple of weeks so will just leave it as it is for the moment and then see how it is when I get back. Also wont worry about planting any more in it either till I get back.

There is a second old garden bed next to this one that is a little smaller, Id say around 600L or so (current is about 750L) and also a gap big enough between them for a bathtub, which is in now with a soil veg patch in it. Once the first GB is working nicely I will convert the other.

Good idea on the media guard too Slowboat!

I hadnt considered putting the drain pipe under the bricks Columnmn, but will sus it out and see if it is doable.

After a bit of a hiatus from posting updates to my pool conversion im back doing some work on it.

For the past few months there hadn't been any further progress on the system. The original grow bed had developed a leak and coming into winter found that it wasn't getting much sun, so I had been on the lookout for some blue barrels to use instead wich ended up taking a bit to find more than a couple.

In the meantime I have basically been ignoring it. The gold fish that went in at the start are still alive, though with the colour of the water we rarely see them, the few vegies I put in the grow bed were doing well.

But have managed to get some barrels so back into it!

some shade over the pool will help reduce the algae, the algae will eat up your nutrients.