Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Like all projects or hobbies one decides to undertake... it starts off with just a little peek at what you want to do...

IMG_20140622_155224 by cluck2007, on Flickr

Looking through a tank fitting at my dirt garden that I would like to slowly convert.


It all starts with a few IBC's...
IMG_20140617_171838 by cluck2007, on Flickr

Nothing is more fun than digging a hole... ok, it's just a necessary part of my plan.
IMG_20140622_095508 by cluck2007, on Flickr

then things start to take shape...
IMG_20140622_133016 by cluck2007, on Flickr

But being new I ran some goldfish for a few weeks...
IMG_20140627_162737 by cluck2007, on Flickr

Started a bed with seeds, and another with plants I took from the garden (which went into serious shock for a week).. IMG_20140706_092708 by cluck2007, on Flickr

Then started to insulate the tnaks/grow beds to shield them from light, and try and keep the temps level.
IMG_20140706_104425 by cluck2007, on Flickr

Two media beds to start with, filled with expanded shale. One has the top two inches with a layer of expanded clay. Two IBC's as fish tanks, with a third buried and plumbed to be a 200 gallon sump tank with a 500gph pump. It's a work in progress, and really just getting past the initial cycling phase. Need to tweak a few things, but that's just part of the fun.

Hope I'm on the right track

All looking great, I love your POV through the tank fitting, plenty of depth of field, a top photo.

You call that a hole?

It's tiny :p

Looking good.

Took half and IBC and plumbed a bulkhead fitting to the side. put black plastic liner around the outside (inside the wire frame) and inserted the ibc half. Insulated the side walls, and added a fill pipe. Now have my first deep water bed with a layer of Styrofoam floating on it. Drilled holes and inserted plugs. 4 days later already have little seedlings popping up.

Went to feed the fish this afternoon... and noticed a bunch of fry swimming everywhere. Managed to save about 50 of them, everything else must have had the same name I gave the Big guy... Dinner.

Of the six Mozambique Tilapia I have, two are smaller and one of them has been hanging out in the corner and not eating... I'm thinking that was the one carrying them around, since now the fish is swimming everywhere and eating again.

Cucumbers are flowing over the sides and across the deck. Basil's and most herbs seem to love the media beds as well. My raft attempt has been hit with a type caterpillar/worm that eats everything... I pick them off by hand daily, and it seems to be under control now.

Hoping to order some dura-skrim liner this week and add another bed for my fall garden.

Coming along nicely... Have made some changes since my last post. Build a shade tent, added a radial flow filter, and a few other things...


Lettuce is tasty.
[IMG_20140908_160524 by cluck2007, on Flickr

Added a Radial Flow Filter to the tank overflow. Was starting to get a buildup, and wanted to add a raft system. Used a blue barrel that originally had malt extract in it for making beer
Always glue on your valve to empty the waste... or it might pop off when you turn it and shoot fish poop all over you... (I heard that happened to someone on the internet )

IMG_20140902_164908 by cluck2007, on Flickr

Inside view of my filter
IMG_20140902_164914 by cluck2007, on Flickr

My shade Tent
IMG_20140902_192325 by cluck2007, on Flickr

Started as an experiment, but expanding into an addiction
IMG_20140908_160555 by cluck2007, on Flickr

Haven't posted in a while, just been lurking and reading.

Here's an update on my system. It's been doing well.

Spaced the sites in the rafts too close together... have planted every other hole for the next go round.

IMG_20150118_163542 by cluck2007, on Flickr

Added an additional raft, so now have two beds with media in them, and three floating rafts
IMG_20150118_163918 by cluck2007, on Flickr

Everything did well over the winter, and held up nicely even with the occasional freeze.
IMG_20150204_162136 by cluck2007, on Flickr

But the Aquaponics addiction has taken hold. Cleared my dirt garden area, and leveled it. Build my "dog fence" in a different spot, and about to take down the existing one, then build a larger shade house to cover everything. Then move my existing system along with some expansion

Here's my helper working on the plans...
IMG_20150221_134657 by cluck2007, on Flickr

Would love a big round tank, but economics says adding two more IBC tanks will be a nice addition. That'd bring my fish tank capacity to 1000 gallons

Wow Taper, great plant growth . Is it only fish food/poo feeding the plants or do you add extras?

It appears that the AP bug has stung you bad

Just fish food. I do add a little chelated iron now and then though.

Found that if I don't, I get a little yellowing in the leaves, and fruits/veggies do not set as well. My tomatoes I did were a great example... before I started adding iron, they looked nice and healthy, but the flowers would always fall off and no tomatoes formed. Once I added iron, the thing was loaded.

Have perch, a catfish, and the original goldfish in the system at the moment. Basically fish that can/did survive the winter. Those little feeder goldfish I started with are fat little pigs now... Will not be long now though before the water starts to warm up.

Nice work, Taper! Where did you find expanded shale? I haven't been able to source anything local, and shipping cost on the Internet is exorbitant.

I got lucky and found a sand/dirt/compost facility near my house for the shale. Takes two pickup loads to haul a single yard due to the weight.

If I expand my media beds, I think I'd rent a trailer and get it all at once. Fish farm about a 120 miles away sells larger sized expanded shale media, instead of the smaller stuff I got. Plus it would be cool to pick up fish from a fish farm.

Been awhile since I've made it back here. Last year started off so good... and then, well... life happens.

I'm still enjoying my hobby, and still growing some food.

Like this lettuce...


My shade netting started to sag, and bend and twist in ways it should not... But
I never did get around to mounting things the way I wanted to. So I took it down...

... and made it better!


It is now wider, and covered with a 40% cloth. Will finish the extension this weekend, and be
able to start on prepping the ground for my new plan for my garden. This year I plan on removing the deck most of it is sitting on. Plan on making some new beds as part of the process, so now is the time to try and lay out my plans.

Dura Skrim looks like a wonderful liner material for beds. Thinking of combining the two media beds into a single one, then making one large raft bed instead of multiple small ones. Figure with a big enough raft... I could use that as my sump as well instead of the IBC I currently have buried. Right now it is a 22' x 20' area, but will be 22' x 40' covered with 40% cloth for me to play in.

Have a couple more clean IBC's I have collected that I can use to add to my tank capacity. System has been on auto pilot off and on, but has yet to stop. Open for ideas on how best to utilize this space if anyone has suggestions.

Looks good the way you've opened it up!

Have the new shade netting/cover completed. 40' x 22'. All exposed ground is covered in landscape fabric.

Original unit is functioning fine... but I never thought of the hazards of putting it on a deck. Insects, and vines/plants growing under it are the two big ones. Now comes the challenge. To keep the system running, and move components off the deck and take it down in sections. Couple that with wanting to expand the system at the same time, and it becomes a head scratcher on how best to do it.

Currently use 2 IBC's for fish tanks, 2 ibc sections for media beds, 3 ibc sections for rafts, 1 IBC for a sump tank, and a 15 gallon drum as a RFF, with a 1000gph pump in sump.

Thinking of combining media beds into a larger one. Build a frame and line it with duraskrim. Then make a couple long dwc rafts, add a couple more fish tanks and better filtration.

System has been running continuously since July 2014. I'd love one big tank, but IBC's are relatively cheap and make it easy to segregate fish.