Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Cool thanks

Time for an update.

The fish arrived this weekend after 42 days of fish-less cycling.
I acquired 50 red tilapia.

lessons
I lost 7 but not because of water chemistry - they got sucked into the system.
I ended up with a head torch at 1 in the morning in the rain taking plumbing apart to rescue fish and fitting a piece of mesh.
The problem was one fish blocked a feed to the beds and the other 2 feeds couldn't cope with the extra water so the tank backed up and over flowed.
The pump was starting to suck wind when I got there
But it still seems fine

Having a swirl filter is a good thing. The fish were quite happy in there the they got rescued.
Having a mesh over the outflow side of the filter would have been better... wouldn't have had fatalities.
3 made it all the way through the piping into the beds and 4 kaked in the pipes.

My SLO now has a a grid round it so they cant get up the pipe and in case they do, the filter has a mesh on the overflow side.
On the positive side, adding the grid (a slice of bucket with groves cut) really seems to have improved the clean up ability of the overflow. So the bottom of the tank is getting cleaner. The fish move the sediment to the SLO and into the filter it goes.

Okay...so two weeks on.....

How are the fish doing?

Hey Lear,
2 more kaked since the great SLO and midnight rescue mission.
But otherwise they seem happy.

if i look in the tank they all fly under the Slo pipe and these faces all look up at me in a line.
i should try get a pic of it, classic.

Hey you were talking about trout on wilddogs. Are you going to be able to keep your temp down in the summer.
Trout like it cold, 4° to 20°.
By the time your system is ready for fish spring will be upon us - i saw a few tilapia suppliers on gumtree... just putting it out there.

I got a trout permit and got Tilapia instead. As my original plan was Trout for the winter and Tialpia for the summer.
But being lazy and not wanting to harvest fish all in one go, i figured that heating the water would be easier than trying to cool it. There are more warm months than cold.

Update time
This is what my system looks like at the mo.


I learned a bit about the actual plants today.
That mizuna lettuce in the 1st bed just exploded then shot this tall stalk and grew flowers.

I was apparently supposed to harvest more aggressively to force it to regrow.
I did cut it back today to see what happens.
The other 2 beds seem to be doing well.

Here's the 3rd bed.

What's next?
From an earlier post you'll remember i started to put together a DWC tank.
I have been busy with work and haven't found a cheap closed cell foam supplier for the raft.
I didn't want to use polystyrene because it doesn't appear to age well where it gets direct sun and the African sun is not for sissies.
Plus builders warehouse only had 20mm sheets and by the time I bought the right glue to put 2 sheets together, it would be cheaper to get foam.

I was sitting in my spot, listening to the water and contemplating things, when this piece of pipe that has been on my to do list since we moved in 4 years ago catches my eye.
The previous owner must have intended to make a grey water system or something but nothing actually drains out of the pipe - Huh?
It is just a very badly laid piece of 40mm pvc pipe that's been irritating me.

mmmm


I popped out and got 8x 45° bends.
Chopped out the pipe and cut it up.
The piece lying on the table was all that was left.
.

I made a frame float and overlaid it with an old carpet protector I scollied from work for another project but never used. That has also been lying around bugging me.
I just needed to cut off about 60mm on one end and round the corners.

I tested it to see how it would work.
It was seriously buoyant, i had to apply a fair amount of force to get the hole thing to go below the surface.
The carpet protector unfortunately sagged onto the water in the middle.
So I thought some more and remembered that I had salvaged some armaflex off some Aircon piping we were stripping out.

Was going to use it to insulate some piping for the solar heater I'll build.
I figured this stuff must float, I'll span some underneath I have plenty anyway.
I made 2 "balloons" out of it. Cabletied one end shut and blew it up a bit then tied the other end. It seems to have held pressure over night.
I hope the stuff is waterproof.

That was as far as I got with the float.
Need to blacken the underside to keep sun out of the tank.
And I obviously need to cut holes in.

My plan to hold the plants it to use a 40mm slice of a pool noodle.
I'll slice this "disk" to the middle and then that'll squeeze into the cutout in the raft deck with the plant clamped at the end of the slice.

I then worked on an air supply.

I got 4 small air stones and an air pump for R67 ($6) bucks.
Spent a bit of time making a stainless steel wire stiffener to hold them in an H shape on the bottom of the tank.

I took a visit to plastics warehouse and got one of those clip top lunch box jobbies to put the Air pump in.
Works well I did the same with my temp gauge for the tank.


Next I need to pipe it in to the existing system.

Mr, Python,

Your system is looking very good! Did you paint the IBC totes black? Also what is the grey container at the back of the wall by the hose wheel?

You really gave me an idea for some things I had been pondering. that pvc once glued is sealed, airtight! so that helps the whole thing float, right? I have a fair amount of left over pvc sections that I have been hanging onto for "just incase" and should be able to work into useable rafts rather than buying foam, thanks!! the pool noodles for extra support are a great idea as well. Wondering what to use to cover it with... maybe look for some scrap carpet protector at one of the carpet places... something to think on.

How much more can you expand/do you plan to expand your system?

Hey Twisted Shadow thanks it's lekker (great) to share the progress with people who know how much work goes into it.

The DWC tote is painted but only because I didn't have enough DPC (Damp Proof Course) to wrap it with. The Fish Tank and Sump tank are wrapped with strips of 300mm DPC (that stuff you put down between the slab and a new brick wall stops rising damp)

The grey container is a swirl filter I made from an old water cooler bottle, this is what it looked like before I had to upgrade the pipe to 50mm. By the way 32mm is not big enough for an overflow


I Do need to some mesh inside. I put a Little piece over the outflow pipe but that restricted the flow and the water backed up and overflowed. Nearly drained my sump tank. If I add a "disk" of shade cloth that should do it.

The glued PVC is airtight, held it under to see it there were any bubbles. I would add T pieces where I put the armaflex floats though if you have enough lying around.

The Carpet protector seems to be made of similar stuff to the IBC so if you had that offcut from the middle of the tank when you create beds you could stitch that together to make a deck. Of if you had a damaged IBC, 1 side would be good.

As far as further expansion goes. once the DWC is finished I think I'll have to consider some shading. That black stone on the surface seems to make the plant's wilt at mid day and it is only the tail end of winter.

Yeah the black absorbs heat rather well. Have you considered painting it white or perhaps wrapping them with shade clothe? There really isn't much one can do to beat the heat when outdoors except shade, lol

I like the swirl tank! re-purposing items is the best!

Yeah I've been contemplating summer and the possibilities of building a green house over the top.
I would be able to span wires and suspend shade cloth Pete the top.

I got my DWC (deep water culture) tank plumbed into the system so the levels all work and the grow beds seem to be cycling fine still.

This is a pic of the beds this morning - It's starting to grow faster than we can eat it. I've cut about 20 salads worth of leaves, so using a rate of R20/salad the system has paid back R400 bucks in the few weeks we have been harvesting.


Also included a pic of the SLO pickup I made for the DWC tank. Made it from an old bucket. I managed to re-use most of the piping that got wasted when I had to upgrade the supply line to 50mm

and from underneath

Now just to finish the raft, have everything I need now just need time.

Looks real good Mr. Python! What is the purpose of the "slo pickup"? I'll google it and see what I can find on it. thanks!!