Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

This photo is from 01 April 2007

The stand was made from steel library shelves (that were being thown out - unused and still in their wrapper) and nuts and bolts gained in an auction purchase some years ago.
2x 1/2 blue barrels (sourced from tilkey) as grow beds filled with 10mm drainage gravel (somewhat washed).
1 blue barrel as fish tank with 40 Gudgeon bought for $8 from local pet store (Me: "Do they come with names?" Pet Store Girl: "Yes...breakfast, lunch and dinner". Sold as feeder fish).
Creek plant matter to add local micro-life.
1 pump on a timer (on all day and every few hours for an hour at night)
1 air pump with 2x air stones on 24/7
mirror to keep sun off fish tank
cheap digital thermometer
Seedlings grown in my backyard from my seed collection: broccoli, beans, cherry tom, globe toms, cauliflour, pakchoi, ...
Snowpeas germinated in growbed
Just added zucc seed, squash seed, capsicum seed, thyme seeds, broadbean seed (resisting temtation to add any more).
Feeding expensive cichlid pellets to gudgeon (since increasing food quantity 3 days ago plants have noticably boomed and fish have stopped eating one another (esspecially fond of eyes 8 deaths))

Please, to save me spending 19 days of my life reading the complete works of EBs forum (2-3 24hr periods already invested), can someone tell me where to buy cost effective (cheap) 30%+ protien food for Guddy1-Guddy40? Cheers.

01/04/07

01/04/07

01/04/07

water still too cloudy from gravel dust to see guddies

interesting..
curious, why did you tape up the tops of those pipes?

sound of water draining was too loud so I added a cutout chinese takeaway lid and electrical tape. I have a free standing 40mm pipe with no holes to the height of the gravel standing over the drain hole in each of the 100mm pipes (with 6mm holes up to around half gravel height). With the tops taped up the growbeds flood and drain rather effectively. I am not sure exactly what is going on but it seems to work.

then leave it alone - like mi dear pappy said - if it aint broke dont fix it (or mess with it )

Hey Didj, you should be able to pick up feed from Ridleys, they are based in QLD... Check your local yellow pages under aquaculture supplies, and or aquarium suppliers for local places near you..

Ridleys, thanks EB. I am thinking the next stage for me will be to get a (free or very close to it) food souce happening for the guddies before moving on to a larger system. Worm farm, maggot farm (a mension of this makes most people (understandably) cringe, but I think it is an honorable cause), maybe duckweed. The duckweed I put on top of the water in the fish tank has mostly died from drying out after sticking to the sides as the water level drops as the grow beds are filled - it then sinks and get sucked up into the pump and clogs the GB pipe holes.

Weekly Update:
GB1 looks similar to the last shot, although there has been some growth. All plants in this bed were transferred as seedlings. Have added some seeds, but they are yet to sprout.
GB2 has had outstanding growth of the snow peas (see pic) - germinated in the gravel where they are growing. 100% germination.
Had a few more deaths of the guddies from swimming too close to the pump. They are just the ginuea pigs of this system anyway. Long term, hopefully they will breed and become snacks for the jades/barra of system 2 (in planning).
Have a task of cleaning out the irrigation pipes but still havn't done it yet...but they are getting blocked with duckweed and fish poo.
Will be constructing duckweed and BSF lavae farms this week.

Thanks to all who have added info to this site about their experiences growing these 2 things.

Just let them fall over the sides of the bed... makes them easier to pick and disguises the frame and plumbing etc.

Hay You Pet Supplies, MacGregor sells Ridley's pellets - ridgy Didge

Bitsa Update.
The system is performing ok. Plants are putting on good growth and buds of flowers are forming. More seeds have been planted and the only failure so far is a broad bean seed. Only planted one - it germinated and then turned black and died (..the horror...the horror..). Lettuce, okra, onions...seem to love germinating in the AP.

I have noticed some signs of missing trace elements. Thought I might post some pictures...I am reasonably sure I have got the identification correct.

K - Potassium. This is shown in the yellowing edges of this cucumber leaf.

Fe - iron. This is shown in the lack of chlorophill in these pakchoi.

Ca - calcuim. This is shown in the wrinkling of new forming leaves, like in these beans.

I am going to add Min Plus, volcanic rock dust, to attempt to supply these missing nutes.

Currently I have only 30 tiny fish in a 200L total capacity system, so the heaped teaspoon of food (Ridley's No.2) they get a day may not have enough trace minerals for the heavy planting I have in my 1 sq m of GB. The 30 gudgeon seem to be putting out enough nitrogen to provide for growth though. I would not class the growth as extremely rapid, but there is definitely good growth.

Today I will get 6 more blue barrels and expand this system. I wont share water, but I will duplicate the system design more or less with a few superficial changes...so I am not going to call the 2 new tanks and 4x GBs system 2...maybe v1.1. The fish in v1.1 will be silver perch.

Good luck in your own AP adventures.

Keep us posted on the use of MinPlus, there are a few of us using it and at this stage it is a bit of trial and error...all progress reports are welcome

have you noticed any benifits Ell?