Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

This has taken a months thinking and two weeks tweaking to get it working at 10ltrs,
Please if you have any suggestions or questions I am open to talk about them,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goaKIt_JObo

Sorry about the cats meowing in the back ground, I don’t like cats but I love my daughter so we have cats, and I have to look after her now as she will be choosing which retirement home I will be sent too in the future!

I'm not sure what you are trying to do?

looks like a swirl filter and a paint filter?

Yes it is both, a swirl filter to pick up the solids and a pain strainer bag to get rid of any floating stuff that gets past the swirl filter, also the bottom of the paint filler is used as a bio filter to start my bacteria growing, it has already started in the filter on the carbon bags, its been running two weeks now,

There are some good reasons under certain circumstance for removing the job of filtration and solids processing form GBs but none of those reasons or circumstances are to avoid GB clogging.

A good example would be the Bahamas system that has been discussed recently. For this system there is no economical media available for media beds. The island is limestone and bringing in any other media would cost a fortune. Therefore large scale media beds are not a great idea.

Similarly in an apartment system where a person wants a lot of fish but a lot of plants they can use a RFF to remove the solids and tip them down their toilet.

Now if you have access to economical media and you are not space restricted so that you can install enough GBs to provide enough solids processing area then there is no need for a RFF or a fines filter. As long as the GBs are sufficiently large then they will not clog to any appreciable degree. Under size the GBs and you will have all sorts of issues with clogging and dangerous water quality issues.

And if you want to house more fish than your grow beds will allow with their basic filtration, then you would want to add a filtration system! So you can double your fish stocks, hello! Is anyone listening too the new people, we want more fish! The grow beds are a bonus as we get veggies but I want fish!
There are a lot more sides to aquaponics than just feeding your plants, I don’t think we are on the same page off advanced aquaponics, that’s were you grow fish faster in lager quantities, the aquaponics to me is just the removal of the ammonia in the water to get bigger and better fish, the plants are a side dish, but with that I will maintain my plants for the basic bio filter that they will provide, forget the old ways this is the future! Of aquaponics a sustainable way of growing fish with vegetables,

Lets do the maths here
1 lettuce $1.50
1 barramundi $20.00 per kg

Extra filtration means more fish! When you get over that fact, you may change your view as to what others want out off aquaponics,

I just wanted a water feature!

Are the new the people listening to the experiecnced people



Well yes you would. The thing I seem to be failing to communicate to you and others is that the reason that you want to add filtration is not because GBs are not up to the job but rather because you don't want to. For what ever reason you don't want doesn't matter it may be a good reason it may not but whatever the case it doesn't affect the fact that GBs can and do handle fish waste, as far as we know indefinitely, as long as they are designed and operated appropriately to the waste load that is to be delivered to them.


There is no need to be rude.


So add filters and grow more fish but don't suggest that you are doing so because GBs don't work.



Yes there is a lot more and yes I don't think we are on the same page either.

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I don't understand what you are suggesting here.

Are you suggesting that the fish grow faster when kept at higher densities? Well if so then yes there is some excellent evidence that some fish are healthier when kept at high densities and hence they grow faster and have better food conversion rates. Such densities though of 50-80-100+kg/m3 are not for a backyard operations because they require components to regulate, inject and monitor [DO2]. Not something for the backyarder.

Alternatiely are you suggesting that with filtration you can merely feed your fish more so they grow faster? If so then yes you can but you can achieve the same effect by just adding more GBs because ultimately you size the GBs relative to the waste you will be delivering to them.



Excellent someone wants to play.

Using your figures...

A hydro lettuce head weighs about 250g so that means that the lettuce is being sold for $6/kg (1.5*1/.250).
For every 1kg of fish food fed you get a certain amount of plant growth. Let us assume a ratio of 1:5 (which is conservative) that means that for every kg of fish food fed you get 5kg of lettuce or $30/kg of fish food.

The costs to produce that lettuce are the media, seed, packaging, power, labour and stuff but the big cost is depreciation.

1 barramundi if you can grow it at a FCR of 1:1 then for every kg of production you need to pay for feed (~$2/kg) labour, power, heating (oh so much) and depreciation.

For a commercial operation it is not where the revenue is it is where the profit is. Where the profit is depends on the margin of the products produced.

But are we talking commercial venture or BYAP system to reduce food bills? If BYAP system I think you will find that if you were to factor in all costs including labour it would be cheaper buying all your food. If we are talking commercial then the sale price of the the lettuce and fish would need to be revised down for starters and then you will need to get a better handle on the business dynamics. When you do you will see that in most circumstances there is more money to be made in the plants than the fish.

Extra filtration means more fish! When you get over that fact, you may change your view as to what others want out off aquaponics,

I just wanted a water feature![/quote]

You wrote maths in a post, that just makes Stu grin.

Why don't you look into more Aquaculture type filters if you just want more fish? And with your maths portion, I think you'll get far more than one lettuce head in relation to 1 barra. But I'm guessing you aren't a big home grown vegie person, which is fine, not everybody is. So look at a more aquaculture based system, there are plenty of systems out there, google RAS aquaculture.

If you overload the GB, you'll loose fish.

You say you want more fish, what do you plan on doing with them though? You have to eat them at some point, are you really that much a fan of freshwater fish? If you really just want lots of fish then I'd do as Colum B-B suggested and look more into aquaculture, it really seems like that's what you are after.

You talk of old ways and what the new people want, perhaps it's really more of a case of aquaponics not actually being exactly what you are after. Rather than trying to make an aquaponics setup meet your demands and potentially failing, why not skip it all together and go for something that is designed to give you more of what you really want - fish.

There may be a place for fish focussed commercial AP but if there is I haven't seen it. BYAP on the other hand is another matter. If someone wants to focus on their fish there is no reason why they shouldn't but they are doing it because of what they want to achieve not because it is better or more efficient or for any other reason than that is the way they want to do it.

BYRAS is much harder prospect than BYAP. Removing solids and throwing them away and having a relatively small plant production area is oh so much easier than a BYRAS. The thing is why not produce the fish and the plants? If you don't want to fine but there is nothing advanced at compromising efficiency for a particular production objective.

Definitely nothing wrong with focusing more on the fish side of things, a fair majority of people do want to maximise fish growth as well as the vegetables.

I guess it was just Blizzards way of saying for him a GB is just a basic bio filter and means to remove ammonia, 'forgetting the old ways' and so on. It just makes it seem like he's kind of missing the fundamentals benefits of AP; growing both plants and fish in a complimentary and efficient way. Of course I may be misinterpreting. I guess I'm also a bit sceptical about the claim of doubling fish stocks and so on given it's still really early days. At least with a grow bed there is a proven history so you have a good idea of the filtration it can provide for how many fish.

That said, I speak gibberish at the best of times and am only new to AP too, so you've got to take it with a grain of salt.

Azira you are a carrot-tube-sponge-thingy goddess. Don't sell yourself short!

I've come to the realisation if I want a lot of great quality fish for a great ROI I simply go fishing, simple. That's why AP is so much more plant driven for me. Home grown fish have got nothing on ocean fish but that's a personal preference that might not be able to be eccoed for others situations.

I think AP has the advantage of knowing what fish you will get and a guarenteed catch, you dont get to catch them any time you like though.
I like the fact i get to eat fish AND get to look down my nose at people who eat fish from the already depleted oceans/rivers. Not that i have a problem with people fishing for thier own food, only those who do it for money and those who do it simply for "fun".
I couldnt say anyone here is on the "wrong" side, we all like our fish and plants and surely even the most RAS based system can benefit from having more growbeds added, even if they arent the biofilter.

Hard to beat smoked trout when compared to almost any ocean caught fish I reckon...