Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I'm mulling thru my options and am looking to build a system.

Has anyone tried Murray Hallam's "Indy 23 Aquaponics System"?

Geez, I just looked it up, his flat pack is $7.7k. That's a lot of money for some wood cut to shape + some pvc fittings, and some engineering to figure out what needs to be cut where.

I can't get any close up shots of it, but I think it's just two media beds, one DWC and one wicking bed (or possibly earthen bed). All can be built pretty easily. It's just a few boxes.

Depends on what you want out of a system.

I would only purchase the construction plans.
After reading so many posts, I've decided I want an engineered system. Just don't want to go thru all the experimentation.
I'm thinking I can build it for much less then the cost of the flat pack.

I've looked at several systems, and this one seems to be what I'm looking for.

Does anyone else have engineered systems to offer, that are similar to this one?

Hurk, it's $395 just for the plans. For what seems a fairly standard system it seems massively expensive, but I guess you're paying for the privilege of having it all there in front of you to just follow.

Looking at the Youtube video it seems to be:

1x Long DWC bed
1x Long Wicking bed
4x Smaller media beds
6x Half IBC sumps
2x IBC Fish tanks
1x Mineralisation tank
2x Swirl filters
Air pump

It seems fairly straight forward, I think you could put one together yourself without too much effort. The system itself seems fine I think, so it's up to you if you want to spend $395 on plans on top of the cost of construction.

"Fools and their money are soon parted."

Information is free here.

I consider my beds pretty well designed:




I can give you the plan for them if you want!

If you can give me plans for the whole system.....
Love the supports you've made.

I don't know how to size pipes, bumps, auto-siphons for a system to function properly....

Call me a fool but I've spent $400 on worse things. For a bill of material and a solid set of construction plans I've seen worse.

It really isn't difficult at all to make a working system. Way to many people on here make it sound so hard. If you feel the need to spend money on plans by all means go for it, but I really believe it is a waste. There is all the information you need right here, and on you tube for free. It is extremely easy to build a system.

Read the ibc of aquaponics, it's free and found at the top of your page.
It covers everything and is an extremely well written article showing systems from people on this forum

Having joined a new forum recently (for mushrooms) I know how daunting it can be trying to wade through masses of new information while at the same time trying to get a sense of who are the people who know what they are talking about versus those that just talk a lot.

$400 dollars for plans seems like a lot to me especially when compared with plans for other things that I've looked at like CNC machines, bandsaws, houses (LOL).

Mind you there is an online course being offered on mushroom farming for about $375 and that seems more attractive than having to learn a whole new knowledge base via a forum

Since I learned about http://www.fiverr.com/ I've put up a few gigs related to AP design on there and I have had some takers.

I'd be happy to design a system for you but all the information you need to do it yourself is here.

What Werdna said.

I'm using 40mm pressure pipe for pumping to the beds, 40mm for the standpipes/elbows below draining into 90mm for all the returns. Although, I probably could have gone up a few sizes on the return pipe, it maxes out when they are all draining at once, but I just lifting the part that drains further out of the ground, and it drains no problem.

My pump, from memory is about 4000L LPH.

All those beds were made from 2.4mx40mmx40mm RHS. Second hand steel place locally had a good deal on 2.4m tube steel.

But 6 x 600mm lenghts for legs

12 x 1.7m for sides and internal supports.

6 x 700mm for the middle supports (which were taken from offcuts from the side parts.

5 x 1.2m for the end pieces.

Then it's just a matter of welding it all square and into shape, plywood over the base, and I used sleepers for the side walls because I had it left over from a previous project, then pond liner, and uniseals. Pretty simple really.

Thanks all!

Nest question..........

Ive read that plants need 6-8 hours of sunlight, and also in my area need a 50 to 60% shade cloth.

Our property is 4 acres, so space isn't a problem.

Trees border the sides and back of the property and its more exposed in the center. Ive noticed that grass grows much more lush on the west side of the property where the trees block the afternoon sun.

In our area, its recommended that a minimum 50% shade cloth be used, and up to 80% for lettuce.

My first though is to locate a system close to the east side of our home thus giving plants morning and noon day sun and protecting them from the brutal western sun.

Any thoughts on this?