Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Colum,

So far, I only have one 4-foot, dual T8 bulbs at 5000K and a couple CFLs at lower kelvin. Once I did add those however the plants started taking off. Between the six large sun room windows and those it's doing okay. I really need to add one more four foot florescent fixture for better coverage. I will really need to do that by fall and winter when the sun is lower.

My new 1600L system in Sydney

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http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=22945

2000L tank (inground spa, estimated size); 68 lpm air pump; 2 x 4000 lpm water pumps; dual head wave-maker; radial flow filter. GB's: 300L, 250L, (bell-siphons); 7 x 50L grow tubs (loop siphons), 2 x 6m PVC grow pipes.





System is 9 months old. Currently housing 43 Rainbow trout, largest now over a foot long. Water temps are getting close to trout-fatal, but next year there will be Barramundi already waiting in a heated tank.

The grow pipes work great, I use a screw to lock sections of PVC together for easy disasembly, but haven't needed to yet - because they're only 1/3 filled they don't clog up.

Work in progress includes a bloody deep hole i've finished digging for a sump (IBC), and am emptying the shed next to the FT to use as a full-time greenhouse, I have 4 bathtub GB's ready to install, and the end will be seedling beds.

Hi guys and gals. Here is my first system-


viewtopic.php?f=18&t=24572









Could really appreciate some input!




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that looks fantastic to me, well done

I don't know if plans count as being a system, but here is mine (future anyway).

This is still in the design stage, but I'm planning on it being a PIST CHIFT type system. The whole thing is currently set on a 12 foot by 12 foot plot, but I'm thinking of expanding to maybe 18x18 or bigger. I haven't yet decided where I would like to place the sump tank, any suggestions?

Aside from that, I'm rather pleased with how this design turned out. And I think it would look even better in person!

Fish went in today!







Pump in Sump, Constant Height in Fish tank.

The thing is modular, designed to easily allow a second grow bed (or more) to be attached on the right. It's all clad in old fencing that a neighbor donated.

Just need to rig up an emergency air pump (attached to a relay / car battery) and I'll call it done for 2015.

Simple 1000L ibc fish tank with 400 L grow bed on top, top of another ibc.

Fish tank buried and insulated with 2" foam on all sides. All sides. Of grow bed insulated except top and front. Plan to cover top and front for winter.

Grow bed is flood and drain on a timer. A simple timer seemed simpler and more customizable to me than a siphon. I may add a siphon later.

System at this stage is a single IBC with 700l FT and 250l GB. I use a 4500l/hr pump from Fleabay to water the GB plus a 1m vertical pipe with strawberries. Just a plain old bell syphon made from plastic bottles works a treat. I probably don't need it but have added a dual output aeration pump as well. This and the water pump is set for 15mins on / 45 mins off each hour for flood and fill. Just have about 100 or so small creek fish at present and looking to upgrade to barra soon.

Almost three months in and the water quality seems to be behaving well and is predictable. I have a bag of shell grit as a buffer but pH still drifts down slowly. A teaspoon of hydrated lime per week and a few litres of tap water to top up for evaporation seems to keep it sitting around 6.8. I am still adding a capful of Charlie Carp a week as the creek fish don't put out much ammonia. Ammonia and nitrite seem to disappear overnight so nitrosomas and nitrobacter are doing their job. Nitrate is pretty high but reduces throughout the week as my plants are getting big enough to make an impact on the nitrogen now.

I am harvesting around 3 cucumbers per week. Tomatoes have flowered and fruit are forming. Lots of baby capsicums on my small plants. Silverbeet and beetroot are going well. Basil and Thai basil are going berserk. Pulled out the old lettuce and planted some new seedlings. Three cuttings from my dwarf mulberry try have taken off and started bearing mulberries even though they only have a leaf or two. A bay tree cutting is not doing so well.

Strawberry growth was so vigorous that is looked like taking over my grow bed, so I made a vertical grow pipe out of 90mm PVC as can be seen in the photo of the last post. I read that strawberries don't fruit until they are twelve months old and my wife was disappointed. Since I transplanted my runners into the vertical pipe a week ago, I now have several fruit and more flowering. Maybe my system is super fertile!!

I am ready to add some barra but want to add at least two more IBC grow beds first so that I can handle the extra ammonia. I want to get those beds established and the water quality back under control so that I have as few barra mortalities as possible.

Stage two of my aquaponics system is underway. Next to the fish tank will be a 500l sump tank with grow bed on top. Another two grow beds will be further along. These two grow beds and the one above the fish tank will drain into the fish tank while the grow bed above the sump tank will drain into it. All four grow beds and the vertical grow pipe will be fed from the sump.

I used a 330 Gallon IBC tote, cut the top off, and built a stand so the top could go underneath as the sump. I have 6 grow beds using grow stones (extruded glass) as the media. I run a 300 GPH and 1300 GPH pumps in a constant flood configuration. the system makes sue of a single radial solids filter as well as the beds. wintern water temps are managed via solar water panel and electric solar panel driving a 12v pump in a closed system.

Creates a jungle:

Have now set up stage 2 of my system which includes a 400l sump to go with the 700l fish tank plus a 350mm deep grow bed. The strawberries are going berserk, tomatoes, chillies and leafy greens also doing well. For some reason, the green beans are just surviving. I had to remove my lebanese cucumbers as they were attacked by a bug that looked like an assassin beetle.

Stage 4 (final stage?) is now complete. I now have four grow beds and two grow towers for strawberries. The sump tank is a little undersized and I wish I have made it a bit larger but them's the breaks. I had hoped that I would pump from the sump tank to all grow beds and they would then drain back to the fish tank which has an SLO connected to the sump tank. I started out initially with a single fish tank and grow bed on top draining into the fish tank so I decided to leave that one as it was. Next addition was the sump tank with it's grow bed draining into it, so that was fine. I then added the two furthest grow beds, fed from the sump tank and I had hope to drain them into the fish tank. However, because I wanted space between the grow beds, I couldn't get enough fall back to the fish tank for the bell siphons to work. Raising them any higher would not have been practical, so by draining those two furthest grow beds back into the sump tank, they work fine. So I know have all beds fed from the sump tank but only one draining back into the 700l fish tank with the other three draining back into the sump tank. Since this will no result in the fish tank water cycling every hour, I am now in the process of adding a second 4500lph pump to recycle the sump tank into the fish tank for the 15 minutes per hour that the pumps are on. In total I have about 1100 litres in the fish tank and sump tank. The grow beds hold about 1000 litres of media so I guessing they would use about 550 litres of water if they cycle about once per 15 minute watering cycle. Most of this gets returned to the sump tank. I figure if I recycle around 1000lph from the sump tank to the fish tank every 15 minute watering cycle, I should get adequate mixing / distribution via the pums and SLO pipe.

Now have around 30 Jade Perch of about 100-150m length and finally have excess nitrate. Four grow beds filled with plants were just too much for the 12 small fish that I had previously. There were signs of plant stress in most plants except strawberries and silverbeet. Still having trouble with strawberries though. Maybe I have to try the Tropic variety for our warm weather. Notice the lettuce "bolters". Too bitter to eat but the JP's love them. Other plants being trialed include dwarf silverbeet, sugarloaf cabbage, salad mix lettuce, watercress, carrots, corn, beetroot, kale and lebanese cucumbers.

I am really excited for when i get started!! some of these set ups are awesome! well done guys and keep them coming