Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Here are some shots of the building process.. I had to use hand drills as I haven't got a new drill press yet.. drilling the holes was half the job!

This job would be much easier if done to a system before it had fish in it so I had to catch them all and relocate them to a sump while rerouting some of the water for a while.. getting into a IBC fish tank is quite difficult when your 6 foot 2 and a fingerling tank covers the top have of the IBC fish tank.

And then putting the window in… Its 6mm polycarbonate… a thinner one could be used but I had some leftover from another project

Brilliant!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You know it looks like your in some hyper space mission with that greenhouse, wires, fish eye lense. Almost like a mission to another planet with sustainable aquaculture.
I'm sure your effort will pay off with great viewing of your beautiful fish.

Yes it does look a bit outer space I think it will be a while before it actually flies though! but I certainly seem to be getting more and more cables, pipes and hoses around the place… its a tight squeeze
Everything is growing really well at the moment and no maintenance which is good… and the weather is cold so no need to even feed the fish.

These are the filters I made for the water returning from the 3 GBs to my 3 interconnected sumps… they are not necessary for the health of anything in the system but since I went to the trouble of putting in a window I wanted to clear the water up as much as possible to increase the visibility. It has worked really well and since they are after the GBs they only catch really fine particles and require little cleaning.. to pull the 3 filters apart and clean them probably takes about 10 minutes and needs to be done every month or so, perhaps more in summer when feeding is higher.. but then my RFF is on as well.
I use different coarsenesses of Matala sponge inside the tube to capture the particles and as you can see in the photo I have cut out a chunk from each one incase they become clogged and the water needs to flow through.. this prevents the GBs from overflowing as a result of a clogged filter. For people with more space this could probably be done in a different way outside the sumps but my space limitations mean that these 3 filters plus my 2 biofilters are located in the sumps.

Great work on the window, Tom. Are they stainless flat bar? That must have been a b*tch to drill!

Thanks Charlie.. and... Yes it is stainless and yes they were a pain to drill, although good drill bits and the right speed helps a lot... just drilling the holes was half the job though

Well I have just finished my new wall flooded tubes that replaced my not as successful towers. I now have these tubes on each wall. This latest side I made out of 65x100 rectangular PVC down pipe instead of the round pipe (the round pipe is goof too but I only used it last time as I got it for free)

However no one sell s end caps for them so once again I cut and glued my own by using round plc pipe that I cut heat and flatted out just like I did for the round pipes.

I am now not using basket for planting in and instead I am using foam inserts that I cut up myself… no more roots getting grown into the baskets and expanding the basket to make it hard to remove.

The system has been zero maintenance over winter and has grown all the greens very well… I have been extremely satisfied and I don't look forward to summer and the inevitable aphid battle to come

Looking good - aphids try diatomaceous earth.
Where do you get PVC down pipe like that? How much does it cost?


Sent from my iBone using Tapatalk

And what foam did you use for cut outs and cost... Thanks.... Looking good! I'm about to do windows in my ibc, any tips?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks for the tip I haven't tried that yet.

The down pipe is from Bunnings and it comes in 3 metre x 65x100 mm (or 55x100mm) at about $32 per 3 metre length from memory

Well the foam is left over from my mini boat project.. so not really intended for this use but it is a sealed foam used for safety floatation.

It was actually twice as thick as in image but I use a hole drill to cut out the circular parts and then cut them in half to make two. I can't remember the cost as I bought it years ago out at Virginia, Brisbane somewhere from a foam specialist and the sheets came in 2.4 x 1.2 metres if I recall so perhaps a bit much for most people.

As far as the window goes… you can use too much silicone or too many nuts and bolts. Also I have heard of people using just washers and nuts and bolts without the flat bar between but I have heard they have leakage problems so definitely use the flat bar.

If you look back a page or two in my thread I have quite a bit of info and images about what I did. But if there is anything specific you want to know then just ask good luck

You do good work Tom.