Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Great looking system you've got there WB.

One concern i have is how the FT is raised up. Looks like it is sitting on dolomite. I would be worried that it would shift or be washed away when it rains and cause big issues, like an unlevel tank or even worse.

Might be better to have it on a metal stand.

Thankyou, its only the start... far more to come..

The tank is settled on a base of compacted quarry dust, which is rock hard once compacted, its the stuff everyone around here puts there water tanks on, and most concrete slabs sit on quarry dust, so the washout issue isnt one im concerned about. In the coming weeks i will be building a small platform around the tank to assist in maitenance and general access to the tank, and that will prevent any contact with water/weather ect.

Metal was an option, but it was cheaper and easier to go the quarry dust route, as a stand would require a foundation slab be poured, for it not to move. And the production costs to make the stand also far outweighed the costs of the earthen base.

Jarrod.

A few pics of current progress, plants are doing well, growbed covers still havnt been fabricated due to work commitments. Visible is the damage from them bloody earwigs, and a defficiency which i suspect to be either iron or magnesium.

And another

Looking great woolley, nice work.

Dosed tank with epsom salts today, to assist with preventing yellowing of the mature leaves in the system, at approx 1 tsp per 1000l added to the growbeds via the slo outlet at the tank to ensure even distribution.

yet to dose fe chelate, having trouble finding a source of eddha or dpta chelate around Ararat, all seem to stock only yates edta fe chelate which i wont use on ap.

Chillis are fruiting already , cucumbers flowering, at 12 inches vine length...

A few pics of chillis and cucumbers and strawberry flowers, also a few pics of said defficiency.

Pics of chilli and cucumbers

Last couple of pics: Strawberry flowers, cucumbers

Have re ordered the plants in the grow beds, as they were simply to close together. Earwigs are still reaking havock i have lengths of hose down to catch them, oil traps and physicall removal of a night time and they are still winning. Easy to remove 100-200 a night without even trying.
Strawberrys are now fruiting chillis nearly ready to pick, and im harvesting salad lettuce every second day.

i still have a lingering magnesium defficiency, i suspect to nute lockout as ph is hovering around 7.3 mark.

i dont think ill be planting brassicas in my growbeds next year, they simply take up to much room with there large leaves. Will stick to growing them in the ground so as to maximise useable grow bed area.

More pic's of re ordered system