Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Here's a system I put together on the 1st April.. Being April fools day and all, I expected something to go wrong with it but it took no time to slap together and 2 weeks later it's still working like a charm.

Water is pumped from the drain taank into the fish tank for 15 minutes of every hour. The water level in the fish tank rises out and flows into the growbed thats filed with hydroton. The growbed has a standard shover/basin drain in it, with a standpipe that has a couple of 4mm holes drilled near the base. The growbed fills, any excess goes straight over the top and down the standpipe into the drain tank..

The fist tank outlet draws from the bottom of the fish tank. I drilled through the side of the tank and inserted a bulkead fitting through it, then 25mm pipe out to a T piece. The bottom end of the T piece has a pipe in it that stretches down to just off the bottom of the fish tank, this way it sucks the solids from the bottom of the fish tank.. The top of the T piece has been left open, and it's just below the lip of the fish tank. If for some reason the bottom inlet pipe gets blocked thn the water will rise in the fish tank until it flows over the top bit of the T piece, and into the growbed... Hopefully fairly fool proof.....

Planting in the hydroton is such a breeze when your growbed is full of water... I stuck in half a dozen silver perch from my big system, and initially half filled the system with water from my mature system. It's positioned in a bit of a dingy spot around the side of the house and doesn;t get much light, I'm looking at putting a reflective board on the side of my house because the plants are only getting about 2 house of direct sun a day, if that..

Thats why when comparing these photos I was a little amazed at the growth. A brand new system, only half a dozen fish, it's in a dingy dark area, yet fast growth....

Very Tidy!

100 % flooded? All the time?

So dissolved Oxygen is enough to prevent root rot etc. etc.

I am doing something similar (on a similar scale) with goldies at the moment...

For me no probs so far!

Water is crystal clear and goldies are thriving!

Na, not flooded all the time Johnnie, the pumps only on for 15 minutes, so it floods, and then drains out over 45 minutes... Seems to work ok so far but we'll see how it goes long term..

I reckon a winner!

But an overflow elbow .. at the top of the growbed .. would cater for any drainage blockages...

Just my opinion ..

Drainage blockages are covered by the standpipe Johnnie. If the little drain holes get blocked, water goes straight over the top of the standpipe and down the drain.. The 20mm standpipe can take more water than what the pump can put out... It's fool proof..... I hope

Good one Joel - just add an autosiphon now and you've got gold

Good one Joel!

Good one why add an autosiphon its working if it aint broke dont fix it

Sorry - was a private Joke F&F. I just love the sound of an autosiphon kicking in. I agree, the system works fine as it is.

[quote="veggie boy"]Sorry - was a private Joke F&F. I just love the sound of an autosiphon kicking in. I agree, the system works fine as it is.[/quote
Pray tell

hahaha..... Yeah, syphons are just too common nowadays VB, I like to be a bit different..

I think with this tiny bed I'd have too much flow, plus I'd probably have to put in an overflow as J7 suggested, just to be sure...... I'll be building another system very similar soon, I'll try an auto syphon in that one..

Joel the way your fish tank drains is like my yabby tank i have never had a problem

Nothing exciting F&F - it's just what I said then - I still get excited hearing the autosiphon kick in like clockwork.

Joel - 1000 litres an hour may be overkill for that bed as you say. The siphon wouldn't have any trouble handling it though - depending of course on what size one you fitted. I estimate that the flow into my single bed is a little under 1500 litres an hour and I run a single relativelly small siphon (25mm inner and 50mm outer). No need to have an overflow as the inner tube of the siphon is the overflow. If the siphon doesn't kick in, the water will just run over this tube continuously. Likelyhood of blocking up is nil. Of course the issue of whether the siphon will work and whether the bed needs to be cycled that quickly are 2 different things.

Yeah I need a bigger bed for it... Sooon.....