Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

+1 That's what I did with my system. Actually 130 of them. Because I knew the build process was going to be a little long. Therefore I had the extra time to cycle with fish. If you are in a hurry I would go with store bought ammonia, and fishless cycle. We may not fully understand the bacteria. But we have seen people go before us with great success this way.

Charlie carp and urea are also other options. Provide ammonia and the cycle will begin.

Or a bottle of ammonia from 99 cents only. The nice thing is that the unscented ones have no additives there.

I like the goldies for $1.00. Then I get the added bonus of the extra nutrients later.

I changed my mind...just thinking about your lady squatting down over the ST has made me think humonia is your best option. Now, THAT picture would not earn you any brownie points for posting.

Too bad coach. The humonia needs to be aged.

Does "holding it" for as long as possible count?

Rofl

Lol we're all in huge trouble. She is speaking Jersey. Chris, whats the rent to sleep in your fish house? Gotta admit the humonia is an interesting concept and it does help to really get the idea of how nutrients work in nature. We are all stardust.

For you Will, no charge...just have to keep the firs stoked during the cold spells.lol

Hey Pond S.,


.....fantastic build! Especially if you didn't know how to even write "TOOLS" before you started!!

My "project" is still in the planning phase and will be so for a while....

Got a question/suggestion for you:

[Somwhere else on this forum I started to ask newbie-questions. My system will be a test/trial run for a hopefully successful commercial idea - retirement project - ...someday. The basic idea is to make it mechanically as simple as possible - 1 pump (2nd and 3rd purely as backups and safeguards), as few mechanical/engineered filters as possible. Ryan beautifully showed that rafts are good for about everything but root-stuff like carrots, potatoes, etc.... - hell, he is even growing radishes in the DWC!! So it seems for a commercial system DWC or NTF would be the way to go...]

So - the idea is to use IBC's filled with gravel/scoria/?? and use them as filters for the DWC/NTF.
After reading through this: http://backyardaquaponics.com/forum/vie ... =13&t=6616

...I think this should work just fine! My plan is to trial a full IBC vs. two 1/2 IBC's and a 1/3 IBC (which seems to be the standard for IBC-MGB's - ...checking water-quality out of each GB for solids, to see if I still need additional filtering before the DWC. I am afraid to measure any difference in nutrients would require a LOT of expensive gear or at least a sophisticated lab nearby - ...maybe I get lucky and someone at the local Smithsonian get's interested - ....down the road sometime....).

If I remember correctly Outbackozzie's primary interest was fish - so literally he would have "shit-loads" of it - trying to max out fish density!! Growing veggies out of his "filters" was just a "added benefit".

The idea is tri-fold:

a) Use a FULL IBC to have a LOT of filtering volume on a small footprint

b) Obviously there is about 1m2 (~10ft2) of top surface - so might as well plant something, BUT with a full IBC these plants will not take up as high a percentage of the nutrients of the IBC volume as they will with a 1/2 or 1/3 cut IBC - so there should be plenty left for the DWC/NTF....

c) The bigger volume of a full IBC - should also let the solids settle better than a smaller volume...
[slower water movement through the full IBC vs. the 1/2 vs. 1/3]

I think Outback had his system on constant flow (though through sequencing valve).
I will try to incorporate a syphon for better airation....


Where I get at: You are not cycling yet, right?

You still could move things around:

- put your RFF AFTER the MGBs, ....drain these into a elevated sump/big PVC-pipe - through the RFF and into the DWC - into the sump - pump (only 1 pump necessary!) into the FT - SLO-overflow into the GBs!!

HOWEVER you might have to raise the GBs and the FT somewhat.

From your pics I assume that you are not height-challanged, neither is your Lady...
So if you add another or two rows of blocks under the GBs you should have enough space to drain through the RRF into the DWC. Your FT-SLO-outlet only needs to be about 1 ft or 1.5 ft above the GBs to drain into them.



....just a thought!

[Also - if you fiddle a little with Syphons you can make them work just fine - ...thanks to Mr. Affnan!
THAT would allow you to run the pump non-stop, saving you the impeller from breaking!]


You are already at it - might as well put a window into the elevated FT and some LEDs!!
[Good "How to do"-instructions on here and youtube and easy - compared to what you already did!]

You have the FT in the "seating arrangement are", no? Might as well make the FT a show-piece!



Good Luck with the rest of the build!!


Cheers,

thjakits

Fire stoked..sorry, i was leaving to work and didn't check message.

thjakits,

I do believe that Pond Sucker is leaning towards running an offline MT. Which is why he would want to remove all the solids before the GBs.

What a week! Seriously injured my tail bone, computer crash, data loss, and dealing with a small leak near my FT plumbing.

Thanks for the comments thjakits. Be careful trying to learn from me though, unless you're learning from my mistakes. I worry about how this thread could encourage people to follow my footsteps, I need disclaimers that say don't trust this... yet.

I do like the idea of a window and led lights. I already feel like everything that can leak is trying... Murphy is slick with water! I know LED lights would be easy but the window would be a lot harder then an underwater camera.

Thjakits, are you telling me you're planning to use a full uncut 48" tall IBC for your media beds?

Still not cycling yet, I wasted a lot of time trimming around on the RFF plumbing before I realized I needed to drill holes in the top lid to prevent air pressure from fighting against equalization. All water is now flowing from ST to FT to RFF to cloth filter to DWC back to the sump. I also have my emergency overflow pipe tested and all the heights have been adjusted to my liking. Getting the water flow correct took me much longer then expected considering it was just a lot of small adjustments with a lot of trail and error in between.

No plans for an offline MT at this point, in all honesty I have not yet taken the time to read up them, I've been saving the link to read up on them from floridafishing's thread. I need to follow up just to make sure I'm not missing out.

My RFF and cloth filter will be attached between FT and DWC. In my case the media beds and indexing valve are on a separate pump that drain to a shared sump. I agree with you about rasing the beds and draining into the dwc, with filters inbetween on a single pump. That layout would have worked at the time I was under the impression the water level in the DWC would be affected. I have since learned that people do run their systems that way on idexing valves sometimes. A lot of my motive about the layout was to make the planters about knee height, as we would build a soil raised planter the same height. Simply because it feels like a good working height.

I've got to post some photos soon too, including a cool shot of a praying mantis we found in the soil garden today. I'm just happy the computers are all back up and working again. The only reason we pay the cable bill at all is for BYAP!

Good to be back!

Good luck chasing those leaks. Hope you get cycling soon!