Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Could you make one or two of the beds constant flow instead of flood and drain? This would alleviate pressure, and growth between two is much of muchness. I wouldn't send straight from Fish Tank to DWC if possible, make it after growb Es as you don't want any waste on roots. Unless you have filtration of som sort anyways


Would you like some basil and Jade Perch with that latte sir?

Build thread- viewtopic.php?f=18&t=21974&start=75

Thanks for suggestions.
The water to the DWC is straight from the sump which has been through the RFF & GBs & flows straight back there - I had same concerns as you.

One of the beds was going to be CF for the duckweed, but the flow is too fast for that - putting more pressure on the other 3 beds - I prefer to run F&D but do use CF when sowing seeds or transplanting.

The hot weather & the day job have seriously slowed progress this week.

The DWC is almost finished; I am just waiting on the pond liner which is in the mail & a tank fitting for the return water. The rest of the materials were sourced from what I used to call the 'junk pile'!
I view the piles of material we collected when building our home through a different lens now!!!

There was a lot of indecision as to what to use for the base & sides of the DWC & I really didn't want to spend a lot of money, so after having had the currugated sheets out for the wicking beds, we decided to use the same. 2 sheets were folded & laid in the frame, with a 3rd sheet placed on top to add strength. The bed is 3.6m x 1m x .4m so will hold around 1300lts. I will place sand or old carpet along the base to give a flat surface & to ensure there are no sharps before installig the liner.

I need a few more bags of Hydrocorn to fill the beds properly & I am doubting now whether I will keep the duckweed bed - I need to be able to even the flows into the GBs to keep the SLO & filter functioning.

A few progress pictures.

A bit of pond liner and you're good to go!

I think the heat today will put you out of action though.

neat build team41, I like it a lot.

Looks great...how hot is it down there? Is it a high humidity also? We are usually in the mid 90's F for a high in the Summer, but the humidity (60-70% avg.) makes it fun to work in. Our West gets triple digits, but a lot less humidity. Pick your poison, it's either a sauna or a blast furnace. Either way, better then 8' of snow...like the NE. Poor people up there are just getting pounded with the white stuff.

Thanks Slowboat & Coach.
Colum, we were still outside digging trenches to put the wicking beds in at 8.30pm. We did come inside from about 3 til 5pm when it was 40c. Coach, at the moment it is blast furnace heat. South Oz is generally very dry during summer.
Still pretty warm even now outside it is 28c - the FT temp was 28c at 6pm. Not much joy for later in the week either!

and the temperature swings here in the Southwest are making gardeners' lives quite difficult. 6 inches snow Wednesday, 68 degrees Friday. Spring runoff renamed Winter runoff.

Mmmm - the trials & tribulations Mother Nature puts us through .... especially those of us who enjoy being outside & trying to be sustainable & make conscious decisions about the food we eat.

I can't complain. 60 and sunny.

Hey team41,

ah window In fish tank, I seen why you want to clean the system water up with RFF. Hope you get it sorted.

Love how you made the DWC, looks great

God bless, froggo.

Thanks Froggo.
The dam water is so murky at this time of year & the colour doesn't change much so the window will be next to pointless. I am so envious of people who have sparkling clear water & can can see the bottom of their FT!
I will add rainwater once I get serious about cycling but it will still look like thin pea soup. Not having mains water does have its drawbacks sometimes.

More work over the past few days has seen the wicking bed framework finished & them lowered (built too tall) & concreted into place. The pipework trenches have been dug for the WBs, as I have decided to plumb them into the AP system. This will slow the flow to the GBs & slowly supply the WBs with fresh water, which will drain back to the sump.
It has become a much more complicated hybrid project than I first anticipated & definitely more complicated than my 1st system, even with its 8 GBs.
Trying to anticipate where I should put valves, inlets or outlets is a little stressful - I don't want to rework anything if it fails or get any of those "I told you so" looks!
The DWC liner is in the Post Office, but I can't get there to collect it - they are only open 2 hrs a day & I have been at work, so will have to wait 'til Friday when I have a day off. Sand will also be bought then to be used as a base layer in the DWC to even out the corrugations & the base of the WBs.
Another hot weekend forecast, so not sure how much will get done.

man oh man I hear ya on that. Add to that I'm working in the proverbial setting it in stone. I think I'll build the DWC tanks like you all have done them, now only if I can get them t come half as good looking.

Same here, mid 60s on Sunday and than Monday night 5 degrees with a blistering 30 miles wind.
Sadly no snow left on the ground, we are going to be in serious trouble this summer.