Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Just wanted to say hello to all. Been reading lots of threads for a while now, and finally decided it was time to give it a go. I have had freshwater fish tanks, a full reef tank, and a garden, so I figured why not combine all of them and grow food and fish.
I just had my IBC totes delivered yesterday and placed my order for hydroton today. I am looking forward to getting this set up and running this weekend. I know I wont be planting or adding fish yet but just to get the system started will be huge.
I will be using 2 IBC totes so I can have 2 grow beds, a sump, and a fish tank. I plan on using a flood and drain system. My long term goal for this endeavor is to provide great tasting healthy produce and some fresh fish and maybe even some crayfish or freshwater shrimp down the road.
I may end up asking some basic questions here and there, but it wont be before I do a search.
Once I get a start on this I hope to be able to post some pics.
To all those that have been successful, and posted there experience, Thank You.

Welcome to the forum.

Hi and welcome

Thank you. Spent a busy day digging in the yard so I could bury part of the sump below ground level, I got one grow bed made and will be making another tomorrow as well as my second grow bed as well as the fish tank.

I have now got my system running. Took a bit of backyard engineering but it works exactly like I had envisioned. The bell siphons work flawlessly and I will be adding my media on Wednesday and Thursday.

@waterguy71 - Hi, glad to hear. Did we mentioned we love pictures here?? If not, "We love pictures here".

Regards

Ok. I will read the picture posting thread and then see if I can post a pic or two

Here is the system running during a test with no media. I was checking to see if the grow beds would fill and drain as I had planned. Yep, no problems.

Here is another picture from yesterday. I have 2 different depths for my grow beds, a sump under the two beds and a fish tank next to them. If you see anything that doesn't look right or have any questions or comments let me know. I am new to this and still have a lot to learn.

Nice! What is the blue material you're using for your media guard?

What part of California do you call home?

The media guard is 8" C-900 water pipe, and I currently live in Grover Beach just south of San Luis Obispo.

Today I got all my electrical ran underground, now the system will run without having to be turned off(unplugged) at night. Tomorrow my media should arrive and I will be one step closer to great tasting homegrown veggies. Getting pretty excited now.

I should probably move this over to the members system thread now. Or should I wait until my system is actually completely running?

Can you move an existing thread? Sweet!

I just plunked both of mine in Member Systems when I started designing them. Haven't finished either of them, either.

Excellent, possibly the most beautiful part of an already-beautiful state! My wife and I head down to Paso Robles a couple times per year for some wine tasting.

Re the C-900, where do you get that? Looks like pretty heavy-duty stuff, at least what I see on the 'net.