Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

hello all, Chuck here with a first report on my new aquaponics grow system.

I had an in ground pond a few years ago, and after having my 4th child, decided that I did not want them swimming in it any longer. So I build an above ground one instead. I started aquaponics by growing goldfish and some lotus. this went well and last year I decided to build a Bog Filter for my pond. this also went great! Taro grew to full size in about 10 weeks and everything was beautiful.

This year I decided to try my hand at growing some veggies. Below are some pictures of my current setup. Just for those wondering, my pond is about 164 Gallons and the bog filter is about 54 gallons. The media in the bog is about 8 - 9 inches of pea gravel and 2-3 inches of larger stone.

TDS is around 79ppm, which I think is low and I am addressing by starting to be more aggressive with feeding my fish. I have 21 gold fish, 10 are about 2 years old, the others were just purchased about 2 weeks ago. I have not measured PH yet.

here are some pics:
The whole pond/garden area


The pond/bog


The Bog, with a few small tomatoes growing. they have doubled in size in about 1 week.


New supply and return lines to support the grow tubes:


New Grow tube. Plants are in small starter planter. hopefully next week they will be running full steam with plants:

Any feedback on what the flow rate should be in the tube? I am going to add another tube this week. I am thinking of just using a coupling and running the length of my fence. The one drain tube at the end. Right now I am using a 1/4 inch supply line into the tube, and 1/2 inch return.

Still waiting to get the ph and other numbers. Later this week

Looks good Cakeezer, welcome to the forum

You lost me, which tube are you asking about? We usually say to turn the volume of the fish tank over once per hour. Based on that you'd want to pump about 164 gallons per hour. Biofilm will build up on the inside of the tubing and cause even less flow so you may want to switch to something a bit larger. Usually a size larger on the GB outflow than the inflow from the pump.

There is some stocking information in the first post here, that might be helpful since you may get into trouble as these grow - http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=6646

The type of food can affect the plant growth. Most flake foods are not good for generating plant growth since they are more for maintenance than growth of fish. Try to get a good quality pellet feed design for fish growth.

Cheers

If you're planning on running that separate tube as NFT then maybe the section on flow rates for NFT in this Hydroponics writeup is what you're after - http://www.hydroponics.com.au/issue-04-nft-culture/

I don't run any NFT channels but some of the others here do.

Thanks Scotty.. I will have a read today. I am planning on increasing the discharge from the NFTs. I will be using 3/4 inch pvc as the return lines and will be increasing he supply line to the full 1/2 flexible hose.

I am going to be looking into getting a water test kit this week so I get some numbers.

Still waiting on my seedlings to sprout so I can introduce them to the system and see what happens.

So I have planted my first victims... I mean seedlings! They have grown almost 3" in two days. My issue is that I have algae in the pvc and it is clinging to the roots. I am thinking of converting my current rain barrel, the nasty blue on in the above pics to a bio filter specifically for the tubes.

Any suggestions? My pump is currently in the pond. I do have a huge external 1.5 hp pool pump if I need external pump. I am doing a SketchUp of the system and my design plan, but that might take a bit of time.

I could also use a couple of 5 gal buckets daisy chained for the bio filter if the big boy is too much.

TDS in water is still really low at only 78 ppm yesterday.

Thanks,
Chuck

Any feedback on what the flow rate should be in the tube?

One litre per minute is recommended,i ran my tubes on this figure,your inlet pipe size is ok but be aware of blocking,i added two to each tube for this reason,i also did a frequent check to ensure water was flowing through them evenly.

Dasboot,
I am thinking of increasing the return line to 1.5" pvc. That should be wide enough to keep root blocking down. First I want to get the algae under control. I will be working on that this weekend.

Yes the return line is important in the fact you don’t want it to back the water up in the tube,when you fix the tubes in place you need a drop of 25mm every metre this will ensure your getting a nice flow through the tube.The problem with tubes over flat based gullies is your water doesn’t spread out into a film but rather runs down the centre with it being deeper in the middle,in practice when the roots get established the water is spread out slightly more as its trying to run out but never the less some roots could end up with no water going over them.In my tubes at the end i used a 2inch 3inch reducer with the 2inch being offset to the 3inch,this gave me the opportunity to to rotate the reducer and increase the water depth slightly without having to increase the flow,its a case of suck it see really as soon as your plants get established you will be in a better position to observe whats going on.The pics show how i configured mine,you can see the reducer at the ends,the feed line was 3/4 irrigation tube with 1/4 feeds into the end caps of the tubes.
Hope this helps.

Awesome! I am only running 1/2" return and supply lines right now. I will defiantly increase the return. I like the flow of the supply, and it is controllable with ball valves. I will be doing lots of modifications I am sure. I can hold about 30 plants in the two tubes I have right now. So it will be interesting to see what happens.

I have a buddy that is giving me a 55 gal drum tomorrow and I think I am going to repurpose my rain barrel into a new fish tank. I am going to leave my pond as a pond, the kids really enjoy it. Who knows, by the end of the weekend it will probably change again.

I really want to use this big pump since I have had it for years and done nothing with it! Lol... Just need to find a setup that is using an external pump for reference.

What i found was using a 900lph pump using 1/4 inch inlet pipe over the system it gave me the required flow rate,this was just pure luck....

Just use a Uni-seal and the proper diameter pipe to attach your ST to the input of your external motor. Personally I would oversize the pipe and reduce it to fit right at the pump inlet.

I have a buddy that has a load of lumber that he is not going to be using any longer. So I am heading out today to get it and another drum. I will be making the frame and using a two barrel system for my FT and GB. The external pump will be used and it will also provide water to my tubes. Will post pics when I get started.

Day one of the remodel.. Lol. I got a ton of free lumber, and another drum. I will be able to run 4 beds and two tubes off this system. Very excited to start and my boys will be helping me. Photos will follow once I can resize them.

Cakeezer,

Make sure that you have some type of mechanical filtration before your tubes. At the very least run them after the GBs to reduce the solids flowing through your pipes and clogging the plant roots.