Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

i have the bare bones of my starter system, as the subject suggests there has been no cosmetic effort spent. i'm sure, like many would also prefer, to exhibit their wares when a little more 'finished' but i figured it would be beneficial to get some feedback at this early stage and describe my experiences/challenges/problems.

i have two FTs in place, though only one is setup with an RFF and the second is being used as a header tank of sorts simply so i can get more water in the system and i'm waiting on parts. i found with the RFF being fed from the bottom of the FT to the bottom of the RFF the flow rate out of the RFF is quite slow (40mm pipe) due to the head heights relevant at the transfer points. without having a very slow rate going into the FT (tap) i quickly flooded it and have since put in an overflow (only 25mm, and i suspect this may not be adequate so might go to 40mm yet). I need to clad the FTs somehow and also probably insulate for my climate. they're in the shade, but i get extremes in temps.

The output of the RFF is 40mm poly (after the 40mm PVC through the uniseal), and this is then joined to a 25mm poly 'ring' in the GB room where there are multiple taps coming off (also 25mm) for the GBs. the overflow from the FTs and currently the bottom output of FT2 also goes into this 'ring'. I'm not confident that the 25mm 'ring' isn't slowing everything down, despite having multiple outputs and so there may end up being more than one as i add more GBs. I may even add in a SLO to each FT to get more throughput and also take off the floaters (which won't end up in the RFF I'm guessing). since my water is red, i didn't show a photo of the inside design.

The poly fittings are expensive, but they're flexible and the accuracy in cutting the pipe is not so crucial (it bends:) and so i decided to use this technology over PVC in certain circumstances.

Two GBs are now full of scoria and turned my water red. some say this goes away, and i'm going to purge all the water and do a rinse before stocking anyway so it's not problematic now. i'm hoping i'll still have the energy to address all the area's where debris seems to collect so it's more self cleaning so don't mind having some crud in the system at this point. interested in hearing suggestions of what best to do here, i was thinking of stirring all the gunk and then draining, refilling with clean water and adding a bottle of vinegar (or also?) and then draining a final time before starting to cycle. I'm short on water so need to be mindful of how best to clean out before stocking.

I spent WAY TOO MUCH TIME on the siphons, while i got them to work they were slow to start and needed a high flow rate. i really should have waited until the grow media was in as this had a huge impact on it and now it works a treat. i could have used larger gravel guards as it's a little tricky getting things in and out but i'm hoping i don't have to do that too often once up and running. i also don't want to unload the scoria, so will wait and see on that one. i'll probably not fill any more beds until the system is working better and i have a better idea if it's going to be a problem. The GBs also need some cladding of some sort. they're all different sizes so i can play around a little with depths.

from the GBs there are 40mm PVC running into a 90mm 'drain' pipe. right now it's loosely put together and i find i get spills where the enter the T junction so know i need to seal those downpipes better. i'm also not sure how many GBs that 90mm pipe will cope with if they all happened to drain at once so i've not done anything more permanent than shown in the photo.

The ST has a pool/spa pump on the bottom outlet (outside) which from what i can measure supplies about 17kL/hour! i've put a T on the output and sent one end back to the ST, one to the FTs just to slow it down for now. i found about 5min was enough to top up the FT and get it draining and fill FT2 to half full. i don't know if i'lll end up using this pump and putting it on a float switch/timer or just ditch it and get something more suitable (slower flow rate). it was free... and this was supposed to be a modest build but the cost of the pump is probably not that much in the scheme of things. The ST will be partially buried, and i'm going to locate another one right next to it as i think 1000L is a little light for my setup. whatever is exposed will be clad with something, perhaps insulated.

another IBC in the grow room (about 750L) is currently unused. this was the original IBC i cut (like in ibcofaquaponics) but decided to use full IBCs for FTs instead. i was considering using this as a settling tank of sorts and feed all the outputs from the FTs into this, and then take all the outputs required for the GBs from this tank. perhaps with a baffle somehow implemented to capture any other solids that have not been caught by the RFF. my thinking being that i/o's can just be added/plugged as required, i will also have it at the same depth of the FTs and so will be able to monitor them by a cursory look. i'd also look to put yabbies or similar, perhaps grow some duck weed and those sorts of things in this tank.

i need to think carefully about temps, so in two minds about the settling tank though it might be easy enough to move between summer (outside) and winter (inside) so i don't get too much exchange in there. open to suggestions...

Good work Buckettea, if thats your starter system I can't wait to see the final one !

Hi Buckettea, you've been busy! Its looking great, and thanks for sharing your learnings along the way. Its amazing how much you learn researching and planning your system, then how much more you learn building it and getting it to run . I've had a lot of 'Oh, that's what they meant when they said that ' moments over the last few months of running my system.

Just watch your pipe sizes and blockages. Now that my trout are plate sized and their poo is chunkier, I am finding I am getting biofilm/solids blockages in the 25mm valves & tees going into my GBs, especially when a grapevine leaf stalk gets picked up by the SLO and gets stuck in the fitting. If you can avoid it and there is little risk of a pipe popping, don't glue fittings for anything not pressurised so that you can pull it apart to flush out blockages (hopefully the RFF will help there too). Down the track you might also get root blockages in the GB drain pipes and inlets as well, so make sure you can access those too.

I had to increase my SLO from 32mm to 50mm PVC pipe, and it is still a bit too small. It means I can't run my excess pump capacity to my FT to create a swirl to help move out the solids as intended. You will struggle to get enough flow out through your FTs with the poly pipe you have fitted - I doubt you would get your 1000L/hr turnover required even without the RFF reducing flow further. If the IBC outlet is 50mm, it might help to run 50mm pipe to your RFF and out to your GBs before the Ts into each GB, or if that is not enough put in a 90mm SLO or two 50mm SLOs like Joblow's system.

Some folks just live with the dust that comes out of their media, apparently the water will clear in time. Even starting with a pristine system, before long the walls and bottom are covered in biofilm so it doesn't look 'clean' any more.

I see you went with expensive blue stripe (pressure rated) poly- try the green stripe rural pipe next time if you can, it is much less expensive! The fittings will be different too- blue stripe has smaller inner diameter for higher pressure ratings, so its fittings are designed for the outside of the pipe, whereas the fittings go on the inside with rural pipe.

blue line poly, yes a bit of laziness there probably cost me more than it should have. though i hadn't considered the diameters at all, good point.

thanks for the tips on the pipes joc, a few changes i think to the pipe sizes. probably go with a 90mm SLO replacing the 25mm overflow and hopefully that will solve the problem.

still um'ing and ar'ing over the settlement tank.

rendang, hoping i can expand in variety mostly as opposed to quantity. though they seem to go hand-in-hand in terms of infrastructure capacity in real terms.

I'm helping a mate build a system this weekend and was wondering how much was the scoria, where did you get it from, was it delivered or pickup and what size 16mm or 20mm ? thanks

i picked up the scoria at charmhaven garden centre @ $65/bobcat bucket. i put 4 buckets on my trailer (there was room for more) and i reckon i've used around 1/2 of it for around 1000L (but hard to say if i'd get 2000L in 4 buckets, it would be close). i didn't shop around so you could maybe get it cheaper elsewhere.

i got the 14mm actually, they had 20mm and they had a mix of the both. i don't know if there is rationale around why the clay balls are the size they are but i took a guess that they'd perhaps done some research into the optimum size.

i also found that handling the smaller stuff felt a little easier on the hands, and i think you'd get more (in terms of weight and therefore surface area) with the smaller size.

EDIT: actually, i used a bit more than that. 3 buckets for 1000L would be about right

How's it coming along buckettea ?