Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Time to start my very own AP thread! I'm on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria (Australia), with a very climate to Melbourne. We've just had a few sub-zero frosts and it gets very hot in summer, so I decided to build my AP system in a poly greenhouse to extend the growing season and provide partial shade in summer.

My greenhouse kit arrived last week and I've started preparing the site. It's a 4x6m Sproutwell kit with 10mm twin wall polycarbonate panels. We get a lot of surface run-off in this area so I'm building a 240mm high base out of cypress pine to minimise flooding.

I'm planning two rows of 4 grow beds running north-south with two 1000L FTs at the end of the grow beds, all made from IBCs and clad in reclaimed fence pailings or similar. I haven't decided on sump layout and capacity yet, possibly a half-buried IBC running CHIFT PIST.

A few quick photos of my progress on the weekend and I'll update as I go along.

Making IBC grow beds.



Greenhouse base laid out and squared up with string lines.



Started on the GH base, to be secured with 100x100mm cypress posts.

Is that all ?

Looking forward to next installment.

Nice start!

I finished the retaining wall on the weekend. This is the foundation for the aluminium GH frame and it adds about 250mm to the internal height. It's so much easier setting up posts with a concrete mixer, never again will I mix by hand!

I've lucked onto a round poly rainwater tank without lid (manufacturing fault) measuring 2.5m diam and about 1.5m high for $300. This gives me plenty of FT volume but I'll need to locate it outside the GH, and for my better half to agree to this, it needs to be buried as much as possible.

With the base of my 300L IBC beds roughly 600mm off the ground, the in-flow will need to be at a height of about 1m. And with 8 GBs planned, I'll need a decent sized sump. The top of the FT is also about 1m high, so I'm starting to think I'll need more than one pump, which I was hoping to avoid. Any suggestions?

I checked out those cheap poly FTs yesterday. I'm going to use a single large tank (the blue one on the right below) which has a diameter of 2.5m and will be cut to 1.5m high with a 50mm poly pipe plastic welded around the top. The SLO will be at 1.3m which provides about 6380L max water volume.

The tank will be located outside the greenhouse, immediately behind the back retaining wall in the second photo below.

With a row of 5 IBC grow beds down either side (GB height will be 900mm), the sump will be a partially buried IBC against the back wall between the two rows.

If the top of the sump is 500mm above ground level, head height to the FT will be roughly 1m (when sump is full). The Laguna 7600 is rated at 6700Lph at 0.9m, which should result in the FT volume being turned over every hour.

Have I got that right?

Also - I might run two 90mm SLOs from the top of the FT through the back wall of the GH, into a couple of RFFs and then down either side of the GH to feed the grow beds. Would this work OK?

Finally, you might have noticed a small hole in the bottom of that blue FT. They can plug it up or weld on a threaded fitting. I'm wondering whether it should be a drainage tap or potentially an outlet(s) for the SLO(s) instead of cutting holes in the top of the tank?

Hi sammo, I have a 5000litre tank that sits about 450 out of the ground, and the base of my three growbeds is 600 of the ground. I pump it 12 meters under the house to the growbeds then gravity feeds it back but because I need to run the drain. From grow beds to the ground level under house again 12 metres then back up 500 on the other side of house to fish tank. But it does actually work very well.
An only one pump mate

Thanks Hezzy, I'll check out your system thread when I get a chance. How are you removing solids from the FT?

Busy weekend finishing off the base and starting on the GH proper. Hope to start cycling by the end of August - pressure's on!

Greenhouse base and walls are looking good so far

Yes, very noice

I like it! Hurry up with the pics!...lol

Thanks all. I have a fortnight off work after this week and the fish tank arrives in a couple of days, stay tuned!

A big blue fish tank arrived yesterday!



I finished the front wall of the GH last night and dragged the FT into place. I'll dig it in as far as I can, but with gravity feed to the grow beds it won't be far. Maybe 100-200mm.

Just make sure you can see in easily enough without having to get on a ladder.

How many litres is that?

It's 1.5m high and 2.5m diam, so it would be about 7300L when completely full. I'll fit a 90mm SLO about 50mm from the top, so reducing the water height by about 150mm. That will provide about 6627L effective volume.

I've read that fish grow better when less crowded, so I'm thinking max 150 silver perch. With 10 IBC GBs I'll definitely need some filtering.