Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hey guys thought id make a thread as I head into the build phase of my first system. Ive spent the last three months researching peoples system threads and the help threads on the forum and many nights watching youtube vids on some amazing systems.

Huge thanks to Colum and Iceman. Your systems, photos and ideas have been incredibly inspiring.

Im a young ish (29) father of two living in Australias beautiful South West with my amazing fiancee. With two crazy kids and a wedding on the horizon our finances are stretched beyond belief. So almost everything I have for my system had been scavenged from dumpsters or given to me by our amazing community.

Ill be attaching photos of my progress as I go. Im hoping for the system to be running by early Jan when im back to work.

Cheers all

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The IBC I got from a local facebook group. Got it for free with about 300-400L of expanded clay balls. So rediculously lucky to get that for nothing.



My first trip to the dumpsters at the new part of the estate



The pipe ive picked up from my travels around the beautiful South West with work, and of course the dumpsters.



Second trip to the dumpsters was a lot more successful. Brought it home in a iX35. Dont ask how, I know many backroads.



Everything except the ibc was brought home in a hyundai getz or a hyundai ix35. They make amazing cars

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My intention is to make a system similar to iceman's parents system. Id like to have a window to get the kids involved. The whole system will be clad with old flooring panels from a restoration project we did at my uncles house.



The four half barrels for the grow beds. Will be using two plumbed together blue barrels as a sump.



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Well the Minister for Finance finnaly allowed the purchase of a AquaPro 3000 from the Big B time to get this thing going :-)

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setting up the pump to check the flow rate.

day 1 of construction finished. Tank is too low have to raise it further.

new stand for ibc top. Sump and SLO plumbed up. Just need one more stand for the other barrel setup. Oh yeah and some ph 6 water to balance out my ph 8.2 tap water!!!

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Nice work.

Hey guys whats a reasonable stocking level for a 700l ibc tank with a 250l ibc lid and 4 half barrels as growbeds.

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daytime photo. As opposed to the photo I took when I finished at 9.30 the other night. I have a pretty deaf neighbour luckily.

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I think the recommend starting number is 1 fish (grown out to 500g) to every 25lt of media bed. So you will have around 1000 lt of wet media in your beds?

With your system, not sure how many you would be comfortable having in 700lt of water though, so maybe lower?

Thanks Brian. I was thinking a total stocking number between 20-30. How long do SP take to get to eating size on average?

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too long compared to trout :-)

I think it depends on how cold it gets in your area over winter. Sure someone who has grown them out near you will jump in and let you know

I will be finding out in a few weeks when I finally get my system running!

Hey also wondering how far down from the media surface should the water level be?

AussieAnzac,

Sometimes folks flood all the way to the top (or above) to clear out ants or
germinate seeds, but I think most folks run water to 25mm - 40mm below
the surface of a 300mm bed. This keeps algae from growing where the sun
shines and can keep water temps from rising due to the sun and should to
minimize water evaporation. Keep your siphon, or drain design, so you can
adjust standpipe height to experiment and see what works best for yours.

--
Sam

Planted out the IBC grow bed last night once the kids went to sleep.



Day time photo of the plant out.



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Try these for inspiration..

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=12559&hilit=favourite

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=8924&hilit=ugly

Happy reading