Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Very nice and clean the way you've got things laid out. Space for things to breathe and room for you to enjoy the garden. The natural shade does not seem to be a problem if those happy plants can be believed...

How are the beds supported below? We can see the blocks and the shorter cross-members. Are there long-length-wise planks that the beds rest on?

Thanks for the fotos!

--
Sam

those are sweeet grow-beds

Thanks Sam!

I haven't shown pics of the rest of the area but we could likely expand in the future.... Although with these four bad boys we should be right for food.

As far as sunshine is concerned, that pic was taken around 6pm last night (day light savings here), plus there is a large hedge row along my Western sun. Plants are getting good sun from early am through to around 4pm. Winter sun should be similar... Last winter saw good sun from around 9am-3pm.

Now that the system is much bigger I need to add a few more clear sheets to the roof (currently iron sheets). I removed some last year for the first iteration and it was good, just need to open it up a touch more so all grow beds get best possible light Plus I'll just need to monitor which plants do best in which beds and I'll swap stuff about. Lettuce might appreciate a bit of shade.

The grow beds are supported by those bricks as you say, but also timber sleepers along the longer edge. All the plumbing is now buried and well....as Jamie Durie likes to say 'we now have the Plant Out' to do.... Lolz (I'm not a Jamie fan BTW).

We are down to 6 trout so I'm hoping I can nurse them through until they grow a bit more (runts of the group). Then there's another round 2500l tank to connect. The current FT will be used for silvers and hoping under my structure they'll stay a bit warmer for our winter temps (Min we see is between 0 and - 10 which trout love obviously). The outdoor tank might just become a separate trout RAS with a couple filters but it will be too hot for that until around March/April.

Ill try and get to a laptop and do a summary of our first 12months in AP to date.

Ok so as promised here's a bit of a summary review of our first 12 months in AP.

Started out with a kit to try and take some of my stupid out of the equation.

This carport used to be out front, previous owners replaced with a double garage, moved the carport out the back and placed a large above ground pool under it. Being in Canberra and with no heating the pool was always freezing. Growing up on a farm I used to swim in dam's so pools are fairly foreign to me (maintenance wise especially).

So we moved the pool out, placed the kids tramp under there to stop them getting sunburnt however the kids grew too big to use it



So out with the old and in with the new! The soil patch was costing a bit in water but you can see it going well in the background. Save water…enter AP.










First winter season and trout




From end of winter and late Spring the veggies really starting pumping out (tomatoes planted in Sept which is very early for our climate but again this year with a little effort we had ripe tommies before xmas)





Of 10 snow pea plants…well….we ate a lot!!




Yard is a complete mess as we remove stuff in prep for a new fence….a WIP as they say.








Another level of AP completed > our first fish dinner. Bigger one was around 40cm and 600gm Smaller one was 400. I had gone very light on the feed due to some of the flaws with the kit so growth has not been optimal with most fish around the 300gm mark and I still have 6 left over that are still quite small.


Most of what is pictured (fish/veg) came from the AP.


Starting to get a bit hot for the snow peas but the Tommies and chilli's are loving it






I may have already mentioned I have been eager to get more grow space. Not only for the veggies but also to stock more fish. We have 5 young hungry boys so the more the better!This is where we start to get really excited. Purchased 4 of these beds second hand along with the media, besser blocks and bits and bobs.



The purchase of a 2nd tank from Polytank in QLD (who were just awesome to deal with) means we can now run 2 species of fish…things are hotting up with a week of 37-39 late Nov/Early Dec. Time to eat more fish!


With the help of a former BYAP member (who we bought the 2nd hand gear from) construction begins! If I'm honest, I was jumping at tyne bit at the thought of getting this done and was very excited.


Rinse and repeat






Possible 2nd tank location





So there you have it……..I'm off to go and do a few more tidy up jobs, one of those being opening up the roof to clear sheets! Happy to answer any questions anyone may have although I've only just moved from my AP L plates to P plates….perhaps another 12 months and I'll be on my full licence hahaha

Good work CS, bring on the trout !
What are the dimensions and the manufacturer of the growbeds ?

Yeah gotta finish this year's trout first hahahaha

Bought beds 2nd hand so not sure of brand sorry... Dimensions are 1800x1100x300

Time for an update.......

Last of the trout were removed a few wks back. Must say after being very nervous in starting my AP journey (concern for the fish mainly) it has been easier than I expected. Far from being a pro yet but hoping I'll get there one day!

I still need to wrap my head around AP friendly pest control (my home brew of chilli spray didn't seem to work that well against the aphids attacking the various brassaca's we had) but I've been erring on the side of caution as far as adding anything to the system that could impact the fish negatively. Would rather lose a few plants than a bunch of fish!

Being that the hydroton I picked up 2nd hand was full of worms and a little fish waste I suspect this is why the system is still ticking along despite not having any fish. Across 4 grow beds there's:
50 lettuces
12 celery
2 rhubarb
6 bush beans
6 pumpkins
1 watermelon
3 tomato
approx. 50 spinach/chard (although I think it's been a bit hot for them)
A range of herbs (oregano, basil, sage, lemon grass)
20 Leek
1 passionfruit
6 red cabbage

That's roughly the lot that I can remember, quite a lot of plants for the past few weeks considering no fish in system and everything's still going along.

I have 50 silver perch arriving today and hope to plumb my 2nd tank into the system by Feb-March to allow 50 rainbows to be added giving me a total of 100 fish. I think this is on the conservative side considering over 2000L of media. We'll see whether the new trout tank is plumbed into the system or as a RAS with filtration....maybe that might change things.

Lettuce growth above in the bed with 50 lettuces - pic above was on 31/12 so some 19 days later we have below growth - not bad considering no fish atm! Clearly there is some buffering capacity because even with the heavy feeders the plants seem to be going quite well.




Found this guy yesterday (see if you can spot him/her) - tan coloured with web....as he had stripped the entire plant I removed the plant altogether. I actually didn't notice any bugs because he looked like one of the branches he had stripped bare. When I pulled the plant off he started moving and that's when I noticed him.

Thankfully it doesn't look like the other 6+ basils have been impacted so fingers crossed they don't all end up like this.


Will report back in a few days once the SP settle into their new home.

Between being on call for work and wanting to improve my space...I managed to replace a few more roof panels with clear jobbies to let more light in. Actually worked out a treat, where the fish tank sits I was able to get 100% light to the plants while shading the fishtank. Looks a bit disjointed but is practical for time being until I can decide what to do with the attroicous looking carport.

Still it's serviing it's purpose for the time being, MASSIVE hail storm last night and everything was well protected.

If that's the carport, I'd just spruce it up a bit - that structure looks hard to beat for growing plants now. Nice high ceiling with ventilation.

Thanks Scotty!

I had been toying with the idea of turning into a proper greenhouse. I don't know enough about it all tho... So for time being I'll use what's there and improve it along the way a bit more.

Oh and forgot to mention, been getting loads of Qs regarding my system....
First public tours this weekend.... Should be interesting to hear what ppl Have to say!

Hi all,

Have been having a lot of success across most items - EXCEPT for the damned pumpkins.

PLENTY of flowers - however they're shrivelling up whilst very small and not developing past 1-2 inches.

Thought I had an iron deficiency as the leaves were turning yellow (while the veins stayed green).
After adding some chelated iron, new growth is coming back nice and green (old growth dies right off).
SOOO many flowers it's not funny - plenty of bee's around too (one came out of the flower the other day covered in yellow gunk from the flower) - but NO produce

Hi Cunning,

Pumpkins are Monoicous, where both the male and female flowers are on the same plant. Are you sure you have both male AND female flowers? Pumpkins first develop only male flowers and then later (maybe only a couple of weeks later) they develop female flowers. If they've got too much nitrogen they may not put out female flowers, or very little and perhaps they develop very late. It is also after a certain vine length that they start producing female flowers -- i.e. the female flowers are usually further down the vine... Pumpkins are easy to hand pollinate if you've got both male and female parts. The female flower is easy to recognize because rather than sprout right off the vine like the male flowers, it sprouts off the end of a baby fruit.

Male flower on the left, Female on the right:


Assuming you've got both male and female parts, how are your Nitrates?

The record size pumpkin from Oz:


Now I think I'm gonna have to grow one of these Atlantic Giant varieties using aquaponics so my wife will be super impressed and not hassle me about my planned AP expansion after buying the neighbor's farm!

--
Sam

Thanks for that Sam......food for thought.

Definitely have both male and female flowers - I'm even getting some going to fruit.
The problem is the fruit shrivels and turns brown whilst still very small and doesn't develop any further than being a 1-2inch shrivelled little thing ;(

Pumpkins in soil are going AOK and we're already eating decent sized fruit - it's just the pumpkins in the AP that aren't doing anything

Nitrates aren't high - they are showing up on the AP test kit.......My pH is a little higher than it has been for past 12 months as my expanded system is losing quite a lot more water than the old version. So much so I'm topping up with pH 7.6 water every few days.....perhaps that's what's causing my issues.....

Time for an update.....

You may we remember we expanded the system earlier this year (Dec/Jan) after deciding to stay in our current house instead of moving....

Well situation changed and we are now moving /sigh.... So time to pack everything up and relocate!

Silver perch went in around Feb but haven't been going so well, I suspect 7degree water temps to blame.
This year's trout on the other hand are going great! I sold 10 of my 50 to reduce the load on the system while we move it all. In fact I was going to sell them all but they were so hard to get this year I'll attempt to move the system and keep some going.

Anyways better keep packing this house ain't moving itself! Haha