Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

nice looking system! i am curious about the horizontal barrels under the growbeds, are those staying there? if so, what for? and if not, i am guessing the wicking beds for fruit trees? and if that is the case, then what kind of trees? i would LOVE to add that to my system. are wicking beds just like a giant dutch bucket? (constant low flow water in and straight out)

Cheers Ed..

As far as the blue barrels go, they receive the water from the new grow beds as secondary sump tanks. . I did intend on mayb trying couple marron but in the too hard basket at the moment. I most likely complicated it all by using these but felt i needed at least one to collect water from those beds as limited space to get pipes back into main sump. .if that makes any sense at at. .the biggest pipe i could sqeeze into the sump tank is 25mm so 2 of these take water back to main sump tank.

As for the wicking beds i was intending on trying 'rob bobs' YouTube channel. Prob few weeks off freeing funds for this. I'm not decided on what tree but def a fruit that my kids will eat haha. . Mayb apple orange or mandarin??

I'm more inclined to build a wicking bed at this point rather than dutch bucket just for simplicity sake. I figure I'll use water from the system to maintain the wicking beds. .. but YouTube it. It's not aquaponics but interesting none the less

Looking good!

or just put 'wicking beds' into the search here - some very good threads.
they are separate to the AP but can use excess and 'dirty' AP water and tend to complement the veg that you grow.
Number examples of IBC wicking beds, as well as pot and half barrel examples.

also a lot about them on google....

Ed - Dutch/Bato buckets come more from hydroponics but do well as media based setups for things you dont want in you grow bed or plants that need a bit more root and air space for less media than a grow bed. Examples around here of various ways of doing those as well. Google will give you aquick feel the the hydroponic vareity and how they basically look set up. For adding to AP look at the Dutch Bucket threads around here.

Well still not worked out if it's a cat or my dog causing the damage(really doubt it's the dog ), but they'll need help if i catch them!! Tried a granule supposed to deter them but nothing. . I put a quick netting to protect the bed but the s#it got into both need and damaged more plants. . I'll get on top in the end

Well still having visits from said cat or rat but the netting has slowed them down. I can see where it's tried to get in but hasn't.

Latest thing is I've built a solids filter. It's not perfect but used mostly what i had lying around. First issue I've worked out is whoever said 25mm was big enough is very wrong! !

I still have my 40mm outlet directly into the sump so this is controlling water level for the time. I will beef it all up to 32mm or 40mm soon enough.

In an hours running it's already collected a fair bit so will have first empty on Friday!

Well that was alot of waste. .. think the frangipanis are going to enjoy the treat!

So i lashed out and dive what i should have in the first place. .. 40mm piping through the solids filter... got another slo together from fish tank feeding the filter and it's doing it's job!

Not tested the water in a while but fish are happy so can't be too bad i figure!

Unfortunately i had to move my young blokes fish from his little tank in the system into another blue barrel system i put together, for a salt bath to address the fungal growth. 1 died yesterday but other 2 seem to be improving.

Currently trying to decide what to do with the small tank i put together for my young bloke. ..

Couple of marron? Goldfish again? Growbed? Someone make a decision for me! !!!


I also upgraded the pump to a more efficient one, which also required fitting of more Valves to control flow around the system. There is now 6 small silver perch in the sump with my 6 steroid goldfish. I'll probably move the goldies to mum's new system and utilise the sump to grow silvers to suitable size to move to main fish tank.

Ok so for future reference. . Leave room between tanks and other tanks/retaining walls incase you have suspected leaks and general upgrades and expansion! !!

It took me a stupid amount of time in very uncomfortable positions to get the pump and piping upgrades hooked up because access is non existent as i was trying to minimize footprint of system and keep tidy and together.

Missus calls me up this arvo to tell me pump is sucking dry and no evidence of a leak. Fortunately fish in sump are large goldfish and fingerling perch so still under water but only just.

Can't find any leaks but there is one somewhere. . Believe the extra low water level was caused by blocked pipe in return to sump from fish tank via SLO (have overflow pipe so all good), but thinking mayb this slightly increased water level in fish tank and solids filter combined with beds all relatively full may have been enough to suck dry. I'll find out in few hours when i go check levels again! !

Here is a short video of the growth in the system. New beds are staying to take off..i even have strawberries and blueberries starting to fruit. The yay. Excuse the poor quality and camera work


https://youtu.be/dxMoVfr1YRg

So my plants seem to be thriving at the moment.. first few strawberries and blueberries, plenty of cherry tomatoes and sugar peas. Celery growing rapidly s is parsley.

I've lost 2 perch over the last 6 weeks. No visible signs of damage or disease .

Trout on the other hand going great. Harvested my first one last week. I intend to harvest remaining 5 this weekend and straight into the smoke oven

Sorry to hear about the perch but your system looks to be doing really well. Nice clean RFF design how's it working?

I'm still at disbelief how much gets collected in the filter. I suck it clean weekly with one of those pond vacuums (the pipework i put in to empty doesn't do as good a job) and feed the frangipanis. It needs another coat of paint to match rest of system and I'll be happy with it!

Hopefully picking up another single ibc chop system this weekend to add another grow bed to get ready for barramundi season. I'll need to suss out wether adding another grow bed will reduce overall fish tank water turnover too much as currently only just turning over every hour by rough guesstimate. I might just need to improve pipework to be more efficient which should improve flow through the system.

So harvested another 2 trout yesterday for a family get together. Straight into the smoke oven and came out awesome! Have 3 lefty in the system which I'll harvest tomorrow and get ready for barra season!

I also setup another chop ibc to add to the system. Mostly to increase filtration as intend on introducing 12 barra shortly.

I'm still unsure wether to use the fish tank of the ibc or keep empty. Main concern is if i run an slo from this it will have to go straight to the sump tank. I'm not that keen on introduction of more solids there as already using for small perch and some goldfish, the goldies will soon join my mum's system.