Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

[Hi All,

Brad from South East South Australia, I Thought I would share some pics of my first aquaponic build. So far I have build the first of 3 planned grow bed's. My plan is to get the first one up and running, iron out any problems then build the rest. For each bed I am using 3 cut down sides from IBC's, each bed will have about 900 litres of red Scoria as the grow media and 2 300l sumps under the grow bed's. The fish tanks is yet to come but will be a 3000l poly stock trough with should allow for future expansion.


Sumps pump and connecting pipework


Grow Bed Number one ready to be placed over the sump tanks


Grow Bed Number one ready for scoria

Scoria washed and growbed filled with media. also added colorbond cladding to pretty it up.


Slight modification, Added a sheet of yellow tounge flooring under the IBC's as I found the weight of the scoria and water was deforming them around the joists.


Finally have it cycling and have some seedlings planted


Im fairly happy with the grow bed design but I think I will do away with the auto sipons on the next one and try a timed fill & drain setup. auto sipons proved quite tedious. flow rate has to be spot on for it to initiate and break and im not 100% happy with the fill and drain times. May also look at installing one large sump tank rather than multiple small ones, i think it would simplify a lot of plumbing.

Next step is to sort out the fish tank filters and piping. I am picking up the 3000l trough this weekend. will keep you posted how it goes.

Very nice!

Welcome. Looking good. Thanks for sharing!

Nice start, you folks with the 'heavy machinery' to help with moving dirt (first picture) sure do make it look easy! The last picture looks like you might have a little helper helping with the project too from the miniature sized shovel!

I'm sure the CAT loader in the first photo makes quick work of moving dirt and media.

Well done keep up the good work

Hells bells! that is a tidy system.
Not being nosey but are you O.C.D. ? or just a very tidy wife

Good start Brad, how is the cycling going ?

Yes I get a lot of help (and questions) from my 5 year old boy. The little CAT moves a hell of a lot of dirt!



Well OCD is a possibility! My wife was concerned that IBC garden beds would look "industrial" so I promised her that I would make them a sort of garden feature and blend/match with the house.



Cycling has progressed well. last few tests Nitrite has dropped to zero. just adding Seasol once a week now. Im still a week or two of having the fish tank ready but I think im on the right track now!

I picked up two second hand stock troughs today. The larger 3000L trough is going to be used for the fish tank. Im not entirly sure but i was thinking i may be able to use the smaller 1000L as a sump & fingerling tank.

The troughs were previously used with bore water and there is a bit of calcium built up on the inside. Can any one tell me if this will cause any problem's? I tried scrubbing it but takes quite a lot of effort to remove it.

you can use diluted Hydrolchloric acid no problem. HCL is safe for fish later provided stock trough is washed ou and doesn't leave any residual nasties. That will probably work pretty effectively.

main issue for you is your pH is already at 8 - else it wouldn't matter so much.

where are your nitrates at ?

Thanks Darren, II'll give that a go. Nitrates are currently sitting at 5.0 to 10.0 ppm. PH seems to be holding around 8.2.

>> Nitrates are currently sitting at 5.0 to 10.0 ppm. PH seems to be holding around 8.2.

not a bad place to be. You need some urea or ammonia trickling through the system to keep the bacteria happy.
Thats where PF works in small doses as it gets its Nitrogen boost from Urea (Urea->Ammonia->Nitrites->Nitrates).

As you don't have fish / fish tank hooked in yet just water to the grow beds direct so the media bacteria is kept ticking over.

Your pH wont come down any time soon until the system matures with fish and/or winter rains arrive.
But dont worry about it too much.
When you do your fish tank use some Hydrochloric acid (HCL) to treat the fish tank water and aerate a bit before hooking up to the grow beds. That way you can start with a reasonable pH before adding fish and don't have to worry so much about topping up with higher pH water in the future.

That sir is a very nice start to what looks like will be a successful system! Following with interest!


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