Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Looking good! I need to put some more stuff in my sump for the yabbies to live in, I wonder if I can get bread crates...

Hi JLC,

I don't see anything in the "Quick walk-thru...." and the "Quick glance..." posts.

It looks like there should be a load of pictures, but I only see empty space... ??


Cheers,

thjakits

Hi th,

Those are two YouTube videos.
I don't know why you can't see them.
Seems to work for everyone else.

You can see them on my YouTube channel.
Real Life Aquaponics

Cheers - Jens

Thanks!
Yes - it is weird - still don't see the youtube in your post! ...Just blank space...

Checked it out on your patreon page!!

Looking forward to the Crayfish condo in action!!


thjakits

Perhaps you have milk crates or something else.....

As long as the bottoms of the crates are open enough to let food pellets and other solids fall through to the bottom of the tank.


Cheers - Jens

That looks good, but you could use the whole bottom of the IBC for the crayfish. I guess that far away from what you want to eat

What kind of food do you give them? Just the solids from fish, or you add some extra like fishfood or something else?

They can crawl all over the bottom as well, but the bread baskets create two additional levels of living space. They don't live inside the baskets, they can get out thru the handle holes in the sides of the baskets.

I occasionally feed them some high protein pellets, but they eat very little additional feed.
Mostly they just roam the tank and pick up anything that contains nutrients.
Fish waste, excess fish feed, algae, you name it.

Cheers - Jens

Ahh, ok, I thought they will be just under the baskets.

So they don`t want to escape? Or you put something on top of the IBC?

The sides of the IBC is too slick, they can't climb it.

Jens

Hi guys,

Progress report.

The weather has been really terrible here! Lots of high wind, rain and even hail the past two weeks has seen my building efforts grind to an almost complete standstill.



This past weekend it was at least not raining, so I ignored the cold and got into gear.

Lots of plumbing done, the stands for the media beds done.

I hooked up the fish tanks and the DWC beds to check the passive flow regulation. (I made that concept up)
What I mean is that I'm working without valves, relying on the whole system to be level (more or less) and then adjusting the height of the outlets to the point where they get close to the same flow. All the outlets are level within little over an inch.
To me it's all about trimming the budget for the system and keeping it simple. The simpler it is the fewer things can break or go wrong is my philosophy.

This week I will finalize the plumbing and test my u-siphon which will operate the entire row of blue barrel media beds. Fingers crossed it will run well! My backup plan is to set them up as flow through media beds.

My Iphone just insists on storing all my pictures upside down and even though I rotate them and same them on the computer they're still upside down when I post them here!

I will try to find a fix or take some new pics and then add them to the thread. Right now I'm just too tired to do it.

So that's how far I am as of today.
This weekend I plan to finish all the plumbing as well as the timber foundation for the polytunnel.
Then as soon as I can get my dad away from his own construction site (he's building a log house) for half a day we will have the whole system covered and be ready to get the trout fingerlings.


Cheers - Jens

keep it moving Jens, summer will be here and gone before you know it! I'm struggling with weather too the last couple of weeks.

As for passive flow regulation... not to burst your bubble but someone beat you to coming up with that idea... I saw it someplace else and stole the idea for my system too. My flow from my fish tank is slightly down hill to the last bed then I have T's run off to each bed along the way with a 90 and a short piece of pipe depending on how high I need it to be to make up for the downhill slant of the pipe, then for fine tuning just change the angle of the 90 slightly =) I do have three shutoffs in my system which were expensive, but that is because on my DWC I have the pipe running down below the raft beds, so I used a shutoff to close it off so it wouldn't end up with all of the water going there and not to my last two beds, then I have a shutoff on the wicking bed because it is dirt so I only open it to add water, then I have a shutoff on a low line to fill a bucket to water outdoor stuff with or fill a water jug to water seedling trays and such. The shutoffs were expensive because I stuck with the 2" pipe that I was using for the supply line, I could have changed them down to smaller size but then it would have taken more space too rather than just paying for the bigger valves.

HEHEHEHEEEEEEE Rob,

I don't profess to inventing anything, I'm just good at copying the good ideas I see.

I've seen passive flow reg in many systems, just didn't know what to call it. :-)

Anyway, I construct every level of the system so that it will not empty if the pump stops.
This way nothing will overflow and nothing will be without water.
I also keep a low stocking density of fish to make sure they will survive for at least a day without circulation.

Hey Jens,

I like your set-up a lot - going to copy a lot too, no doubt!! 3:)

Question: You cut off the top of the IBC tanks. Would it be possible to use the top as a TIGHT cover for the lower part of the tank??
I am asking, because in my area I have to deal with mosquitoes (a LOT of mosquitoes!!) - part of the deal is to keep them away from potentially standing water. The way I will (...have to) lay out my system - I will need quite a lot of sump tank space. I wonder, if it is possible to force the top of the IBC down over the bottom part [....my idea is to cut out a horizontal band of the tank and then put the top back on, slipping it over the bottom part...] - this way I should get a "sealed sump" - no access for mosquitoes!

Cheers,

thjakits

Thanks man, copy all you want! :-)
I think it's definitely possible to use the top as a lid like that.
It's quite pliable.
Do you have the possibility to keep mosquito fish?
They are an excellent way of reducing your mosquito population in you yard.

Cheers - Jens

Hi Jens,

thanx for the speedy reply!

Yes, Mosquito Fish will be part of the team! But I don't want them in the sumps - too small, and therefor too much trouble to keep them there! However I plan to have them in the DWC parts!!

I thought about another possibility - I want to use a number of IBCs as DWC test beds.
So far the plan is to cut down other IBCs to make "sealed sumps" as described in my last post).
However, IF I manage to get the top part (DWC part of the IBC) to wedge into the bottom part (sump) it could work too - just need to find a way to support the upper part!
Would a number of 2"- schedule 40 PVC pipes do the trick??

These would sit on the cage and go through holes in the sump side-walls. The upper part pressing into the lower part should seal pretty tight.....

Need to test this....

Cheers,

thjakits