Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Thanks great08'

My system is a constant flow with the grow bed always flooded. The slow swirl is constant in the fish tank because on the discharge pipe it has a tee piece fitted with a special aeration fitting which also governs the flow rate into the grow bed.

That's cool about your butterfly kio fingerling.

I've just convinced the wife to get some fish this weekend!!

I am planning to swirl my FT too. for separation of solids and because it mimics most of the natural habitat which is flowing water.

Good point raised Julian Bu!

you may also want to use your bubbler to swirl and filter water




you may want to take a look at my AP propose plan too. I place it here hoping to get suggestions from experts

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=28898

That is quite an elaborate system design you got there mate! Is that just a plan at the moment or have you started construction?

Not sure if I can give you any advice or comments as I'm still fresh at aquaponics

Its sort of a record of whats in mind before I forget. Kinda a sketch of my understanding. Its subject to changes as I learn more. People here are very helpful they will normally tell you if they find something wrong with your understanding. since no one is correcting me maybe Its correct.

I dont have enough confidence yet to start. So maybe there is more to learn. Im not in a hurry with this. I started my container garden first. So maybe after the container garden I am an expert already before I start

I have not had the time to go over the sketch... and I am also new and not very willing to give out advice.

I have heard it said over and over to make a smaller (300 gallon maybe?) System first to learn on. That way your mistakes will be small. Use the time to learn and better plan the next system. Keep the old system and use it for trying new things. That way if they don't work then it will only be a "small trial" that fails instead of a large crop.

Marty

Thanks Marty I understand that you're having problems of your own system. water problem. This is the sort of thing thats keeping my courage at bay My greatest concern is how to create an optimally balance system or say a self balancing system if there is such a thing. Mr Damage has great advice to me in regards I think he knows exactly what he is saying but my system is somewhat different from most since I have to make the most of the space available. I am also thinking of making a small 200 L system first My daugther wants the koi to be in a glass aquarium so she can see it. Wonder if it will work with AP with all the lights coming into the aquarium.

You can view MrDamage advice here I think its important to create an optimally balance system.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=28924

Yes. There is a learning curve even if it's my second system. It ended up being my garden hose pumping ammonia into my new system. It is cycling now though. I will post pics later. Once the ecosystem developes these systems can get pretty darn stable.

I almost never tested my old system once it matured. EDIT: And I learned to read the plants and fish which is best learned in real life.

Just have to take the plunge. That is the best way to learn after you get to a point. Just go easy at first. Go with small amounts of fish. Add new things like daphnia and worms and such as it gets more mature. The ecosystem will be more self balancing.

Marty

Really? wow this is encouraging... I was afraid I had to watch it all the time

First I Will have to find water testing kit and then I'm on. Things here is hard to find.

can you tell me about your old system. The ratios: bed to fish; bed to water; growing area to bio film; plat to fish etc.

Thanks

Hi Marty

That's good advice about starting small plus being patient with the system until stable. I'm in the process of fishless cycling my first system which is quite small....300 litre fish tank with 100 litres of media (Expanded clay) in grow bed. Here in South Western Australia its winter so it will take roughly 4 to 6 weeks until system cycled.

I'm going to start with kio as my first fish species Like you mentioned earlier......it's all learning experiences and experimentation


Julian in my very humble opinion maybe start with less fish until you are confident that your system is healthy then go from there....I'm only going to put 2 to 3 fish in mine but I the system can handle 4 to 5 comfortably!

Thanks mike I was up reading your thread.

Thats a pretty small grow bed of 0.333 m2. Which means that about half or 3rd of my space would be occupied by fish tank

this system seems to have a fairly big grow area in relation to fish tank and seems to be working perfectly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAeJ5RwqPFQ

Yep it is pretty small but I have very limited space where I'm living at the moment. When I get a bigger property I'm going to up scale big time...

I would upload a photo to show you what my little humble system looks like but each time I try it tells me my photo is over the mb rating. Do you know how I can rectify this Julian?

I am not computer savvy myself. but what I did was to copy paste it on paint and then save as PNG.

Open it with Paint and click on Resize in the toolbar. Reduce it to 50%, saved and see how big it is. Keep going till you have reach the size you are able to upload.