Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

This is the deep grow bed, it's divided down the middle lengthwise to make two beds, to try to cram in more bacterial surface area, since I don't have much more room to expand. I was able to fill each one half way up with scoria that i got for free! The rest is a mix of what i thought was perlite, but is actually pumice, hydroton, and some grow stones.

I'm going to do one side constant flood, and the other flood and drain.

I sunk slotted pipe about 16 inches into the f&d side, and I'm going to pop an air stone into them.

I built a frame and insulated the sides and middle of the two beds with blue board.

The bottom is insulated with thinner white styrofoam.

My phone with earlier pics of the build quit working, so I don't know if I'll be able to get them downloaded.

I was able to get the pictures of the construction dowloaded. It's basically a frame, and all the hollow frame areas were filled with blue 2 in/ 50 mm foam. Their is extra wooden support on the outside to prevent bowing, which is evidently intensified by children running on top of the bed! It's under the corrugated panel.

So I am currently using the sump as a fish tank as I work on the build, and I may keep it as a dirty sump (fish in) since it's a big tank.

It was very loud with the water just dumping in from the siphon, so I grabbed some flexible poly downspout pipe that I had laying around, and stuck it on, and it got vey quiet.

As an added benefit, the baffles on the pipe seem to be acting like a venturi, and making LOTS of smaller bubbles in the water at the exit.

Micro Dwarf Tomatoes

I decided to try out some micro dwarf and dwarf tomatoes in this system. The Micro Dwarfs, well, they produce micro harvests. I planted Andrina and Floragold. Don't get me wrong, they are very compact, (6 inches tall) which is cool. But, they didn't set a lot of fruit. I got more than in the picture, but the fruit wasn't stellar.

For the dwarf Tomato (Supposed to max out at around 2 feet) I planted Kookaburra Cackle, and the fruit was big and delicious. Though it only set one fruit. It's flowering again, so hopefully it sets more.

I have been battling spider mites, and ordered two rounds of predator mites. It seems like it's helping out.

The two big ones are elephant garlic, and the smaller one is a standard garlic.
I wasn't sure when to harvest, In the ground, I usually wait until the plant starts drying up.
But, i'm happy with the outcome.

This ginger is about to flower. I just noticed i out of the blue. It was a nice little surprise.

The fish are doing well so far. Sometimes they flash when they eat. But it's not something that they do all the time. Is this normal for catfish?
was wondering if it has to do with them being a smooth skinned fish with a slimy coating. Maybe food or other debris gets "stuck" on the skin?

The plant in the middle is the Kookaburra Cackle.
I wonder if it only set one fruit because the shade cloth makes too much shade?

However, I have one in full sun in the system with the black beauty tomato, and it hasn't set any fruit.

Kookaburra cackle! Wait what! Can’t say I’ve heard of that variety, googled it and see that it’s a heirloom. Interesting.
And for the record kookaburras laugh not cackle and generally in the old gum tree, merry, merry king of the bush is he.

Looking good.

I didn't name the thing Skeg!!! But, I had no idea that they actually laugh, not cackle! Now I know.....Thank you for the clarification.
Here, the ducks always seem to laugh at me when I go fishing, and don't catch anything. Which is part of the reason I wanted to start doing AP.

It is a delicious tomato, just trying to wrap my head around the low level of flowering, especially when compared to the Black Beauty, which is flowering and setting fruit again. I popped one in there with it about 6 or 7 weeks ago.

Capsicums are flowering and setting fruit in that system, planted around the same time as the Kookaburra.

There are plenty of nutrients in the system, and I've been foliar spraying calcium from time to time. It's just starting to form some flowers in that system. Crossing my fingers and toes that it does fruit.

I think my shade cloth might be making my grow bed too shady. I have no idea what the actual percentage is. I got it second hand for free, so it's what I'm using for now. I have another one, which is 70 percent, and that seemed to be too shady as well, which is why I switched.

What percentage shade cloth do you guys use?

The cloth I'm using seems to help some things, and hold back others. The basil's leaves got huge, the biggest I've ever managed to grow. The strawberries seem happy, and have flowered and produced some fruit, but the fruit never really sweetens up. I think ginger likes shady conditions. The beans have pushed themselves toward the edges where the sun is. I grew some leggy brasica/ bok choy kind of green, but the missing sun made it spindly.

And, I felt the water today, and it was kind of chilly. I think we hit around 88 f today, but the water was cold. I'm thinking more sun on the bed would heat it up bit, and maybe help the fishes metabolism. I'm considering getting a lighter shade cloth.

Great looking build so far Will, I really like it!


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Thank you! I actually made some progress on it over the weekend!! Finally!

I've been really busy with work too, but got a few hours in.

I had to clear out some overgrown fig and passion fruit, to make way for the bigger tanks, but wanted to wait until most of the fruiting was done. And, the harvest off of them was pretty good, so waiting wasn't so bad. More pics to come.....

I got an idea. Oh no, another idea.......
I went with it, and, well it worked....for a little while. About three weeks to be exactly inexact.

The catfish were being skittish, as catfish will be, and were banging into the tank walls- right in front of me.

So I thought of a way, to give them a place, to hide underneath without hitting their face.

I saw how the water, it went up and down, and found me some pipe-that was laying around.

I put caps on the end, and gee golly it floated, it went up and down too, I duly noted.

So I gathered some plants, from ponds far and near, after all that driving, I needed a beer.

Back to the topic, the topic at hand, I quarantined the plants, incase they had contraband.

Like snails that some hate, or some type of the ich, so inside a spare barrel the pond plants grew thick.

After two weeks, or two weeks and a half, I decided to place them in the big blue cat bath.

And sure enough, they looked great as planned-they opened up wide and spread out like a fan.

But the fish they were scared to even come near, after all that fuss, I needed a beer.

As the days passed, the fish came closer and closer, then they swam away quick and their visit was over.

About a week in, and they finally agreed, that this was the hiding place that they did need.

I sat back to relax, and watch from a seat, as they swam under, I marveled the feat.

And as I sat there, it became so clear, that sitting is more fun, when I have a beer.

I thought all was well, according to plan, then they started to forage, in aquatic plant land.

The plants started to jump over, the border I made, I wanted them to stay, as this I forbade.

But alas, plants will be plants, and fish will be fish, looking for morsels of something delish.

Soon enough, the fish they went crazy, and the plants were all over, and me I got lazy.

So i took out the divider, and then I sat back, I ran out of beer, should have bought a six pack.

All kidding aside, this is basically how it went.....

I thought it was a good idea. i didn't want the plants near the pump, since they have long roots, and I thought they might clog the pump, which did happen after all after the fish tore the plants apart. I wanted to keep them contained on the opposite side of the tank. The cool thing is that the tank has structural indents to help it keep it's shape when full of water, which made a stopper for the pipe. The air stone also created surface movement that helped keep it in place. The pipe would float up and down as the gb emptied. I liked the idea, and how it worked. After this, the fish became less skittish due to the kids running around the backyard, so they don't run into the tank so much now.

To put the 2 inch insulation in place, i cut it to around 5 1/2 to 6 inches, and used lots of duct tape to hold it in place. I had it in place for a few weeks, and found out that chickens really like the taste of styrofoam.
I wonder if they would taste like styrofoam now??? Maybe I could use them for insulation, or maybe they were getting ready for winter....