Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi all y’all. I moved my fish to their new pond about eight weeks ago, and immediately had an ugly algae bloom. Water parameters were okay, so I tried not to panic, did a 20% water change, added an additional layer of shade cloth, and went on vacation for a week. When I returned, the water was clear. I think it was the vacation that did it.

As of now, I’m running it as a constant flow system with the pump in the fish pond because I can’t find my timer and haven’t dug a sump yet. The fish don’t seem to mind the fluctuation in wate levels. It’s hot here now but I have some pepper plants to put in the grow bed now that the plumbing is hooked up and the leaks repaired. I’m looking forward to the fall planting season! Thanks for helping me with my new system.

You have better luck than I do. Things rarely get better when I go away. Usually I come back to some kind of catastrophe. I'm glad things are working out for you.

I know what you mean and I expected a big mess. Luck was with me this time. Now when it cools off we will tackle the landscaping.

Hi again,
I’d like to add in the second grow bed. Can I use a pipe connecting the second bed to the first bed and have them share the same drain? If I place it about an inch from the bottom, will both beds fill and drain together? Is there something I’m overlooking?

Keep the drain accessible so you can clear roots and clogs. There will be a bit that will never drain, but that shouldn't be a problem unless/until the beds mucked up with solids. It would be better to have a dedicated drain, but not entirely necessary. I do connect adjacent beds with a pipe so if one drain clogs, the bed can flow into the adjacent bed and will not overflow. I'll post a pic later.

Here is a closeup of the "bridge" I install between growbeds. This is located high up in the bed and used as an overflow, but something similar could be used to connect the beds. I use 1-1/2" pipe, and a 2" net pot fits perfectly in the fitting to keep the hydroton out. Note the opposite side has a cap with slits.

If you do something similar but down low, you would need media guards on each side and access to clear roots occasionally. Overall, I think it would be better to just add a dedicated drain for the 2nd bed.

That’s very helpful. Thank you!

Hi Mary, why do you want to connect the beds together? Are you meaning that the 2 beds will effectively be 1 big bed?
Being able to isolate beds individually can be helpful at times.

Yes, it would essentially be one big bed. I was thinking to minimize the plumbing to keep it simple and reduce the risk of leaks, with only one drain to maintain. The beds are small, 2’ x 4’ x 10”.

Things are looking good!
Nice clear water!
The pond design is really cool.

You might be able to feed the two bed drains into one pipe that goes to the fish tank. I think it all would depend on your layout....like the slope of the drain pipe. Will it be higher than the fish tank? I could see both beds emptying into one thick pipe, that dumps into the ft.

I have a question. How full can your fish tank get?
The liner is making me nervous! The flap that hangs down.

Especially after having experienced a Florida downpour, where it seemed like 4 inches came down in ten minutes!
Is there an overflow that sets a maximum level in the tank??

Thank you for your kind words Will. It sure can rain here, and I’ve been worried about overflow as well. As the pond fills, the liner flattens out against the sides of the pond. I have been leaving a few spare inches to accommodate rainfall, and the shade cloth sheds quite a bit of rain too. We had 15” of rain in June and I didn’t have to siphon any water out. But the dilution of the nutrients didn’t help my plant growth. I do plan to install an overflow pipe so my fish won’t float out during the next hurricane.

It’s cooling off here and my garden is starting to grow. The eggplant flowered abundantly all summer, but didn’t set any fruit. I guess it was too hot as it has plentiful fruit now, same with the peppers. I planted lettuce and kale seed about three weeks ago and it’s doing well, and the strawberries I moved from pots are at least surviving. The high point of the hot summer was my water lily. I’ve been trying to get it to flower for three years and finally succeeded. My earlier concerns about the rain were valid, as we’ve had over 80 inches so far this year. I put shade cloth over the grow beds and the pond, which shed most of the downpours, but did siphon some out a couple of times. I lost one fish to a rookie mistake last week when I replenished the system with water from the rain barrel early in the morning. The water was probably only about 55 F., and I put in 40 gal., 20% of the total volume, in about 15 min. My oldest goldfish, about 10 yrs. old, went into shock and died immediately, probably from the sudden temperature change. Thank you to all of you who have made this project so much fun!

Looking very nice. You have some beautiful fish! Sorry you lost one. Be warned if you don't know this already, the green caps on the eggplant fruit have WICKED thorns.

Thank you. I felt very guilty about killing that fish, but I guess I’m lucky it was only one, and the first one that died since I began, about five years ago. Six of them were from a neighbor who couldn’t keep them any more, and they were six years old when I got them. The others are from a local pet store or ordered on line, and were just a couple of inches long. Thanks for the warning about the eggplant. I haven’t harvested any yet and haven’t grown it successfully before.

Happy New Year y’all! I’ve added some landscaping around the pond and made a better looking shade cover as well. It’s in full sun and I want to be able to watch the fish, so I partly uncovered it and added a uv light to control algae. So far so good, but the real test will be in the summer when the water heats up. I’m growing kale, lettuce, strawberries, and begonias right now.