Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

That's it!

That's the one I was looking for. This is going to save me hours of numbers crunching.

Thanks Janet for finding it, and EllKayBee for doing the work on it and making it available to the rest of us.

Mathew

been made a sticky now

Update time: The AP gates

been working steadily away and made a divider for the main tank, the sides are movable.

The divider is to be used to separate different sized fish and to make harvesting of fish easier by restricting the swim area

Gutter guard is woven onto the frame and stretches below the frame bottom....when positioned in the tank this will allow free flow of water (and fish poo) under the frame

Finally hooked up the main tank to the sump pump and then to the GBs.....
1) the water remains at a constant height (volume ~1,800 litres)

2) the central 50mm pipe extends below the tank and to the GBs
water is pumped in through the 25mm pipe (as shown) and at an angle, this causes the water to swirl and push the fish poo to the centre of the tank and out to the GBs

3) a small hole is drilled into the 25mm pipe (little black thing inserted), this acts as a venturi and air is sucked in when the water is pumped into the main tank (aeration)

Completed all the plumbing to the 6 GBs and have 3 commissioned (gravel washing now in progress )

The GBs are butted lengthwise and there is a ~500mm path running the full length of the GBs, 3 paths in total

the larger 50mm pipe running along GB1 & 2 is the water from the fish tank, the smaller 40mm pipes are distributing the water along the sides of the GBs

GB1 has mature gravel and has just been partly planted:
lettuce, celery (up the top of the GB), rhubarb (transplanted from old GB1) and a mixture of tom plants

GB2 also has mature gravel from old GB2, planted with:
lettuce, VB's oat seeds , spinach (growing but not fast), silver beet (ready shortly), wong bok, celery (transplanted form old bed) and some more toms

GB3 has new gravel....watching to see if there is any growth difference as plants are similar to GB2...also have basil transplant (looking a bit sick), more celery transplants, beans and peas

Excellent work Les. Love the gate - I'll definitely look at making something similar for my tank, though as I will never be using to divide tank to grow different fish, I'll probably remove after use (will only use to help in harvest). Will simply remove current outer pipe and insert gate set any time I want to harvest.

Lover yer work old fella

Nice work i think you should have it removable as the fish like to swim a round the tank into the current [ the ones at the fish farm constantly circle the tank]

Very nice Les... everything looks so healthy...

Yep, made it removable, if u look at the main tank shot, it is in the background.

Not really going to use it to separate different species (although it could be used for that), thinking more along the lines of having different growth rates in fish that may be cannibalistic (e.g. barra)

Yep Rope, the GH cover is certainly helping with this cold weather to keep the plants happy....this morning was 1c on the verandah - 6c in GH and quickly rose to 10+ and beyond as soon as the sun hit it...VB u definitely need a GH (pleasant 24c inside at 10:30 this morning )

The AP divider looked so nice in the tank that I had to show you all

Forgot to add, there is 4 goldies swimming around in the big tank, will check readings this w'end before moving SP into it

Attach a motor to constantly rotate the gates around the tank. So you can have division of the different sized fish, plus make sure they get their exercise.

Awesome work, Les!

Sort of a slow fish mixer?
You are the Man Les. Great set up.

You know that he'll probaby try that now.................. love the gates, mate.

Good stuff Ell you sure are an inspriation

very nice ell,

good to see you've been busy at it as usual.

keep it up mate.

Better idea....make the gates fixed and rotate the tank, BYAP version of the Nimbin ferris wheel....it can be called an AP merry-go-round....put a couple of balloons underneath and it R O C K S ! ! !