Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Monya just wanted to copy willow with having his fish tank in the shed, isn't that right mon?

yeah, gee, you read me like a book

yep, you'll be asking for a grant soon..........

The best way to secure greenhouse film is with a product (look for name today) that is made up of aluminimummmm rails that have a plastic insert that locks in the film, I have tried many other methods and this seems the longest lasting. It can be re used many times.

You can buy double skin plastics now if you have the bucks.

The other option is to go down to W A Young at 20 Bennet St Melrose Park, SA. I bought shade cloth from them and they have lots of good kits and parts. I am saving up for one of thier glass houses.

rails are called duralock

Glad we're back online. I've had to change my plans significantly and just as I was going to ask for wise (or not so wise ) advice, the forum was gone

Ok I've run into a major problem: due to circumstances beyond my control it looks we'll be moving again in around a year, so I've decided not to get 8 square metres of gravel and build enormously robust beds....

So now I'm at plan b: (diagram to follow later):

I keep the fish tank & greenhouse; but now I replace the beds with 100mm PVC (white) pipe on an Aframe (1.6 metres high and wide which gives me roughly 30cm veritical distance and 10 cm horizontal between pipes and 7 x 6M pipes per side). Every 20 cm I'll cut a round hole and put a 10cm ish pot full of gravel or expanded clay in each. Each pipe will be watered using flood/drain (ie all pipes get flooded/drained at once with each pipe having seperate inlet/outlet). I calculate this would take around 1000L of water so my 5000 litre fish tank will still have 4000L left to hold fish.

The water from the fish tank will be siphoned using a Ventura siphon (is that the right spelling) into a bulky bin which will contain my Marron.

Water from the Marron bulky bin will be pumped through a solids basket (to catch the big solids that don't get left in the marron tank) and then through 3 or 4 200 litre bead filters in parallel before going to the greenhouse

The bead filters are basically 66% full of plastic Polypropelene beads and water is pumped under pressure in the bottom and passes through the beads. I plan to have the filters aeriated to encourage bacteria growth, and to keep the bacteria going between flood/drain cycles.

There's still some thought to go into this but I'd appreciate any feedback

In the meantime here's the bead filter link. That describes the filter I intend to modify

Bead filter


Also did anyone see "The new inventors" last night, they had an interesting aquaponics item, Were the "inventors" had designed a farm in a box aquaponics system (although I think using a barrel filter is a mistake). One good idea they had was to put the removed solids into a work farm and then put the liquidised work husks back into the system. I may adopt this for solids removed from the filter basket (or I may see how the bead filters cope with solids).

Just a quick note to let everyone know this thread isn't dead; just dormant

I've moved into my new house and am madly renovating. Unfortunately this has meant I've been too tired to do anything but lurk.

But here's a picture of the Shed which will be housing the indoor component of the AP setup (well it'll be in a corner of the shed anyway). I've only got a little bit of renovating still to do (knock down three walls; rip up a concrete floor; put two new walls in; install new bathroom; laundry; walk in wardrobe; render and paint back of house....install greywater system; plumb a couple of new rainwater tanks...)

Then it's AP time (probably Feb at the rate I'm going)!

Well you should have enough room for the tanks at least.

Lots of potential there E2, that lawn area looks like a good spot for your greenhouse!

Well... February it aint The best laid plans of mice and men etc.

Just thought I'd do a quick update to let people know what progress i've made and where I'm up to (summary follows):

Since I last wrote (typed) I've revamped my ideas (basically because I found some bits and pieces which I could afford and one thing led to another).

So now I have an aboveground swimming pool (4.7 metres diameter) in the shed, which holds around 12KL when 90% full, with a ventura in the middle to suck up the solids and pump (2400 l/h) it through 500 litres of clay balls under a little home made greenhouse. I also have another pump (2400 l/h) taking water from near the top of the pool and pumping it through a greenhouse with DIY NFT troughs (flattened storm water pipe), and another pump (3500 l/h) which drives a dynamic bed filter and provides 24 x 7 aeration.

The clay balls and greenhouse drain to a 250 litre sump with a float switch and a 6000 l/h return pump.

All the internal pumps are hooked to another float switch (just in case water levels drop too much) and the clay ball and greenhouse pumps are on timers

Last Thursday I received 150 Silver Perch from Ausyfish and added 5 goldfish (desperate for ammonia). I've planted a few seeds in my perlite pots (using growcube to hold the seed) and transplanted a few plants from pots (strawberries etc).

I've also gone nuts on temperature monitoring and put a min/max (inside/outside) temperature monitor in the greenhouse and hope to have on for the pool by thursday.


Anyway, just received a call from my son, so pictures will have to wait until I get back.

Cool, sounds interesting E2, can;t wait to see some pics...

Those inside outside thermometers that are digital and have the outside sensor on a wire sound ideal for measuring water temps as well as air temps.. Buuuttt.... I found that the sensor does not work properly under water.. I was panicking because the water temps in my fish tank were very high, somewhere around 35 degrees. I tried to cool the water down, covering any gravel that was in the sun, changing out water, etc... Then went and bought a floating glass thermometer and found the water was at about 25... Just keep it in mind, and perhaps compare it with an old style one just to be sure..

hahaha, LOVE those in/out's, but i had the exact problem! was reading about 37C on the tropical tnak, i freaked! its now so bad that it reads 40+C on the murray cod tank. I have found the problem however.

Those particualkr types of thermometers use resistance change to measure temperature. On close inspection of the wire just before the probe i found it to have the insulation cut. If i now submerge it to before that point it seems to be fine. When i remeber i'm going to to put a dab of silicone over that area an i think it will work fine.

E2 sounds like it has been worth the wait..... sounds like you've picked out all the best bits of ideas and combined them into a nice system....

Can't wait to see it

Yep, that's why I've got one on order which is designed to go in water

Well here's some picks (taken at night so they're not the best! I'll take some better ones when I get some daylight to spare)