Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello all.

Steve has been on at me for ages to setup one of these aquaponics systems.

He came up with a nice enough looking design but failed to convert me to stock the pool with fish.

Here are some pictures.

All in all i quite like the look of things EXCEPT for the bucket with the gravel, it sticks out like a sore thumb.

What i was thinking was to put the gravel in an extra section of 100mm pipe that will sit horizontal on the roof line like in one of the pictures.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this idea. I guess i can always try it and modify if it doesn't work out.

The fish tank (4ft aquarium) and pump have not been installed yet

A half circle insert has been put into the 90* elbow on the right where the vertical drop is so that the water level in the first pipe is maintained at the bottom of the net pot.

G'day Emir, you can see Steve isn't the one gonna be doing the harvesting - that bucket is a target for a footy if there is boys next door too

I like it, you could add an extra pipe run in between the 2 for added grow pots ...what type of media are you going to put in the horizontal lengths, or will they be empty

The timber used for the "bucket stand" will that rot if it is constantly wet (from rain) - please be advised that Steve's bathtub took on a lean......nup, better not mention that

Welcome!

Just an idea - what if you use gravity to get the water from the aquarium to the bucket to a sump - and then pump it through the pipes? That way, the bucket can be placed under the aquarium instead of on the roof.

I think that if you put all the gravel in a section of pipe, you have a very small surface area where oxygen can get into the pipe, so it might not work as well as the bucket.

Anyways, good luck with your system!

Hey Emir n welcome, firstly I would put one of those ugly roof top aircon intakes on ya roof to take the focus away from the BUCKET lol...........actually the extra length of pipe as a filter is a good idea...Im using the same idea on part of my system, going to fill it with gravel and maybe even some plastic pot scrubbers each end.....still working on that one.

But yeah I was going to run the fish poo thru a length of waterpipe filter then thru the netpot pipes.......

Hi Xzorby
I dont quite understand your suggestion, could you explain it in more detail for me. Thanks

Hi mate ...

U gonna lift water to the bucket from your fish tank ... continuous or on a timer?

U gonna put flower pots in the holes? Expanded clay in the flowerpots?

Interesting .. similar to my system, but I am flooding and draining ...
Low light so I am not getting the growth that I was expecting .. but everything is healthy...

Regards

Johnnie

Hi Emir

Welcome to the crew..

I think the heat from the roof would cooked the bacteria in to bucket. How about putting at ground level and pumping up to top pipe run.

what bucket LOL

The sketch is just an idea, not tech right....water levels etc..

That is a good point LB... The bacteria like it dark and relatively cool. Plus having it down the bottom might make it easier to service it when it clogs up or over flows.

Emir, what LB just sketched is exactly what I meant. Just put the gravel bucket lower than the aquarium, and after that a sump, and pump from the sump.

Thanks guys, it makes sense to me now. Would it be worth running the pump continuously? Or have a sensor to only activate it when the sump fills and deactivate it when its empty. This would overcome the potential problem of flow rate difference.

LB, i like the track you're going down, but apart from driling the size of the tank for the outlet i can't see an easy way to do it.

I would have liked to see it operating on only one pump...............any ohter thoughts / refinements?

The poo farm I used to work at used to run their digesters at 37*C thats the temp. that the bacteria worked best at....that aside...why not drop all your pipe work down 1 step and replace the top run with ya pipe biofilter? atleast then all ya pots are in reach and you use one pump

I'll ask this on behalf of Em:

Does any one know of a source for those rubber "grommets" you use when drilling a hole in the side of a tank? I'm sure someone posted a pic of some once................