Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

OK,

I managed to get some time away from moving wall rocks and generally getting organised for the oncoming fire season to get a few things organised as far as the AP system is concerened.

What I have in mind is a system similar to the "CHIFT PIST" , though I may need to get a second pump and some float switches because I wish to go with the flood and drain idea.

essentially my system will be two 500L tanks for holding the fish, these were being sold by the B shop recently as grey water tanks though a competitor was selling them cheaper as rain water tanks. needless to say at $98 each I baught 3, the 3rd one will be set up on the chook shed to supply water for the raptors.

The sump will be a "Ozpond", I believe it's at least 750L, I will probably start the system with this holding some yabbies and maybe some feeder fish.

The grow beds will be either four or five (I have five) 160 litre poly boxes, sorry I dont have the dimensions but at $35 each I thought why not...I do know they are 350mm deep which is what I was mainly worried about when buying them.

I'll try and get some photos of everythin tonight after work, though the pond is still at my parents place.

One thing I did try is set up one of the potential grow beds with a bell syphon... apart from one hiccup..the outer tube kept floating up . It worked straight away...

I will post progress as it happens.

H.

Welcome Himzol!

I like the chift pist setup. I can't remember if EB has his this way, but if I had enough vertical space I would organize a system as (top to bottom) beds, fish, beds, sump. The pump would be in the sump and pump up to the top level beds. All further flows would be from gravity overflow and siphons in the beds to make them flood and drain. The beds after the fish would pick up solids to filter them out so that the sump didn't accumulate solids. The top beds would get water without solids in it.

Thanks Dave,

I've actually been around for a while, just reading a lot more than contributing.

I would have posted some photo's tonight but it's raining here

Sooooo.... did the camera get wet or something??

Ok, we got a new camera

here is a begining, basically two grow beds and the pond that will eventually be the sump tank.

At the moment the water is just circulating, nothing to Cycle as yet. I still have to do soem "fiddling" with the syphons otherwise it's onto the next two grow beds and then the fish tank.

I may start cycling with this lot to save myself some time.

Yep get 'em cycling Himzol.... make the addition of more tanks/growbeds/fish easier in the future

What's a CHIFT PIST? (excuse my ignorance)

Constant Hight in Fish Tank (CHIFT) Pump In Sump Tank (PIST)

i think thats right

Yep that's correct, have a look at this thread,I'm basing it on that. http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum ... php?t=1470
I have a slope on my block and am going to try and take advantage of that. Only problem I do have is direct sunlight and the fact that we want to rebuild the house in a couple of years time and as yet I don't have any idea where the shadow areas will be. So everything has to be reasonably mobile.

Just a quick question,

Does anybody know of anywhere in Adelaide where I can pick up 4 or 5 Silvers to start cycling with?

I thought of using yabbies or feeder fish but would preffer to go with silvers or something that may wind up on the table (if it survives).

H.

KE - you should have tried the search function

Sorry, I thought I'd read all 85766 posts, I must have missed that one.

It's probably alot cheeper to buy 20 goldies, you'd probably pay $5 each for a silver at a petshop. There's a guy down near Meadows who sells cheep goldies ...

$8 here for a 2 incher

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you'd probably pay $5 each for a silver at a petshop. There's a guy down near Meadows who sells cheep goldies ...[/quote]

Thanks KE and Steve,

In the mean time I rang soladome and they have some Silvers for $4 each, and seeing as I only want four or five I think it's fair, and reasonably conveniant as it's generally on my way home (if I'm not out on location).

I do know of another place that deals with ponds and such that has them for $10, yes it's predominantly a pet store.

I will do a water test before I add the fish tonight to see what I'm starting with.

H.

I picked up six silvers (they through one in for free) from soladome and some bioballs which were in thier barra tank to help kick start the cycling.

I did a water test before adding fish and bioball and the results were:

PH = 7.6, Ammonia = 0, NO2 = 0, No3 = 5.0