Gday all,

After lurking around here for a while I decided to try a bit of Aquaponic action. Having previously grown vegetables out here in Kalgoorlie (in the ground) and not liking the huge water requirement to do so, this seems like the ideal way to grow them.


The beginning



A bit of digging.





A mixture of Hydroton and Perlite.

1500 l/h pump from the "B"



1 week in...



Mixture of goldfish (10) and little runaround skinny things (10) and a googly eyed black one

What would be the best thing to do next? Should I add seasol and how much?

Welcome OutbackOZ.... good to see you here.

How are you "flooding" the half-pipes... just a continouos pump and drip feed through holes in the tubing?

Is it 13mmm tubing?

you could give the plants a foliar spray of seasol (I always have to look at the bottle to get the rates )

Wow!

lol forgot to say what the flow was

13mm poly from pump to a irrigation filter to get rid of the largest stuff.
Poly has a little hole punched in it with a 3mm drill bit under the grow media, about 2 feet apart. Any more and the channels get too full and overflow.
Returns back to the pond via a 13mm tap to control the back pressure and hence amount of water from said holes in poly.

Runs on a $4.95 timer from "B" 15 mins on, 30 mins off, and nothing from 6pm to 6am.

have you got air supply to the tank over night?

Only concern with the 13mm poly / 3mm holes is they will probably block very quickly once you start pumping the fish feed water through them and the biofilm builds up....

You might have to re-think.... bit tricky, as I take your point about the flow rate overfilling the tubes

I'm sure there'll be people here who can find a solution eh folks ...

No i have not....would it really be necessary? They are not big fish, and they seem happy so far. I would need a solar bubler because i am not running another 240v line out here.
Ideas? Will the fish start to show signs of stress from low 02 or will they just keel over?

The filter catches anything that will block the holes, when the filter gets full I put the contents into a can and cast over the beds

And there is only about 10 holes in the whole thing, so its not hard to stick a nail in if it gets a bit slow, everything gets really wet anyways.

Goldies are tuff, but I don't know if they'd be tuff enough to survive overnite without aeration.... one for the aqarium folks...

Remember also that the system will deplete oxygen through the night as a natural process....

Another point OutbackOZ.... things get pretty hot out your way during the day don't they??

Should imagine the water in a small volume like a bathtub will get pretty hot.... I'd suggest that you'd probably need to shade the bathtub for reasons of temperature and to prevent algae bloom.... might help keep out windblown contaminants and dust as well.

Putting in a floating thermometer next week after i visit kmart.

I am hoping that the contact with the ground, the tub is in the shade, will keep the water cool enough.

The water hasnt got hot in the last week, 38 on sunday will have to see how it goes.

What is the warmest it can get?
If it goes higher will cover.
I might raise the bathtub water level a bit as well.

Good thinking.... you'll also pick up some ambient temperature from the growbed media, until the plants cover it, and possibly a bit from the dirt base the tubes are placed on...

Your perlite might help retain a little moisture during the "off" cycles, but it doesn't retain a lot of water.... nor does hydroton.... maybe vermiculite might have been a better option.

Try and measure how dry and hot the tube beds get during the day....

Have you noticed the plants wilting at all.... obvious solution is to alter the pumping cycles if needed

The only plants that are not happy so far are the lettuce.

The tomatoes, celery, strawberries, cucumber and chilies are doing fine.

The media stays wet at the bottom until the next cycle starts, but sunday will be the test. As the weather get warmer i can change the cycle in 15 min intervals.

Gold fish are tough i have 15 or so living in a stock trough (300lts), that has nothing at all, no bubbler nothing i just top the water up every couple of weeks, they have been in there for 2 years, the thing had an inch of water in it when i bought the place. Just filled it and they appeared.


springa

burying the bath is a good start, but I think that you will probably have to shade the whole thing for summer. The plants will fry and the fish will boil if the water and sun gets too much.
Try it for a while, but maybe be prepared