Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi All,

Have been browsing the forum intensly for the past couple of weeks.

Was hooked on the idea of building a system after a few days, but the "accountant" could not justify spending money on new equipement until a prototype run. So, I put a small system together using my old aquarium gear and bits and pieces from old projects I had lying around. Only thing new some of the structural pine, and the media.

The system is a sumpless flood and drain, pump alternating 30mins on/off, 150-180L fish tank with 50L of expanded clay growbed. No syphons, fill/drain rate controlled by the number of holes in the standpipes.

Tank is tall and thin, salvaged from my year 12 design and tech project where I put a fish tank in an otto/wheelie bin. Pump is a rena aquarium canister filter. Grow beds are two old 30L water cubes sut in half. Frame is built from an old fabication bench I ripped apart, and clad with left over colorbond from pagola.

Tank and pump sit on inner frame. Outter/upper frame holds growbeds above tank, and rolls over the the inner frame using casters/wheels. The same design would work using a blue barrel as fish tank (can SketchUp the plans if there is genuine interest).

Currently have 5 yabbies, a self sown tomato plant I "not so lovingly" ripped from the front garden, and various seeds. Letus stated sending down roots after 24hrs...but I've now lost them. Basil has sprouted after about 3-4 days, tomato seeds puting down roots, Zuchini doing sweet FA.

Plans are to put edging/flashing on cladding, and build a yabbie condo out of pipe offcuts to allow more stocking than the tank floor space can afford.

Have already bought 500L growbed for my second system.

Hi luke
if thats your protoype i look forward to seeing your 'real' system nice and neat

one thing, your GBs are flooding a little to high. to fix just fill the rest of the GBs up with hydroton

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Science: An attempt to understand the world.
Often contains big words that are unnecessary

Freo system | Spearwood

Hi Freoboy,

Thanks, I was just lucky i had the supplies lying around. My larger system might end up being a little more ghetto (or however you spell it).

I started fixing that the over flooding prob shortly after I took the pics.

Have drilled the max overflow holes for the stand pipes further down. There are some holes at the bottom of the standpipe for slow drain, and larger ones at the level where I want the water to reach max height. Unfortunately it takes a bit of experimenting to get it right, luckly I have more conduate to play with if I stuff up.

I might buy a bag of pebbles to top up. Not going to buy a whole bag of hydro just to fill a little

Buy the whole bag, you can never have too much hydroton lying around.

Welcome

Thats a great lookin set up you have.

_________________
~2010/2011~
~2012/2013~
~My Yabbie Hunting Adventures~

A 5 day update since last plant pics.

Note that fish tank was well cycled using the canister filter for a period of about 2 week prior introducing grow beds and seeding.

Clockwise from top left:
Bed 1: Roma tomattos sprouting, plus growth from the "wild" grape tom plant
Bed 2: Zuchini sprouted
Bed 3: Basil sprouts, carrot seeds in cotton have not sprouted yet (planted on Oct 29th)
Bed 4: Letus just sprouting after loss of first batch (fix problem by adjusting flood level and flow rate in letus tub + sowing letus seeds on kitchen paper to avoid sinking)



Beans have been thrown in various beds at same time as carrot seeds, some have sent down runners, but are not sprouting yet.

Alge in tank has reduced since I clad the outter frame with colorbond (day prior to first photos).

Cheers.
Luke.

Arr and so it begins!..... 4x 20 litre bottles next it will be 4x 2000 litre tanks haha nice and neat ummm ( looking at own system now where did I put that facing board)

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User, n. The word computer professionals use when they mean "idiot."

A recycled system, nice. And nice looking as well.

_________________
Mr Bill

The difference between a dream and a goal is a plan. You just have to be able to modify the plan.

Mr Bill's System
Mr Bill's Future System
Mr Bill's Dirt Garden

thanks guys... I try :p



Too late. Already have the 500lt growbed + IBC sitting in backyard. Blue barrels in negotiations. Will hopefuly post sketchup plan for comments in coming days.

Very neat and tidy looks great.

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UpNorth

Very rarely when the ship misses the harbor is it the harbors fault.

Thanks for all the kudos on the system neatness.

If I had to do over I would also hinge the front cladding panel as a door. Because the way the hoses run back to the fish tank on the inside makes it hard to roll it all the way off the lower frame to get to fileter and storage space at the front.

Hi all,

Below are very accurate plans (down to within 1cm) for the large CHIFT PIST system I will start building within the next week. Comments would be much appreciated to stear me away from disaster. I got lazy with some of the pipework detail.

Expected specs:

• ~800L of growbeds (GB), ~700L fish tank (FT)
• timed flood and drain with 40mm stand pipes
• expect 4000-6000L/hr pump
• ~600L total blue barrel sump system with one barrel as pump+fingerlinger/yabbie tank, all barrels have breather holes/space where pipes enter/exit
• 40mm pipping between sump barrels and between sump and FT (FT max overflow return and pump out)
• 90mm SLO+breather with bottom suction pipe (ala. arbes system viewtopic.php?f=18&t=8529&start=45&hilit=SLO#p266196)
• 90mm pipping to GB
• 40mm flow tap outlets at GBs, downward facing for better solids removal (thanks Simo viewtopic.php?f=18&t=8529&start=45&hilit=SLO#p267491)
• timber framing 150mmx75mm (or larger?) with 400mm concreted footings subground
• 40mm RHS steel GB "tables"
• nepean/pea gravel media
• sun most of day

Disclaimer:
While there is a lot of talk about separating growbeds for ease of access, I am mindful of space in my small yard, am quite tall, and only plan to grow tall plants in the thin bed. Likewise, I have put the sump under the GBs to save space in my small yard. The steel tabletops are an odd shape becuase they are frame parts from an off road buggy I never finished building due to $$$. I plan to insulate the tank and clad the whole outside of the system, as well as build table top green houses over the GBs.

My questions, if you would be kind enough to answer:
1) Do people think that 150x75mm treated pine timber will be strong enough to take the weight of the GBs, considering that I have steel table tops and will concret them into the ground?
4) Is it okay to have the SLOs breather hole above tank height considering I have the FT max overflow pipe running back to sump.
2) is a 90mm SLO and FT to GB piping overkill for a system this size? I plan to add an additional IBC tank and GB at a later stage on the other side to current GBs.
3) are 40mm standpipes overkill in this system

Cheers,
Thanks in advance.

Another angle of sump pipping showing the sump overflow...will probably run the end of it it to somewhere more sensible.

That's some good Sketchuping.
(I'm not qualified to give advice on this type of setup, just encouragement.)
What is the approval rating from the Finance Minister?

_________________
Mr Bill

The difference between a dream and a goal is a plan. You just have to be able to modify the plan.

Mr Bill's System
Mr Bill's Future System
Mr Bill's Dirt Garden

Cheers,

So far I've been able to do it on the cheap and claim I can come in under $500. So the accountant/minister is happy.

IBC and growbed has cost me a total of $180 so far after prudent monitoring on Gum Tree. Pump should be around $165-$200. Blue barrels free (I think they will be). That leaves me around $120-$150 for some timber, PVC pipe, and gravel. So I should make it.

Fish are not included in budget..will start cycling with cheapies + yabbies. Cycling should be fast because my other system is already cycled with the auqarium bio filter. Plus I have a spare small bio filter that I can run in the other system for a while, then transfer to the big system.