Alright, finally finished putting together the first backyard aquaponics turnkey system using the new tanks and growbeds. The system took about 3 days to organise it and install it, but there was a lot of figuring out to do for the first time round. With some preparation of components before hand I expect the next one to only take one day to install.

The system consists of a 3000L fish tank, 5 growbeds, a fingerling/yabbie tank, and a drain tank. It's a slightly extravagant system in that it uses three pumps, instead of the usual one or two, but this was necessary because of the layout required, they wanted a more open area in the middle.

In using the fish tank and the fingerling tank, it should be very easy to get a crop of Barra during the summer, and then a crop of trout over the winter, without stressing over when to harvest the mature crop and when to get new fingerlings.

sexy!

VERY neat. I love it!

The fish and plants were put in without any cycling? Didn't the fish water turn orange?
And 55x50L hydroton bags must've cost a fortune!

Way to go Joel..... looking very nice.... a truely professional looking job.

Hope you sell a few mate.... actually, hope you sell a lot... LOL

Edited :

Thought Murray's growbeds were pretty sexy, but I think I like these ones better...... how much do they weight EB???

I take it (in the photos with ute behind) that the left piping feeds the three left growbeds (pump #1), the mid pipe feeds the two right growbeds (pump #2) and the rightmost pipe is the return from the yabbie/fingerling tank (pump #3).

Where's the "drain" tank Eb and what's it's purpose??

nice, all the earthy colours blend well together, look way better with more green though =)

Wow Joel, that looks fantastic!

D'ya think they'd let me move in?

In the pic with the ute behind (IMG_2205 (Medium).jpg) the left pipe is a return from the "three growbeds" drain tank, the middle pipe is the irrigation line out of the fish tank to all grow beds, and the right pipe is from the fingerling tank into the main tank.

You can just see under the growbeds in the last picture, half a blue fdrum that has been painted green, you can also see it in the first picture. This is the drain tank for the three beds, it was a bit hard logistically to try and get the drains across to the fingerling tank.

The other two growbeds drain into the fingerling tank.

The following pic shows the pipe arrangement on that side a bit better.. There will be a propper retaining wall built in the near future, and hedging plants along this face..

I think the growbeds weigh 15-18kg.. Not 100% sure but I can find out..

The hydroton went in sooooo easily, I never want to shovel gravel again.. It was washed out quite well once it went into the growbeds, and although a little orange came through it wasn't bad.. The system is filled with bore water that has a brown tinge to it anyway so it's hard to notice much difference.. The hydroton cost a bit, but if you try and work out how many hours it would cost to do it with gravel, it's so much easier..

Well done Joel! Awesome!

WOW! I LOVE it! Can I have one, please?

I wonder, if I ask Santa nicely.....

To Quote the Wiggles..."That's Fantastic!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Looks terrific EB, Well Done!!!
Sexy SystemsR'Us eh?
Axl

Any problems with the hydroton "floating" when the beds are flooded EB??

Na, no floating problems...

It's running on standpipes, and the standpipes are cut to about 4cm below the surface. Capillary action keeps the next 2-3cm damp, and the top 1-2cm is dry on the surface...

Man, the joys of planting in hydro.... No digging, you just push the roots down into the media and let go, you can plant a bed in no time...

very nice EB, very sexy indeed