Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Monya pointed out to me today that I have never actually set up a thread for my large flood and drain system... So I guess I'd better...

Many of you may already know about the design and the construction of my system from reading about it in the book so I won't go into to much detail about the construction.

Well the system has been running for three years now and it's the most trouble free of any of the systems I've built. After a few early teething troubles with working out the flooding cycles, and the draining methods, it has been running faultlessly.

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The system consists of a fish tank thats 1.8m in diameter, by about 0.9m deep, this equates to roughly 2000L. There are then the four growbeds of 1.8m diameter by 0.3m deep, which is about 3000L in total, this gives me a ratio of growbed to fish tank of 1.5:1, well and truly enough growbed volume to support a decent amount of fish in the fish tank..

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The system has been up and running for three years now and there have been a few trials and tribulations, but generally only of my own doing rather than because of the system design or construction.. Like the time I decided that I could keep Barramundi over winter.... Not...

I have had some issues with the sump pump in the drain tank, seals keep blowing in them and in three years I'm now on my third pump.. I really need to look into finding a different type of pump for the sump without seals that can blow...

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Some people think that gravel beds get clogged with roots and old plant matter as well as solid wastes from the fish. About 6 months ago, after the system have been running for 2.5 years, I did a test to look for clogging in the gravel beds.. There was no clogging amongst the gravel apart from new fresh roots from the plants I had just removed from the bed, there were many worms, and I assume these have been very proactive in keeping the levels of solids down in the bed...

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The inspiration that helped get me hooked...

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We care enough to help everybody with AP

This is the gravel bed I dug into pictured above, just before I pulled all of the plants out so that I could replant... Check out the silverbeet that was growing in the middle4 of the bed... That growbed is 1.8m diameter, the plant was well over 1m.

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For those that wonder about what a system can produce in winter time, these pics were taken in the middle of winter here in Perth. Now I know we may have a fairly mild winters compared with some, but we still get a few rfosts where I am, though the AP system doesn't seem to get effected by the frosts as much. Some of the plants thriving in the system during winter include, snow peas, cabbage, silverbeet, brocoli, celery, parsley, chard, chives, mizuna.

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Here are some pictures taken in the last couple of weeks. First picture is of the bed a week after planting it out with seedlings, and the second picture is a week later.

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Simply beautiful!

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John
Hooked on Ponics

More pictures taken in the last week or two.. Everything in this bed except the chives and purple basil was planted 5-6 weeks before these photos were taken. The eggplants are going very well, self seeded tomatoes are sort of taking over a bit.. And notice the snow peas? I grow snow peas in that one spot pretty much all year round. One of the great things with aquaponics, you don't have to rotate crops, so any framework for climbing plants can be left in the one spot.

And beware the chilli........ These beautiful looking chillis pack a tremendous punch.. (oh and this chilli plant is in a different bed, it was grown over summer, not in 5-6 weeks)

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Great looking Habanero Chilli Joel. They certainly do pack a punch.

I've seen your system heaps of times before, but each time I see it I am inspired.

that silverbeet is astonishing wow

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Hi EB,

I like the pea gravel.......much better than the stuff I've seen locally.

Gary

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If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always got.

Hats of to you oh mighty one fabuilous growth fabuilous system I hope when my system is a bit older it looks like that

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If it/s free pick it up
If it isent broke dont fix it

i like the chaos............a little like my philosophy.........."oooh oooh i've found a sq cm of gravel, Plant!" Always nice to see those pics.......and the chillies seem so tame and friendly at a distance

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The only tool you need is a paperclip