hey brains trust just designing a pond Im led to believe that rather than running a filter (well in Perth) you can run tru hydro rocks and filter thru a garden bed. And let the plants desolve the ammonia nitrates. ? anyone had much to do with this?

just looking at the cost effectiveness If i have to run a pond may aswel make the filter a scrumptious vegetable garden?

I've looked into this a little while ago. Still interested but wasn't a priority. Using aquaponics as 'side thought' to a pond might be space dependent. Ie if you have a 200lt pond, you would need 200l of medium in your garden bed to filter the water. Considering the plant bends are only fairly thin, you could take up a lot of area.
That being said, a bloke just up the road from me does it using 20lt drums cut in half and his backyard is like a jungle of veggies.

Could you let us know how you get on?

Haven't you got an enormous evaporation problem for most of the year?

So the volume of the garden bed has to be the same roughly as the size of the pond. So be better to divert water seperatly to a section.
The heating in summer would be a problem cause of the depth! cool cheers !

My Koi pond runs two spill ponds feeding back into the main pond using plants as the only filtration. No problems at all.
Water is crystal clear most of the year round and all fish are healthy. (17 Koi ranging from 15 - 45cms)
The plants thrive and grow so quick.
I add a couple of handfulls of powdered zeolite every few months to the main pond as well.

I've been running an aquaponics setup for a couple of years, it works well. Fish twice a year, veggies year round...

You don't need to have the same volume of fish tank as filter, the volume of filter is more dependant on the biomass of fish than anything else. I have about 700 litres of fish tank, and about 300 litres of garden bed. A good rule of thumb is to circulate your entire fish tank volume through your filter once per hour. I set this up to run 15 minutes on, and 45 minutes off. This makes the water level fluctuate in the garden bed, some plants like this.

The biggest problem with aquaponics is the power supply. If you run an extension cord out into the back yard then you have issues with it tripping the earth leakage breaker when it rains. What I did was set up a solar powered system, 120 watt panel with a deep cycle lead acid battery, brushless 12V pump (don't use a 'sump pump', they will break down within 6 months), homemade computerized pump / air bubbler sequencer. Don't be tempted to try using an inverter with a solar system, that route is dangerous and inefficient and will lead to pain.

Use expanded clay balls for your garden bed, there is a wealth of information here as well:
www.backyardaquaponics.com/

Let me know if you want more info.

^^^^^
Nebs, what type of fish, or do you have yabbies?

Best I've found is trout in winter, barramundi in summer. Both feed well, and grow to plate size in 6 months.

The other alternative is silver perch which can go year round, but take 12-18 months to get to plate size. They don't feed as much, so the plants don't grow nearly as quickly. I've got silvers in there now, but will be getting some trout in the next few weeks.

hey buster i hear your little pond is about 3 million liters

Pick your brain again Gentlemen.

Nebbian


1) is your pond in direct sunlight or undercover?

2)Is the grow bed in full sunlight?


3)Also in summer would the algae build up be enough to support the garden if the pond does not have fish in it?

4) Is there a direct relationship between the amount of fish in the pond and the size of the grow bed?

5) The pond thats being built will run storm-water run off in winter and then bore-water in summer. Do barramundi and trout live well in a varied water supply. Does any new water need treatment? If so could bore-water be added via the grow bed and the plants treat it?




Woodo

1)Hey woodo what the size of your grow beds and pond?

2)Also how deep is your pond and is it covered (in a shady area)?

3) aquaculture garden beds are made usually made out of thin materials like plastic or them quarter corrugated sheeting. Does the thickness of the thin layered grow bed help to dissipate heat?

4)Do you use a waterfall or spurting fountain to provide aeration?
I guess what im getting is if i was to form the grow bed out of 4 inched of concrete would it cause the vegetables to "cook"



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(don't use a 'sump pump', they will break down within 6 months) Great point the pond design especially outdoor will accumulate sand etc so the (submersible pumps wear a lot quicker.) a better design is using gravity to filter application on a centrifugal (pool pump) as illustrated below ! This will provide more pressure & flow ultimately use less power.
The disadvantage of the centrifugal pump for aquaculture is that the water pressure side is filtered!

submersible



centrifugal.

.

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Underoath said...
hey buster i hear your little pond is about 3 million liters

Once the power poles have burnt down power goes out ill just use a 5.5 hp petrol

looks like its raining barra next bushfire










When i get it all up and running you have to give us the rundown on them nuclear chillis!

1) Fish tank is undercover, otherwise you get a big algae buildup.
2) Grow bed is in full sunlight, you need this for the plants to grow.
3) No, plants can't survive by eating other plants. They need the nitrates that are created from the ammonia that comes from fish poo.
4) Yes, it depends on the amount you feed the fish. You need around one square metre of grow bed area per 50 grams of feed per day. I actially have a lot more grow bed area than this, which is safer.
5) You need to be careful when doing full water changes, but top ups of less than 30% of the fish tank volume are fine. Barra need summer temps, trout need winter temps, neither can be run all year round in Perth.

Dig around on here and all your questions will be answered:
www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/

Thanks Nebs Legend!

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busterwa said...


Woodo

1)Hey woodo what the size of your grow beds and pond?

2)Also how deep is your pond and is it covered (in a shady area)?

3) aquaculture garden beds are made usually made out of thin materials like plastic or them quarter corrugated sheeting. Does the thickness of the thin layered grow bed help to dissipate heat?

4)Do you use a waterfall or spurting fountain to provide aeration?
I guess what im getting is if i was to form the grow bed out of 4 inched of concrete would it cause the vegetables to "cook"

My grow beds approx 1 x 1.5m ovals. 2 of them. The pond is approx 3m x 1.5m and around .5m deep.
Heaps of plants all around so it's shaded for most of the day. I do get a bit of evaporation in the warmer months which is to be expected.
Both spill ponds/grow beds are a thin fiberglass which i've built soil and plants up around the sides to keep cooler.
Pond water is pumped straight from pond into spill ponds which then flow directly back into the pond providing aeration and filteration.