Beginners Luck

[xkeys]

Hello to all
My name is Dave & I live in the Hunter valley NSW on 8 acres.
After watching Gardening Australia I became hooked on the idea of aquaponics. Hence my first thread.
My hobbies are breeding goldfish & gardening so it seemed like a natural progression to take a step towards aquaponics. I especially like the idea of raised garden beds & no weeding.
I have lots of questions to ask so I'll start with the basics.
Firstly this is the equipment I have available.
I bred my golfish in a round poly cattle trough. It measures 2.2metres across & is 550mm deep (approx 7 foot x 2foot) Does anyone know how to convert this to litres.
Also I have 4 bathtubs on stands which aren't being used for fish as location was too hot.
I also have a small onga pump. Not sure what the flow rate is but it has a gate valve to control flow.
Would my tank be enough to supply the four tubs if they were converted to grow beds.
I plan to start with a continuous flow as I don't know how a flood & drain system works.I thought I'd pump into tubs & gravity feed back to fishpond. Is this Ok or do I need bio filters in the system somewhere.
Any information to get started would be greatly appreciated.
Perhaps there is someone in my area with a setup that I could look at.
I'm sure there will be lots more to learn but I'm keen to take the first few steps.
Thanks
Dave

[bunya boy]

Your poly tank, assuming it has straight sides, has a 2090 litre capacity. Each cubic metre contains 1000 litre, (water has a mass of 1Kg per Litre so the full tub has a mass of 2 tonne!).
The formula to get the volume for a cylinder is (Pi x radius squared) x depth.
ie (3.1416 x 1.1 x 1.1) x 0.55= 2.090 cubic metre.
Cheers.

[xkeys]

Bunya Boy
Many thanks for that formula. You can tell it's been quite a while since I left school.
Would that quantity be enough to run 4 bathtubs set up as growbeds on a continuous flow. ie Would it provide enough nutrients.I have plenty of water & was going to fill tubs first.
If so can you advise me which is the best type of growing medium to use.
I cant afford a greenhouse just yet & was going to try building a frame about 3 feet above the tubs & covering it with laserlite or something similar.
That's if it ever stops raining.
Thanks
xkeys

[Martin A1]

Welcome xKeys!

Scour this site for ideas and information. Many of the new and existing system threads contain the information you are after.

I reckon' your 4 bath tubs will work well with a 1,000 - 2,000 ltr water tank capacity.

Continuos flow versus flood and drain... what ever you reckon you can make it work (you'll work it out as you go.. like most of us). Most use flood and drain but many advocate continuous flow??

I suspect that your Onga pump will be a bit powerful but give it a go after some thought and research. If your pump can move 3,000 ltrs per hour then in 1/3rd of an hour you can move 1,000ltrs which would more than fill 4 X 400 ltr baths full of gravel. Get your set-up going and fill it with water and you will work it out.

Now for the growing medium... it all depends on how much you want to spend. It ranges from standard 10 or 20mm blue metal through to scoria or even expanded clay balls. Most posts on this site would indicate that you will be successful with all most any gravel media. It is more about the quality of your water and bacteria levels that matter more than the gravel.

Lastly you mention a laserlite frame 3 foot above your grow beds? This is a good idea but 3 foot isn't nearly enough as it will limit your plant growing options. Some plants you can grow like corn and tomatoes grow heaps taller than 3 ft so don't limit yourself. A cover on your ponds is a first priority I reckon.

Hope this helps.... the best thing is to read through the forum and most of all make a start on your own system posting pictures and questions along the way.

Your personal experience, questions and learnings will benefit those that follow and maybe those that lead the way too, so rip into it mate!

PS Here's an online calculator site you might find useful.. http://www.online-calculators.co.uk/volumetric/cylindervolume.php

[twintragics]

Hi Martin,
bathtubs are great for growbeds when ur watching the pennies. I have 8 inline in my greenhouse draining to a 90mm stormie and back to sump then fishtank.
Rough approximation is 40% water per grow bed volume during the pump cycle. Your growbeds equate to approx 1000lts so you would have at most 400lts out of your fishtank during the pump cycle. With an approx 2000lt fishtank, still leaves plenty water for the fishies!
Good luck and welcome to the madness.

[redleg]

Hi Dave
i have a similar tank from reln 600 deep
same diameter claims to be 2500 litres.
also hunter region , port stephens.
not in action yet but helping a friend experiment.
lesson learned today - have backup aeration.
several fish died lastnight from a stupid popped fuse.
previously many died of "pump journey" problems.
very few died of health problems.
frustrating fun so far -we'll master it yet.
if we had started with backup air supply and
filters smaller than the fish there would be
many more fish in the district today!!
dont let my negative comments drag you down.
i had a bad morning but we started with eggs and
some fish the size of mosquitos and would have
got most thru if not for silly mechanical / electrical faults.
a wiser person would buy fingerlings.
all the best to you
redleg

[xkeys]

Redleg
Thanks for the reply
Sorry to hear your fish died. I guess thats a lesson we've all learned over the years.
I'm still trying to get the time to get started. Because of all the rain I'm having to work late to catch up.It's frustrating because I really want to get my system up & running. On the bright side the longer I take to get started the more I learn about it so it will help me to avoid some of the mistakes others have made.
The forum is great but I have to get my daughter off the internet first.

At present I'm going to start my system using my goldfish. Once I get it running I'll buy some silver perch at Tocal & move the golfish inside.
Someone suggested my Onga pump might be a bit big so I'm going to use a 12v pump connected to a battery. I'll keep the battery charged with a charger & also run a 240v aerator. That way if the power goes out (quite often up here) the water feeding back into the fish pond wil create some aeration.
Let me know how you are doing over there. Maybe we can catch up one day & compare notes.
xkeys

[Martin A1]

xkeys and redleg,

If you are both around the port stephens area then you need to go an take a look at the following commercial operations for not much else than out of interest.

Aquablue Hatchery is just off the main road leading into Tea Gardens, look it up. These guys are breeding lots of salt water species too.

The other place is called Tailor Made Fish Farms which is near Lemon Tree Passage (Nelson Bay). They are not open to the public but by chance I stayed at a farm stay last weekend two doors down and the owner (of the farm stay) told me that they are planning to open to the public in the near future. I should have climbed a couple of fences to sneak some pics for you guys but ran out of time with the kids and in-laws all over me :mad:

[xkeys]

Thanks to all
After some considerable time I have managed to get some gravel for my grow beds, although my trailer would only hold enough for two bathtubs. So another trip to the big smoke to get more.
I've set the growbeds up (4 bathtubs in line ) & connected them via the drainplugs to my fishpond with 50mm pvc pipe.
I have a pump set up that takes the water from the pond up to the growbeds.The drainholes on the four growbeds are higher than the fishpond so all the water gravity feeds back to the fishtank.
Maybe I need to send some photo's of setup, but for the meantime can anyone tell me how the water is distributed over the growbeds.
I've scoured the forum for info but can't find any information on how to get a basic setup.
Maybe everyone is miles in front of me.
Thanks
Xkeys

[Murray]

Hi Xkeys,
It is usual to make up a simple grid to distribute the water. However it is not all that critical. I have some beds with a grid that goes all around the outside perimeter, and others that just have a run of pipe down the middle. By the way, the pipe used by most is 25mm pvc high pressure with 4 to 6mm holes drilled every 200mm ...approx.
I have seen grow beds that simply have the water deposited at one end. That bed appeared to work ok. The logic behind distributing the water as evenly as possible over the surface of the grow bed is to distribute the solids evenly.
However, in the short term it does not appear to make much difference which method you adopt. Long term I would stick with accepted practice and make up a grid that distributes the water as evenly as possible.
See examples in pix below.

[nick]

you can either make a grid to ditribute the water or you can just run the pipes to the distant end of bath tub away from the drain and have a single outlet.

The benefit of the grid is that the particle buildup is spread around the bed, but large particles do not remove themselves from the pipes so well. The need to clean out the pipes every so often is present in both methods.

In the single outlet technique all of the water is emptied at the end of the bed in a pipe with no holes. This does have the downfall in that the particles build up at this site and the gravel needs to be scraped to aid in the distribution. If i was to rebuild my system i would use this technique as I feel the grid is doing very little.

[GaryD]

Hi,

I use the single pipe along the centre of the grow bed.....similar to the first image in Murray's post.

It distributes the water along the full length of the bed and it can be removed very quickly for periodic cleaning. With heaving feeding, the amount of solid waste can be considerable.

GaryD

[xkeys]

Garry,Murray & Nick
thanks for the feedback.
I've set up a length of black poly pipe (using whats available till I can get to town)along the length of the growbeds. Holes every 200mm.
The growbeds gravity feed back to the fishpond via a 50mm pipe with 2 outlets. One is set at the bottom of the growbed height & the other is level with the top. Which water level should I be using. ie should the grow beds be constantly full of water (&constantly draining)or should I just use the lower outlet which means the plants are more or less just under constant irrigation.If I close off the bottom outlet the tubs stay full of water.
Is this how its done.
I purchased some lettuce,cauliflour & shallot seedlings some weeks ago & my wife planted half in the garden & I put the other half in the growbeds.
At this stage the garden is winning because the white moths are destroying everything in the growbeds except the lettuce. Hence the urgency to get the greenhouse built.
Please help. I hate it when she wins.

[Murray]

You need to have it flood then drain. Flood all the time will drown the plants.

[GaryD]

Hi,


....or should I just use the lower outlet which means the plants are more or less just under constant irrigation.

This is continuous flow and it will work if the plants are close enough to where the water comes out of your supply pipe.

I prefer flood and drain.....where the water fills the tank and then drains completely. On my systems this usually happens on an hourly basis.....15 minutes filling and 45 minutes draining.

You can control the pumping cycle using an electric timer and/or float switch (or both together).....or an autosyphon.....depending on your preferences. My main AP system runs on a timer and standpipe arrangement but autosyphons are good too....once you've tuned them properly.

GaryD

[Aquatic Oasis]

Hi mate,
Another variation on the flood and drain using the exsisting outlets would be to use the bottom outlet as the flood in and drain out point. You could do this by using a timer, when the pump is on you will start to flood the bed from the bottom. This process continues till the level of the water reaches the top outlet (high level overflow). When this occurs the timer switches the pump off and the water in the bed then drains through the bottom outlet. Some considerations are the flood time and making sure that the pump can back cycle(most aquarium and pond pumps will do this).

[Hamish]

Hi - I read that you were not going to use the large pump because the flow was too big. This is not a bad thing - just use what you want to feed the grow beds throttled back with irregation taps - and loop the rest of the flow back to the fish tank - possibly with a venturi to airate the water. Also gives the fish some current to play in :)