A Blast From The Past

Aquaponics System Based on a 600 litre Fish Tank. (Oct 2006)

I decided it was time to upgrade my AP system. I have been running a small system based on a 200 Ltr fish tank and one strawberry tower.

My little Darling and I have had a number of very nice Strawberry and Cream desserts from the strawberry tower. The fruit was very sweet, not at all like the slightly tart strawberries one usually gets in the supermarket.

However the strawberry tower was becoming increasingly blocked. It needed some modifications to improve efficency, but that will be a project for some later time. Frequent tapping with a hammer to clear the blockages was not the way to go for a long term project.

The Fish Tank.

It was a very quick job to transfer the 60 Jade Perch into the new 600 litre tank.
I left it hooked up to the Strawberry tower while I set up a grow bed. The 12 volt pump from the old 200 litre system can be seen still hooked up to take water to the strawberry tower.

I had obtained some poly rectangular tanks that I thought would be good to sell on the website , for people who wanted a medium sized home system, but on testing one tank before sending it out, it proved to be a fizzer. It was just not strong enough to support the weight of the water once filled.

I could not waste the tank, so I figured I would use some old 1" SHS I had lying in the paddock to make a support frame for the 600 ltr tub, and presto, a new Fish Tank.

Every once in a while some of the bigger fish can be seen swimming hard into the water flow that is coming back into the tank from the sump. They appear to be enjoying themselves holding station in the fast flowing water.

The next job was to hook up the mains power submersible pump to move water out from the fish tank to the Grow Bed. I decided I would try one of the, Stainless Steel no brand made in China pumps, for this purpose. I like to try each product sold on our site.
The photo below shows the new China Stainless submersible pump all plumed in to the tank and the end of the water return from the sump can be seen...
I am using two of these Stainless pumps and they are going well.
One pump is used to take the water from the fish tank to the grow bed and the other to return the water from the sump to the fish tank.


The return water seen here enters the fish tank with some force, so the flow is throttled back using a plastic ball valve to reduce this effect and to prolong the cycle time a little. It should be noted that centrifugal type pumps can be throttled back to the flow required by the use of a tap or ball valve without harm to the pump. The red handled ball valve can be seen set at about half open regulating the flow of water to the fish tank.

Returning the water in this way serves to aerate the water for the fish, and does this task very well.


Below is a series of photos taken in 2006 showing the quick growth in a new grow bed attached to the 600 liter (150 gallon) tank shown above.

ABOVE:- 3 September 2006
Lettuce, Silver Beet, Zucchini and Tomatos planted. Gravel is "20mm Drainage Gravel"

ABOVE:- 12 September 2006

ABOVE:- 22 September 2006

ABOVE:- 29 September 2006

ABOVE:- 30 September 2006 6:am

ABOVE:- 8 October 2006

ABOVE :- 8 October 2006

ABOVE :- 15 October 2006 - Note that lettuce in the front left hand corner have been harvested and replaced with Bok Choi seedlings.

Posted By Murray Hallam on 6th October 2013

Updated : 6th October 2013 | Words : 896 | Views : 2871

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