Upgrading our Aquaponics System

With our Barramundi growing really well it has meant that the output (aka poo) has been quite high and our DIY chop and flip aquaponic system was not keeping up with the nutrients. This meant the poor fish were not getting the best filtered water. The plants were doing extremely well in the system, but some that didn't love the nutrients like the chilli plants where starting to curl their leaves up. If you've been following me on instagram you have probably seen our double banger grow bed pod that my Dad setup for us, which we currently grow our Jade Perch in. It has always done extremely well and the water/nutrients has always been great. No major issues with algae or floaties. So we put in the request for my Dad to weld us up a component to make the switch to a double grow bed system in the barramundi tank. We put this task off for ages, one until we could afford to buy all the extra bits such as grow bed material and the extra siphon an pipework. But also logistically we needed to move the existing system - plants and fish included. The fish were moved to a 'holding tank' whilst we moved the old tank out and the new tank in using the same water they were in to avoid any fatalities. This time my Dad simply welded up a section that we could pop on top of a full IBC, so the two beds could sit to the side. Then we just needed to add the support beams to hold the weight of the water/grow bed material and plumb it all in. We mostly reused what we had in the old chop and flip system and purchased an additional siphon from Aqua Gardening. The new system had a huge algae bloom due to the plants not being established so the water did turn green, but there are way less chunks floating around now and we're slowly getting the plants filtering the water. We've planted one bed out with ginger and corn, and the other with some capsicums, chillis, zucchini and replanted the basil. The fish are looking really good and we're hoping to eat some really soon! I'll post an update on how the plants are looking each month, you can find our updates here.