My pet ducks!, adorable Silver Appleyard ducks/drakes for sale at $50, the price is high because I prefer to keep them!

General system Aquaponics derived Duck-ponix system overview from L to R grow-bed, duck-pond, reservoir (probable future fish tank) and the final growbed, this is temporarily all under a large Jacaranda tree.

The first growbed contains pea gravel in pots as before I said I would be moving the system at some point, around the pots I have placed some water plants which seem to be doing well!

The black square pond plant pots have served well to stop tree leaves and flowers blocking up my "auto siphon", this  worked well allowing the pond to have continous flood and drain before I plugged my pump into a timer.

The 2l/hr(any would do) dripper in the top of the auto siphon has worked well as a valve to let air out, air flows well through them unlike water but as soon as vacuum forms a neat rubber disc blocks the back flow, I have positioned it above the water flow as if it gets wet it requires a flood over to clear itself.

The bed empties into a pond plant pot to reduce noise.

Overall the system is still a bit green but hopefully as roots grow and with more filtering through gravel plant pots it will clear up while not so pretty I think the high points of my system that I am proud to share are my siphons using a dripper as a valve, and the second valveless setup  which I think is the way to go especially if a growbed is any distance from the tank.

MAY 2008 System evolution:

The system is in its new home and the extra beds and pond are set up, this is a preview of the system and the new adjustable autosiphons I have designed, they work flawlessly with my pump on 30minutes every 2.5hrs.

OK I think I have finally made auto siphons easy, having tried coiled hoses and other slightly complicated plumbing adventures, this has been the simplest and best I have come up with.

The drainage system begins with standard 40mm drainage fittings plumbed up to near my duckpond then adapted to 40mm pressure pipe fittings and final outlet pipes of both 15mm and 20mm both work perfectly well, although one would assume the smaller is more responsive.

The 40mm adjustable joining piece (the "fat" fitting) has a 100mm range which is adequate for most fine tuning. I set my highest height to have the top bend in line with the growbed media.
While the adjustable piece could be done away with in makes installation quicker and has helped the seeds scattered around the top germinate so in the next week I can lower the water to avoid algae growth quickly and easily
 

OK JULY UPDATE:

1000l pond, wishing I had chosen the 3000l now though, 5000l/hr pump is adequate though, my Koi and the base pond are visible from angles I cannot photograph well!!! I decided to choose something easy as my first fish project.

3 Growbeds plumbing is mainly buried, I chose to lay pipe across 2 of the beds so I can change the outlet area occasionally.

Have grown a good crop of Mizuna, have some tomato plants developing, a pineapple cutting that has rooted yay!. Also have some spinach, coriander, lettuces, bok choi, mint, peppermint, lemon balm, garlic chives, basil.

Had to move some pond plants so I stuck a spare taro in.

My poor lemon grass is not doing so well though, I lifted it up a bit today, anyone know what I am doing wrong?

Because I am concerned about the high levels of  particle/silt that are in my system each outlet flows through a filter foam into the bed, I hope that when I have better root development in the system I can perhaps do away with them.

The plumbing comes out of the ground and flows to the pond, while it keeps quite clear I had been scooping it but will now experiment and allow an active sediment layer to form, and see what happens.

From a standpipe in the pond the water is gravity fed around the corner by 50mm into a fancy looking combination of 100mm joiners and out on a filter sieve (pond pot) to remove feathers and course debri.

Then on though a large filter foam and then a finer type underneath, I had to add this as otherwise I was constantly having to scoop my fish pond clean and also remove sand and silt from my small bed of filter plants (lebanese and english cress and pennywort). Would love to find another filtration method that does not want the twice weekly I give it at the moment to keep things nice and clear.

The filter area has a siphon effect emptying so it is flood and drain so I also start some plants off  in pots in there before transfer to a main bed.

Future plans include possibly a larger tank above ground and a pump to send water up to it, oh how it would have been nice to have just started off with a 3000l in the ground, instead of the the 1000l.

Also plan on putting an edging around the duck pond as while the ducks have been mellow lately this is not always so and it will increase the depth they can have.

Once again thanks to all for sharing their ideas, and I am hopefully looking for some helpful criticism to improve on what I have let me know please.

See you all tomorrow night