Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

and thats exactly what i'm after fishfodder,
The most fish possible with 4 ibc's
are we in aggrement the second pic is the way to do that?
(that is without 1 of the gb's, or a bigger sump somehow)

Only suggestion I would make is have 1 overflow out of the fish tank then split it to each grow bed. One bulkhead fitting through the side of the IBC then some PVC pipe and fittings to split to each grow bed.

I think if you cut the grow beds down a bit to 400 litres each (1600 litres total) then you can use all four without increasing the size of your sump. The sump in my system is only 800 litres and have 3x500 litre grow beds running off it. I reckon I could probably run another one now that plant roots etc have taken up more of the grow bed space.

If you cut the beds down a bit they should still be at least 300mil deep and you will maximise the surface area for planting against gravel usage.

Covering the tank is definitely the way to go for algae control. Insulating the tank and sump will help in the winter, also a green house is a good idea if you can.

Ok sold, I'll start cutting things as soon as they get here (should be thursday)
I think its funny that I need to do a heap of plumbing
between my brothers and best mates i got:
A Panel beater
A Cabnet maker
A Welder
A Chef
A Mechanic
A Builder
An Electricion

NO PLUMBERS!!!

Electricians can do ANYTHING ,, put him to work:)

Tempting him with food would make sense....
but i don't think i can grow deep fried rubbish or butter in AP

The carpenter and welder will easily be tempted with rum cans
and the promise of fishing

Hi MarkA, I'm redoing my whole sys, burying the FTs, not completely to prevent any ground contaminants entering them,
just enough to allow the GBs to drain freely into the FTs.
No need for sumps.

Will use two pumps in each FT, flooding alternatively 1/2 of the B/Barrel GBs of that FT to minimize the water level fluctuation
and allow for some redundancy if one pump gives up.

Got already one IBC running, will try to update my thread, hopefully tomorrow.

Ha Ha, I was waiting for someone with sequenced flooding to step in and move the goalposts.

Mark something else for you to consider, though I still like the idea of a sump purely because the pump sits in clean water (no fish poo to wear things out).

AHHH!! I had it all worked out, now i'm thinking again!
why did you have to do that steve!

I was thinking before of rigging up the pipes so the GB's would fill at different rates
So that the first to fill would already be draining to the sump before the others where finished
But the idea of less digging and plumbing convinced me to do it the way my last pic suggests

Now i'll have to try to figure out the whole SLO thing, I know i saw a diagram somewhere, but can't find it now
I thought if i just angled the pipe going into the FT it whould stir it up enough to do the trick

Oh dear, I thought I was past the planing stage, now more reading...........................

MarkA ,, AHH yes mate ,, I've been around this forum for quite a while and still yet to build a system.
They say AP is good for the environment ,, but no=one has measure the amount of paper that has been throw into my recycle bin:)

I've finally got c omfortable with a two system ( warm / cold) but now waiting on the sequencial bed flow system results,,,AHHHHHHHHHHHHH

hey MarkA
So any updates... Solved your problems and built anything yet

hey aquamad,
well, the whole IBC thing kind of fell though..... but,

from another source i got 1 IBC, and a slow, but unlimited supply of 120lt barrels and drill rods..
so the plan now is to bank on getting another IBC and heaps of barrels.
So, i'll have 1 IBC as FT, 1 as ST and then make rakes out of drill rods for many many 60lt GB's

This way I can build the system with 1 IBC and 5 barrels, and let it grow as i get more parts
so The IBC will be 3/4 under-ground as a ST/FT and i'll have one rake of 60lt gb's to start with
once i get another IBC (god knows where) it'll be a FT, so the ST/FT is then just a ST
then, more barrels, more drill rods, more rakes, more grow beds till i get to 1800lt of bio-filter

If i get more IBC's, then it'll turn out just as the plan was, If not, the ibc's used as GB's in my plan are replaced with MANY 1/2 barrels

What i'm up to at the moment can be found here viewtopic.php?f=18&t=5927