Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I have a mate with 4 x 2000lt tanks, all are in a shed with shade cloth roof, he also has a 6000lph and 2400lph pump all tanks have own power point (lucky B) he is interested in grow beds and have talked him into 1 for starters, problem is what is the best way to hook up 4 tanks, ground is dead level but could put one tank on rail sleepers, to get 2 tanks working together would be a start, and would maybe set other 2 up the same, he originally was only running perch and had a pump and cheap bio filter on each, filter was only filled with foam sheets, filters are around 20 lts each so have 3 of these as well, but the way he had things set before all living things in tanks ceased to be, have convinced him system will work with blue metal and clay balls with a biggish grow bed, any idea's would be great

Pictures of the tanks and the pumps?
If the tanks could be piped together at the bottom, then pump from there to a dump tank or straight to the growbeds with an external pump. More info?

he is outta town from me so pics not till week end, but they are blue poly and have big bung holes (1 1/2" - 2" from memory) at bottom, could be joined but then pump from which tank and drain into what tank? also need to keep perch away from marron, but can mesh up the bottom pipes I suppose

Hooking tanks together is pretty easy. If the plumbing couldn't be easily put in the bottom, it could still be done with water bridges.

What kind of pumps are they? Submersible or in line that you could plumb from the lines connecting the bottoms of the tanks?

There are so many ways things could be done.

How are the tanks laid out in relation to eachother? Where will the grow beds go? Will there be a sump? What type of grow beds?

I've now gotten to where I rather like venturi drains which would be easy to set up in most situations. This way you can still get solids off the bottoms of tanks without the danger of draining the tank too low.

As to which tank to return to. Well, I would be likely to draw from all the tanks so you get solids out to the grow beds. And if the return pump is powerful enough, get it jetting back into all the tanks to swirl the water and help in the removal of solids.

If the high water level in the tanks is higher than the tops of the grow beds, then you don't actually need a pump sucking water out of the tanks, only a pump to return water to the tanks from the sump or a "sump pit" within the grow bed depending on what type of grow bed you go for.

Too many variables to answer yet nocky - more details are required

If the tanks are connected with decent sized pipe it doesn't matter were the water get taken from ,, they reach equilibrium......but it would be preferable to extract water from the bottom of each tank in relatively equal amounts ( maximum poo extraction).....,maybe drain to a sump and pump from there.

I would probably plumb all four tanks using as large a pipe fitting as fits the hole then bring all 4 to a central pipe and run that out to grow beds by gravity. (This is assuming grow beds lower than high water level.) I've seen sumps directly after fish tanks and they tended to collect lots of solids but didn't send them on to the grow beds so well. A sump after the grow beds is a little easier to keep clean.

You will see from the photos how i did my 2 tanks they are on a common manifold with a vetricale filter[strainer] and note the return line to swirl the muck .this has been running 2 years and i have never cleaned the bottom, and the pump only runs 3 min every hr . in your case i would connect the 4 tanks with 90 mm pipe then tap off it to the more powerfal pump with a by pass to the tanks just vary your run time to suit the cleaning requirements , Once the bed is established it can easley go for a couple of hrs without water
Depending on your setup shft pist rocks [pump to fishtanks overflow to beds]

I think we will go 2 x 2 systems then what would be a good size GB for each, I am new to all of this and am only toying with my own idea's, this guy wants fish and Marron so best with 2 separate systems, tanks have 2" outlet at bottom that could be plumbed together easily enough, but then by the sounds we need to nearly double these outlets, would be better if I taught him how to use computer and he could do this himself, but old country boys old dogs new tricks ETC, he has the cash and the toys, and I have a big mouth and got him interested in AP, as mentioned before he had Perch in 4 tanks and all died, I can see why it failed, he had all the toys but nothing was connected properly and filters were full of air basically

Photos boy we all love photos

g'day Nocky, I have a plan to run up to 9 tanks and 10 GB's. Whether it works is another matter. Basically I am thinking to link all tanks together using 50mm or bigger and maybe extend the pipe into the middle of the tank to try and pickup the rubbish in the middle (don't know if this will be needed). I will probably need 2 pumps, run out of sync, each pumping to 5 GB's which will drain to individual tanks, just see what others think of this idea as it is only in the planning stages and may not work
cheers
cod fish

I have found that a centre pickup on smaller tanks (1000 litre) is not required.

agreed

too easy, will keep this in mind when I get going,
cod fish

we are going to get just 2 tanks going with silver perch, will connect at the bottom and pump from 1 tank into a serious grow bed draining into other, medium will be 50% the famous Narrogin blue metal and 50% clay balls (poor clay) is this the go or what would be a better suggestion