Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I thought I would start this post and begin to add pictures as things progressed. My system will have two tanks that will hold 250 gallons each, two sets of GB's that will be 10' X 3' and about 1 foot deep. There will be 2 sumps which will then pump the water back to the FT's through 4' pipes that will have plants and grow media in them.

The AP system will be housed in a 12' X 20' greenhouse that is right now partially built and will be finished around the AP system.

I was planning on putting the crayfish in the sump tanks. I am going to have channel catfish and rainbow trout in the FT and didn't want the fish to eat the crayfish.

I will be posting pictures very soon.

I am finally taking the plunge after months of planning.

I'm glad to see you have chosen fish that can take the cold up there! Just need the greenhouse design that can protect the plants. Do you think pumping back to the fishtank thru a pipe full of roots and growbed media is a good idea? By the way the catfish will like their privacy! Dark covered tank and perhaps some hides possibly some of the 4" pipe leftovers with the sharp edges smoothed out.

Here are some pictures of the humble beginning:







We are putting cardboard down to inhibit weed growth and putting gravel over that.

I think some of the flow from the sumps can go through the NFT pipes but I think you will also want a direct line from the pump to the fish tank so you can move more water into the fish tank to splash nicely. The NFT pipes only need a constant trickle through them, not a fast gush of water. Are you gonna be running siphons or timer for the flood and drain?

Hmmm. After thinking about it I may dispense with the NFT pipes for now and may add some later. I am planning on having stand pipes or loop siphons whichever is easier and have the pump on a float switch.

Is having a timer better than a float switch?

Good idea with dumping the NFT 4" pipes.

Standpipes are easier than loop siphons, and there is no real difference in plant growth. I have both standpipes and siphons.

Can you draw a quick diagram of where you are going to be running your plumbing, showing the location of pump and float switches?

If you go siphons, you will want to be pumping all the time. If you go standpipe, you will want a timer. The only time you really want/need a float switch is if you are running a two pump system.

If you are pumping up from a clean water sump (as in sump getting it's water from the grow beds) anyway, pumping from the sump up to the fish tank and the fish tank overflows into the grow beds, then you only need one pump.

Sounds like if you are having two fish tanks, two grow beds and two sump tanks, then you could simply do this as two separate systems (which has some things in favor of it) or you could connect everything together and do it all with one pump. Just make sure to tie things together with larger pipe that you think is needed.

OK. After my attention being diverted to other projects (chicken coop, japanese quail coop and chinese quail coop) and a really intense heat wave, I am back to working on my system. One question: I have been looking at loop siphons, bell siphons and everything else - which type of siphon is the easiest to maintain in a continuous flow system? I think I confused myself.

I like bell siphons, but loop siphons work just as well. And to be honest standpipe timer systems work just as well.

Post pic's of those too... in the chicken coop thread of course.

I have personally been a fan for loop siphons for quite a long time. They seem to work very well for running a pump continuously in a system where you want constant water flow for the fish.

However, I think my plants would like it better if I were to switch to timed flood and standpipe operation.

I find that with siphons, the beds never really get empty time. This wasn't really an issue for the first year of operation with my beds but I think now the plants would rather have the bed drain fully and have a little empty time before the bed starts filling again.

With siphons and the pump running constantly, the bed is already re-filling when the siphon stops and therefore the bottom couple inches of the growbed never really drain.

Unfortunately, my pump would not be appropriate to turning on and off all the time so I must come up with another method of intermittently filling different grow beds.

I understand how a loop siphon works, but having never used one before I can't see how a loop siphon attached at the base of a GB can be under 2" of water and break. To do so, I would have thought air would have to be sucked in from the GB side?

Don't get me wrong TCL I'm not at all doubting what your saying , I just presumed that since the outflow is greater than the inflow then it would siphon right down to the last drop in order to and then suck air and stop.
Unless there isn't enough water to siphon and it draws air in the outlet of the siphon (and causing it to backwash), but still then I would have thought the water level would still be lower than 50mm above the outlet?!

think I might have just answered my own question
Would it be from a possible vortex that is created from the water rushing into the siphon? Fix might be to drop a ping pong ball in there to stop the vortex. Like putting your foot over the bath tub outlet when it's emptying

I have tried the ping pong ball thing before. Unfortunately sometimes the suction is strong enough to suck the ball down way to early.

Also as a grow bed gets more roots and solids in it, the flow of water through the media will be slowed down so the siphon can suck down all the water near it before the water further away can move close enough to keep the siphon from shutting off early.

Beware, sitting and watching water flow can take up huge portions of you time as you tinker with siphons.

Just one more cycle...