Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

TLCynx you are a wealth of information ty! Catfish I was not even considering, just not a fan of catfish. What is bluegill comparable to eating? Living on Long Island we are much more accustom to saltwater fish since we are surrounded but it.
Rairdog, I will be using Viastone clay media. Was a little pricey but the orange box store had free shipping so I took the dive with it.
Can I ask you, is this the correct rule of thumb for the correct size pump you should circulate entire tank in 1 hour? Would a 500 GHP be overkill for a 140 gal tub?
Thank you everyone!

Bluegill are white flaky fish that are relatively mild (perhaps not as mild as tilapia or catfish) but still mild.
My experience is that in aquaponics catfish and tilapia taste the same, only real difference is texture if you over cook them. Tilapia get dry and stringy but catfish will get dense and tough. Otherwise they are both so mild that you can make them take on whatever flavor you cook them with.

I've really only had bluegill breaded and pan fried and they are usually too small to reasonably fillet but it generally isn't that hard to remove the bones while eating them.

Circulation. Yes the MINIMUM rule of thumb is to pump the volume of your fish tank each hour.
A 500 gph pump will only move 500 gph at 0 head, at 1 or 2 or 3 feet it will pump lots less. But for a single 140 gallon tank pumping up to grow beds only about 12 inches above the tank, the 500 gph pump is probably adequate.
Find a chart or pump curve that tells you how much water the pump will move at the height you need to pump to. For instance if the surface of your grow beds are 3 feet above your water in the tank where the pump is (sump or fish tank) then you need a pump that will move at least the total volume of your fish tank at that height. Do extra searching for a pump that can do it energy efficiently too. The cheapest pump from harbor freight is not necessarily going to save you money. Also, avoid running pipes up and over head since that will mean you are pumping up higher and it will cost you more in pump size and electricity. Go bigger on piping to improve pump efficiency (1/2" irrigation tubing with the barb fittings restrict flow a lot more than 1/2" PVC and upping the pipe size to 3/4" or 1" can reduce the pipe resistance to the point you think you actually have a bigger pump as compared to using the smaller piping.

Oh, and if you are running the pump on a timer, you need to make sure you move your water volume in the fraction of the hour that you actually run your pump.

I personally like to move a lot of water in my systems, any extra pump capacity not needed to flow to the grow bed should be sprayed back into the fish tank for extra aeration.

Just checked on a few different sites and a 2-300 GPH pump would do the trick, but the 500 GPH is in the mail now as we speak, so there is no turning back and that size is more compatible with my other ponds anyway, bigger is better. BTW I looked at your set up and love it. I Especially like the 300 gal tank. If I did something like that here we would need a bigger GH. The winters I could not have a set up outside and grow plants.
Sounds like bluegill is a winner then. I basically enjoy all fish but when I had the catfish it was probably over cooked and that's what turned me off to it. Guess I should be a little open minded and cook it myself and give it a try.
Thank you for the information on the pipe size that was my next question.. Did you use bulkhead fittings to the tank or something else?
Thank you for all your help
You are the Aquaponics Guru

I use Uniseals for plumbing most of my tanks and grow beds. Bulkhead fittings require a flat spot to install but a uniseal can be installed in a barrel or round tank no problem, just not over a ripple or corner.

Thanks a bunch for all your help!

TLCLynx or anyone that would like to answer this question. If I have a 1 inch pipe going from the pump into a swirl filter and then empting into the grow beds. What size pipes should I use to empty from the swirl filter into the grow beds and from the GBs back to the tank. The lay out will be like this but with a swirl filter will be in the middle of the tank and the GB.
Thanks,
Holly

Here is a diagram I copied from another post I saw:

I would recommend adding a bypass back into the fish tanks. Here is a diagram that adds some explanation.


As to the size of pipe, to a large extent that will depend on the flow rate from the pump and what you want through the swirl filter and that largely depends on the size of swirl filter. I find that many people expect a too small tank to function as a swirl filter at too fast a rate, in which case, a radial filter might be a bit more effective but still, settling tanks of whatever sort are dependent on slowing down the flow of water to allow to allow the settle-able solids to settle out.

Anyway... As a starting point. I generally try to make sure a gravity drain is at least twice as large as the pump flow feeding the tank but that is no guarantee that the pump can't push more water than the gravity drain can handle that often depends on the pump (I have had pumps with 1 1/2" plumbing at that pump was certainly able to put more water into my fish tank than a 3" drain could keep up with.) Definitely have a bypass back to the fish tanks to allow the excess flow to help aerate the tanks.

Thank you TCLynx for all your help, took your advice for the pipes and purchased everything and started to assemble things today and also ordered the Uniseals and should be here Thursday-Friday. Slowly coming together..

Here is an update. The plumbing is complete and the water running. Still have to make the drain covers, put the gravel in fish and then plants. And the uni-seals are a wonderful thing!
With the colder weather moving in its like walking into a tropical oasis with the warmth and humidity of the greenhouse now. Love it!

Couple things to keep in mind. Water splashing on the media is bad for plants and will cause algae to grow on top of media. Over time it can be hard to regulate flow to keep each bed draining at the optimal 1 in below media goal. Adding a ball valve to each bed to regulate flow and extending it to top of media will help solve these issues. Looks great so far!

Was not aware of the splashing and algae issues, back to the large box store.. Lol! Thank you for the input.. I can use all I can get with this project. Will I still have an issue with algae. This has always been an issue with my koi ponds till I got a uv lamp. And to grow plants you need light but light assists with the growth of algae.. So what other ways can I prevent the green tide of murk?

Put covers over fish tank and sump tank to shade the water from sunlight. The fish only need enough light to tell night from day. Once the system is well cycled up you can let a little more light at the water but you want to keep most direct sun off the water if at all possible.

A little surface algae where the water enters the grow bed is likely but usually not a big problem, you just want to avoid making the stems and crowns of your plants wet all the time and keep most of the surface of your media dry.

Ball valves for each grow bed are the easy way to adjust the flow to each bed but if that costs too much for you, you can use unglued plumbing fittings to adjust the height of the pipe before the water goes to the grow bed to balance flows but once you get all the extra fittings and stuff, it will probably cost the same as the ball valves.

Thank you Lynx, the parts are not glued yet. So we can adjust the angle of the pipe where the water comes out to the GB. The grow media I do not think will be an issue, since it does float so the water will not be exposed there. And I will have to get more fittings to make the pipe go into the grow beds to minus the splashing. All the years of doing fish ponds and all the books I have read they never mentioned about the splash factor and algae growth. and that has alway been an issue because of fountains and waterfall features that I have included in my fish pond designs. Go figure.

You don't want your media to float. If the media is floating up and down and the beds flood and drain the plants will have issues. If it is NOT flood and drain, you still want enough media in the bed so that the media is not floating or any big plants will tend to sink or tip out. If you have media that is really that light, you won't be able to have the water very deep in the grow bed at all. Media that is light enough to float will also tend to wick water up to the surface fairly well and you still do want the top surface of the media to stay fairly dry.

Yea there are pros and cons of splashing. More splashing means more aeration but it also means more water splashing out and more wet surfaces for algae to grow and more evaporation so you have to top up with more water.

Yea this media is like cocoa puffs never thinking it was this light. I will lower the drain pipe more and see how everything fits. Tomorrow is another day.