Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Thanks Pete. I am okay. This is a new swarm and they are replacing the queen. They don't want anyone close by. If they continue with the behavior, I might replace the queen or get rid of them all together.

when I was putting together my new system, I realized that the GBs should have been a little lower. Now my filter and GBs are almost at the same height. I need to either raise the FT or lower the GBs.

After much thought, I settled on this new design. I am now taking the water form FT with an SLO to filter and to sump. One pump in sump will be feeding GBs as well as FT.

I can now take GBs or FT offline and do maintenance with this design. I can also add more GB if I did have more space.

What diameter pipe are you using?

I am trying to see if I can make my new Koi FT run entirely off of gravity (for when the power goes out, things will keep flowing and only have to worry about a DC air pump).

The picture you posted helps me make sure that I get the SLO exiting/entering to make sure I can get water to flow. I will also be trying to get 1/4"/ft for long runs with an added barrel as needed to get returned back to the pond.

Adam

Hi Adam,
From SLO to Filter is 40mm

SLO output is 25mm but will be larger in the future then flows into a 90mm pipe that connects all the syphons (from GBs) into sump.

5000Lph pump in the sump has 25mm pipes feeding everything

All the water should go through the filter then the gbs, so just lift the ft and fill the gbs from the filter.

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Gurkan you'd be taking the cleanest water from the sump and putting it through the GBs without much gain and taking cleanish water from the filter and contaminating the ST. The fish will not be impressed as their water wont be cleaned as well as it could be.
The first plan was good you'll just need to raise the FT & filter a few inches.

Yeah you are right. I need to raise the fish tank but it is full at the moment with 10 silver perch in it.
May be I can do it and if I do it, it will be better for the fish. The logistics of it is daunting though. Okay, back to the drawing board.

Right, After finishing up with the 4th grow bed, I have done the plumbing and moved the fish to sump temporarily. They are so far happy. The only thing was my pH was reading 5.3 and nitrite spiked so much with the stirred media (before putting in the fish) So I did an entire water replacement to wash off the nitrite. It went down nicely. My fruit trees in the garden are happy I guess.

I moved the fish, emptied the FT and raised it which was a monumental task. With the cladding and a bit of water in it, it was heavy. I lifted the FT and slide the rocks and timber underneath. Manage to take to a height I can use. While I was filling it in, filter also filled in and started separating from the FT which resulted to a broken connection but manage to survive that too.

I populated the GBs with various seedlings and am hoping that it will help with the nitrite there. FT and filter is still offline and tonight I'm hoping to take them online. Pictures coming soon.

Bees are calming down as I've only stung once.

Here are the pictures

I had to fix a leak at the filter and had to empty the barrel. My goodness the bottom has filled in with debris so quickly with only 10 fish. What is going to happen when I get 25 trout

I have been advised to add a bottom outlet to the filter so that I can empty it easily for cleaning. The next improvement will be that.

Incredible feat, raising a FT. How does the water flow perform now?
I've got a flat bottom radial flow filter too, cleaning with our increased fish load requires weekly stirring and draining. I'll need to deal with issue ASAP as well. For the system I'm designing for the Charter school geodesic dome project, should I net place the FT on the ground?

Hey Brian, out of the filter to 4 grow beds, water flow is too low. I can bump up the pump and get more water to FT and to filter from there but that only raises the water level in filter. Looks like I need to increase the pipe diameter from filter to grow beds to 40mm.

FT should be the highest thing in hobby setups if you want to use only one pump in sump. Filter can be level with FT but GBs should be lower than the filter outlet so that the water can cascade using gravity.

I grabbed a pallet from a friend and used it to make a platform for the filter. This looks sturdier and more durable.


The connection between the FT and filter was leaking. These PVC pipes are easy to bend with a bit of heat. Fixed the leak by bending and using lot's of teflon tape.


Full system view


Seedlings are growing

Looks good, nice build. I use 50mm for the SLO from my IBC to RFF. A 20mm tap at the bottom of the RFF lets me drain solids occasionally (bi-weekly?), then when the water flows clear I put that back in my system. When much starts flowing again I clean the RFF, hose it out and drain completely (every 6 weeks?).

My next plan is to dump solids into an offline digester rather than dumping into the garden. Then I can reclaim nutrient water for wicking beds and minimize solids discharge. My avocado tree was not happy when the last RFF dump formed a crust over the ground and blocked oxygen to the roots.

Hi John, I am thinking of utilizing the filter water in my oxygenated worm tea and use it in the garden for my soil and wicking beds. I have a second barrel for an offline digester plan but has to wait the new year.