Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Parts have been rolling in from UPS every day for our fish pond project.
It's nearly to the point now that I have too much to do. The final coat of Herco Koi pond Coat is here. This will take most of the morning to paint on. The larger sump tank liner is also here. This means water is on the way soon. I've got to build the solids lift plumbing, after the Herco goes on and dries. The resin for the fiberglass is here. I'll need to weld up the frames for the grow-beds, which shouldn't take long.
I've still not got the barrels for the filters. I'll need complete inflow as well as outflow before I can turn on any pumps. Of course the apprehension at that point is killer stressful for me because I'm the one who suggested I know what I was doing and all these ideas will work.
Welcome to the peak of anxiety which possibly, hopefully will be completely masked by the thrill of having water flowing.
Y'all have a great weekend, too

Brian Rodgers over and out

yup yup, got a butt-load to do this morning, yet here I am fiddly farting around on the computer

yehaw water!!!! well water going in sump tank: 10 gallons when the pic was shot 97.5 when I just checked the water meter. Looks like our guess (Ahem- scientifiuc calculations) of 200 gallons is going to be pretty close as it is about half full.


Of course figuring the relatively square sump tank volume is fairly simple and accurate. The one we have no idea about is the pond. This water meter for a hose is perfect.
Final volume ST 229 gallons or 867 liters.
Here are some shots inside the pond:


Exciting times. One more coat of the gray in the pond bottom and that will be ready for the SLO

Is there a way to use an aquarium as a FT for a small system? I've seen someone on here somehow drilled a hole in the glass for a CHIFT-PIST setup. Any other ideas? I am fairly sure this tank (55 gallons - 208 liters) will be too warm for the trout I was going to use it for (as a quaratine tank.) Besides, I'm leaning toward buying fry so I don't have that extra hassle added to an already complicated setup.

Got the last coat of gray on as well, yippie yahoo!!!!



I've got to seal around the inflows. The inflows are above the ST water line so, I'm thinking I'll put some Butyl tape between the liner and the PVC pipes, then zip-tie the pipes with nylon fasteners.

Alrighty, then! I've got the plan from Scotty, Tori and JoeBlow. Thank you and everyone who contributed.
Obviously I improvised using what I have on hand. The way I understand it, the larger PVC pipe at the bottom creates a greater area around the bottom of the inside strainer, thus sucking more solids off the bottom. Thanks to Joeblow for giving the private tutorial on SLO.

In the image below you may be able to see the space between the exterior strainer and the inlet to the large PVC pipe which has something similar to Scotty's Atrium grate on the bottom, is very near the ground.

I wonder if a set of rubber feet which would keep the outside netpot off the bottom of the FT might provide greater flow from the floor. My fish pond has sloped sides all around so solids ought to head right for the SLO.
Piece of cake, right?

Water in the sump tank

SLO constructed

Soon there be fishies...

LOOKING GOOD Boss, I like the way you have the bottom of you pipe lowered down closer to the bottom of the tank inside the cowl, that is what I explained to Tori, it will draw more current down lower to the bottom of the tank than higher up in the cowl (all within reason and not too low)

The fish solids are all on the bottom of the tank so the height you have set your pipe will be perfect.

You don't need any rubber feet on it it will work very well the way it is and with the sloping sides on you tank you will have a very effective solids removal.

Thank you both. You've both been so good to me.

I drove my helper back to town after work yesterday. We've got him digging the ground where our new bedrooms will be. Making progress there while I finish up the Aquaponics greenhouse mega-project is a relief, for me and I'm certain my wife too. You all know how Aquaponics can appear to take over all of our free time.

I want to figure a way to set this in this lowest point and still be able to retrieve it without taking a dive.

Finally for this morning.

Wife is working the math, because I got 12 cubic meters .34 cubic meters per bed (24"x12"x82"=23616"/12"=1968sq") Jesus our system sucks. I don't have time to make it all metric, I've got to go get ready for a new grueling week of work.
Anywho, I'm feeling good because I slept until 8:00AM
Brian fishboy Rodgers

Brian you'll need to twist the ends of your zip ties up under the edge so they don't injure any fish and with the SLO I would run the wider pipe vertically to the top "T" and then horizontally all the way to where it leave your fish tank and have the reduction there, not at the bottom of the SLO.

Hell yeah Brian...water and fish soon!

Is this necessary? I hoped I would not have to have a large pipe running across the pond as the deepest point is on the opposite side as the outflow. Thinking in fluid velocities, if this is possible with my limited capabilities, I've read for septic outflows, small diameter pipe move solids faster. What I've practiced with plumbing as well is keeping the pipe just small enough so the solids can move freely and not stop or sit in one place.

Anyway I know that it is different because septic outflow concerns slope and pipe diameter. Yet, the question remains: Wouldn't we need the pipe to be smaller immediately out of the SLO bottom strainer to keep the solids moving fast, and not tending to drop back down? And or isn't it worth a go to see if it works? Clear tube and a underwater camera ...

It was a struggle, but information received at the lumber yard counter made me completely change my plan for the grow-beds. I was going to buy 8 ... (don't panic my metric friends) 1"x12"x10' and 8 1x12x12 footers, however I learned they didn't sell ten foot long boards, and two inch think lumber is less expensive that the thicker lumber. Okay okay, lemme think... crap I just made my plan, I'm not good at this re-engineering in the store crap...
All right, they start with 16s what if they cut them to the length of my four grow beds? viola, two boards the proper length and one piece for the box ends. and they fit on top of the Jeep

I don't know if I already posted this pic, but it was on my phone with the loaded Jeep, and I love it.

Well, that's it for the Brian Show this morning at least. The new meds for hypertension and gout prevention are making me a little dizzy, which is bad when you consider how much time I spend climbing ladders, but I believe it is causing me to sleep to a reasonable hour in the mornings; 8:00 am, twice now. I think I like it. I'm not so panicky to get up and start doing things.
Brian Panickiless Rodgers

Brian try it with the smaller pipe it might be OK, it's all about how fast you pump it into the tank and and as long as it leaves at the same rate you wont have an overflow, as you say clear tube and a underwater camera would determine which is the better.

No matter what you do, you can only pump as much water as the smallest diameter pipe will carry and I would have thought that the less distance it travelled in a smaller diameter pipe would be better than over a longer distance Stuart might know this one

A larger pipe running all the way and servicing lots of GB's would allow people to pump at a much faster rate and turn over the volume quicker than using smaller pipes but that situation is not possible in your case and the same with a lot of other people's systems including mine.

I'm not a big fan of pipes running across the top of the water either and if I ever built another IBC fish tank I would consider putting an SLO in each corner using smaller pipe running them all back to larger pipe on the outside of the tank and by using 4 SLO's the volume of water could be pumped at a faster rate.

There would be a couple of pluses with using 4 SLO's in an IBC, there would be no solids build up in the corners and a clear area of space space both on the fish tank floor and the water above would be free of pipe.

I could go with an larger pipe size, but I still have a restriction at the rock wall. I've also built in a super sized pipe from the FT to the ST on which I will build a strainer to remove surface debris. By the way, I see tons of surface debris in the ST. Don't know what it is, wind blown dust I suspect.

Just sayin' I believe in my surface skimmer idea.
Perhaps the debris is evident because there is no water flow.
Question: how deep are most SLO's where they go through the wall of the FT?

That was what I meant, using the larger diameter pipe right up to the restriction at the rock wall and only using the smaller pipe at that point would IMO have less resistance than using smaller pipe all the way up to that exit point. That is what I have done with my SLO's and they draw the water very well using that configuration.

Brian I could be wrong and Stuart would know the answer on that one and Stuart always sorts me out when I'm wrong.

On the height of the tank exit point I kept mine as high as I could too try and gain more water volume in the fish tank and that was a mistake if I were to build another tank I would keep it lower and not worry about the water volume.

I have a lot of splashing both from the fish and pumped water that reaches the timber lid of the fish tank and then drops back down into the water and the same thing again in the sump. The current fish (Silver Perch & Catfish) have been in the tank for 8 months now and it doesn't seem to have had any effect on them, but it's certainly not doing them any favours and I would correct the problem next time around.

The Silver Perch & Catfish don't jump, if and when I do put Trout in there the problem will be a lot worse. I've backed the pump off and lowered the water level that has got the aeration splashing down to minimum and I keep an eye on it, but a lower exit point would be the answer.

Again not having the sump low enough (my first and biggest mistake) I don't have enough fall too be able to lower the SLO exit point and I'm stuck with what I've got.