Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

So, my DH and I have been discussing some strategies for this first venture into aquaponics.

What have we got:

A garage, where we plan the fish tank (1000 l IBC)
A greenhouse, where we plan the growbeds and perhaps sumptank
A cellar below the greenhouse, which could also house the sumptank
Access to IBC's, used in the food industry for €40 apiece

The story with the greenhouse is that it was built on a concrete slab where used to be a carport, situated before the entrance to the garage. Underneath this concrete slab an oil tank sat in a bunker for heating the house. When we bought the house we had the oil tank removed, so it is empty. That is, except for the sand we store in one corner and the debris we chucked in through the second hole in another corner. Mainly broken bricks and chunks of cement/concrete.

See picture


If you were wondering what happened to the driveway to the garage? It got converted into raised beds for my dirt garden. The layout of the plot is incredibly inefficient, causing half of the garden to be utilised for driveway if you actually wanted to park your car in the garage. So our car is now banned to the first part of the driveway and the rest of the driveway is converted.

Anyway, the old oil tank cellar is not really very accessible due to very narrow entrance. I would like to have the sumptank there, because it would be a great temperature equaliser. The greenhouse currently has a temperature of 36°C, below in the cellar it is 21°C. At the bottom it is probably even colder, but I did not want to get in there, so I dangled the thermometer probe about 80 cm down.

The distance between the planned location for the fish tank in the garage and the greenhouse is approximately 3 m. I have strong preference for relatively low growbeds.

It is not possible to get any size of tank into the greenhouse cellar, due to the two tiny entrances (read: square holes in concrete slab, covered with steel grid). Any sumptank in the greenhouse cellar would have to be built there and then lined with pond liner.

Alternatively, we could create one growbed +1 sumptank from an IBC (repleat x 2 or 3) and then connect the sumptanks and keep everything on top of the greenhouse floor. This has the advantage of allowing for a much less powerful pump. Power consumption is huge factor in our plan. However, we lose the temperature buffering qualities of the greenhouse cellar.

Well, enough for my first post. Will add considerations and "progressive insights" as time goes by. Feel free to comment and shoot holes in my plans.

PS: planned fish = carp for now

Looks like a good plan Janna

Right, looking at Aqualight eco 5000 pump. Doing 5000 l/h at zero head. Max head 3.4 m. 35-43 Watt. Could have that at 15 min on/45 min off schedule for timed flood & drain. I am very hesitant about autosiphons etc.

Anyway, from the bottom of the greenhouse cellar, it would be 3 m up, so it wouldn't be powerful enough for that. But 10 Watt per hour power consumption is what I am striving towards. Guess I may go with the connected sumps in the greenhouse, then.

Janna,

If the old oil tank room is big enough, you guys can build a sump tank with wood, and line it with EPDM. You could use the cool temp for water temp equalizer.

Also you can do the same for your fish tank. With bigger volume of water, the better it is for the entire system.

Zubin,

Thank you. Yes, I have been considering that. However, the bottom of the sump would then be 3 m (9 ft) below the top of the FT.

I have not been able to find a pump that will turn over my 1000 l FT at 3 m head for 10 Watt per hour.
If anyone knows how that would be possible, then I'm all for it!

You are correct; if your goal is a 10 Watt water pump, then that is not possible.

My pump is 95 Watts, and can handle more than that, but my volume of water is about 6000 liters.

External water pumps are more efficient, but you pay more for them. I did a little checking, and can not find a 10 Watt pump at all!

Actually the pump I have in mind has a 35-43 Watt consumption, but with a timer to have it run 15 min out of every hour it results in about 10 Watt per hour.

Looks like a great system so far!



I wouldn't be hesitant to use a bell siphon. After you build one an start to monkey around with it, its actually very cool to watch. However I would stick with what you're comfortable with, you'll learn tons of "dos and don'ts" about your own system no matter what.

Best of luck with your system!
-Ryan

update:
Today the fishtank arrived.

It is an insulated 1000 l tank that has been used to grow clams. It is pretty banged up, but I have cleaned it up (quite a bit of work) and, though the outer layer of the bottom of the tank is ripped up, it seems watertight. It now sits in it's space in the garage. I'll add pics.

The gentleman who brought the tank also brought an IBC, but it turned out to have a cage of only vertical bars. That would mean I couldn't cut it in half, like with the ones that have a grid/cage. Well, cutting it in half wouldn't be the problem, but it would then be useless.... Fortunately the man didn't mind taking my payment for the IBC and then promising to deliver one with a grid cage within a few days. I am confident this will work out, but there's always a chance that the thing will fail to materialize. Well, we'll find out.

The pump has been ordered. 4000 l/h, 23-28 Watt.

Question: would 8-16 mm quartz pebbles be OK to use as grow medium? Heavy stuff, but I kinda forgot to factor in the cost for growing medium in my budget. It hadn't quite dawned on me quite how much I'd need. Anyway, the pebbles are way cheaper. I can buy some scoria/lava split to increase surface for beneficial bacteria growth.

Plans for fish have tentatively shifted from carp to catfish. There is a European sort, I don't think we have channel catfish here. Some say it's better eating than carp and also pretty easy to keep. I'll have to find a Dutch supplier, though.

Well, so far for now.

8-16 mm media may be a bit on the small side, do they perhaps have an option the next size up? Heavy quartz type pebbles may be heavy and may be a bit smooth but really if you have enough media beds then a smooth media isn't necessarily that big a hardship. Now if you were running a system where you didn't have nearly enough media beds then the amount of specific surface area of your media becomes far more important but then if you are running that way, the beds tend to get so full of solids and roots that the specific surface area of the media gets difficult to depend on.

Anyway, quartz river pebbles are not a bad way to go and I've used 1/2" stone before which is probably close to the size range you mentioned. Heavy media is actually really good for top heavy crops.

Bummer, the fish tank leaks! This morning we found it standing in a puddle of water in the garage. Fortunately not all of the water got out, but we got a sizable puddle on our garage floor anyhow.

Since the man from whom I bought it is supposed to come by and deliver an IBC any day, I have texted him immediately when he comes to bring two IBC's and take away this leaky thing. Haven't heard back from him all day, but it is a Sunday. Will give him a call tomorrow, hope it works out.

Am really disappointed. It was a lot of work to clean it and I loved the fact that it was insulated. I don't have a clue where the leak is (didn't spot it when cleaning the tank either), so I can't repair it.

@tclynx The 8-16 mm is the same size as the hydroton (well, other brand) I would have available, so I figured it would be OK. I've seen larger pebbles, but they seem huge to me, about 25 mm. I can't really imagine stuff growing well in that, except trees perhaps.

@ryan Belated thanks for the heads up and encouragement for siphons. Perhaps one day I'll feel comfortable to incorporate them. For now I will keep it simple.

Did the water level in the tank drop?

Is it possible the water puddle on the floor is actually just water leaking out of the insulation? You did mention that the outside bottom of the tank was a bit damaged, if the tank has been soaking in water or something then perhaps the puddle is just from the insulation layer.

Thanks, that is a good point actually. It did seem to be a limited amount of water that came out, though it was a sizable puddle. But the tank had not actually drained. We didn't put more than a few inches in, just in case. Can't say for sure if the level dropped or not.

I think I may have to experiment with it today. I have a client this afternoon, but if DH can help me get the tank upright again before he has to go, I might give it a try.

OK, no luck. We found the leak. I called the supplier an he'll exchange it for an IBC at the same time he delivers the other IBC.

Hi Janna,
It looks like great infrastructure to start with (green house, garage, cellar).
Could you use the cellar to moderate temperature by moving water through a closed system (pipe) down through the cellar and the back up to the fish tank?
My understanding is that you would only have to overcome the friction of the water moving through the pipe and the rise up to the dish tank from the sump which you would have to over come anyway.
It does seen like a great asset having the cellar for temperature moderation.
Have fun with the build!