Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi all,
We are Terri & Tim from Northern Ontario Canada.
Last fall we purchased a cabin on a bay on Manitoulin Island and so finally have a place to get started in Aquaponics.
We have been reading & studying & collecting up items for our first backyard build for several years now and are nearly ready to start putting it all together.
We have an aprx. 500 gallon insulated hot tub for our fish tank, and are going to pick up some plastic drums on Sunday for our grow beds (and maybe a sump). We still need to get a pump, and are leaning toward a household sump pump with a float for a start as we can put it to other use if / when we change it out for solar.
We have ordered a testing kit online, our only expense so far.
The plan so far, is to put this all inside of a greenhouse (which will be built around the system using old patio doors).
We are planning to build the greenhouse over top of our septic tank to collect the grey water heat. (we are currently in the process of installing a liquid separating composting toilet).
We plan to record everything via pictures and videos and will post them all online later for hopefully the benefit of others.
Happy to be here and thanks to all for sharing.

Now on to the questions...

We measured & calculated the cubic aprx. size of the hot tub and seems it's more like 250 gallons.
If we have been paying proper attention, that means it can support 500 gallons of grow area?

Here's where our math skills come to a grinding halt, because we'd like to use vertical 4" tube planting for most plants (to maximize space) and maybe have one or 2 split barrels etc using float rafts.

No clue how to calculate this to get it sized properly for the 250 gallon fish tank.

Also want to add one (or more?) sump / filter tanks and not sure how that adds in to the equation.

Thanks in advance for any pointers

PS, Thought we should add.. Did several searches on this and came up empty, so perhaps our search skills are par with with our aquaponics skills so far?

From what I understand, you need 1 square foot of grow bed for 1 gallon of water (in some cases this can increase to 3 to 1 in favor of growbed.. So I would measure the actual footage of grow bed and make sure it is at least 250 square foot. You know you have 4" wide, what are the lengths of each? Perform a calculation to convert that into square feet, then multiply that by the number of them you plan to setup. Search internet for square foot calculators or conversion calculators to convert the measurement into square foot.

Don't worry about adding the sump tanks or others to your calculations.

Doh!,
Thanks lehayes,
I don't know why I had a mental blockage over what seems so simple.
On to calculating lol.