Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Salaam - "Peace in Arabic"

I'm from saudi arabia, west coast, our climate is challenging for agriculture in general, hot and humid most of the year except for late december and january where becomes pretty nice. I'm interested in AP and the vast rewards it brings to a household and community so, gave it a go. As such, I'd really use your help and advice in the design and maintenance.

I bought an IBC tote 1000 liter. Also, bought 3x35 liter blue barrels for a filter stage. Included 2 barrels in the design so 1 is pending for your comments and advises.

But 1st let me give u an idea about how I intend to design..

Plan:
A) 1x IBC Tote:
Roughly with this scale: 1/3 GB and 2/3 FT. I cut, scrubbed and rinsed a few times, and now I guess it's time for pluming.. Yeah?

B) 3x Blue Barrels:
-Connect the barrels with PVC pipes as per the diagram below.
Have the 1st to work as a clarifier and sedimentation tank, I like to apply the IVU clarifier in the 1st.
-The 2nd barrel would be filled with bio materials. Halfway to the top of the barrel, I'd install an aeration pipe from the air pump ( this is to accommodate for aerobic & anaerobic types of bacteria - where the top part would make a suitable habitat for the aerobic bacteria, the bottom part of the barrel with no aeration would be suitable for the anaerobic bacteria AND mineralization to take place) if that makes any sense lol
-The 3rd barrel would have the submersible water pump. Pumping solid-free & nutrient-rich water to the GB. Or maybe a sump and/or a degassing tank.
-Connection pipe in-between the 2nd and 3rd barrels can be close to the bottom of barrels to make sure the pump won't empty the 3rd barrel of water before the siphon kicks off !

Now to the questions:
Q1: is it ok to have the pump in the filter stage?
Q2: is the quality of bio-material -used in a bio filter - related to the quality of the nitrification & mineralization processes? If yes then which is best material for bacterial to colonize?
Q3: how to deal proactively with toxic gasses released in the system as by-products of mineralization process i.e. methane and sulfur and the like?

Notes:
-With this design I intend to fix the water level at a point in the FT that doesn't change with the flood-and-drain cycle, I hear that it stresses the fish.
-With my filter staging for such a small system, it's obvious that I'm obsessed with solid removal and water clarity, as clogging played a major factor in the failure of my fist attempt, along with ants and aphids.


Below is a rough sketch to what I have in mind. Please evaluate as to help me succeed in this setup. Feel free to ask anything.
thx,
Sultan

Glad to see you have a plan!

That looks to be a very workable plan. However do a search on the SLO device to put in the fish tank overflow or the solids will not get out of the fish tank. Solids Lifting Overflow. Also your grow beds are suppose to be your Bio filter. They take out the solids and ammonia and convert them to the nutrients for the plants which clean the water for the fish.

Can you do a shade over the system and keep it going in the summer time there? Or is it still too hot? Would you have to do a green house to keep it cool enough?

I learned the lesson on my failed 1st attempt thx Ron






Thank you donone for the valuable advice, I came across it before but overlooked it because I didn't understand its purpose. Now that you explained it I see that it correlates with constant-hight FT outlet setup. Bless you.

As for the bio filter, would you suggest eliminating the 2nd barrel from the plan, keeping a solid removal clarifier only, and relying on the GB for bio filtration? In that case, while obsessing about clogging especially in GB, I'd want to add another 35 liter barrel to minimize suspended solids that escape from the clarifier, before reaching my GB. Is this extra care justified in your valued opinion or is it obsession on my side?

Regarding shades, with summer ocasional heat waves reaching 45 c easily, most definitely in need for a truckload of shade cloth hehe although I'm setting this system up in the superb which is much better than inside cities, 10 to 15 degrees difference in superb favor, so practically I'm dealing with the low 30's degrees in that area, no escape from humidity tho Anyways, I'll target crops that r heat tolerant, no lettuce for me there, ummm, maybe in winter time.

The entire commercial agriculture industry in Saudi utilizes greenhouses, to control climate throughout the year while it's sunny all-year. But I want to try without it first for a baseline.

Regards,
Sultan

Clogging of the growbeds is not really as much of an issue as one would think. Adding some compost worms makes it mostly a non issue.

To answer the questions in the first post. 1, I don't see any issue as long as there is a media guard to prevent the pump from getting jammed with the media, and you have a way to easily access it. 2, surface area is king. The "better" medias just have more of it. 3, you should not have any noxious fumes. If so you have anaerobic zones that need to be addressed. That can likely be resolved with a well placed airstone.

For your amount of fish tank the grow bed is ample filtration.

Solid filter make sure you can drain all the solid matter out at lest once a week.

You can use the second connected barrel as your sump and pump from there to your grow bed and back to the fish tank.

With your warm weather I would recommend a air pump to assist with DO during the heat. Shade cloth over and around the structure may also be required. Cheers

you can use the barrels if you want. Nothing is written in stone in Aquaponics. There are too many people doing it differently and succeding so the proof is in the results.

On the home page is a Free book you can download called "IBC's of Aquaponics" . It covers nearly everything on Aquaponics in great detail and the information really is up to date and valuable. It should be called the beginners guide and library.

Hi Ronmaggi,
Now I understand that AP is different than aquaculture in terms of filtration. As is in AP, the plants play that role of cleaning the water for the fishes, along with worms and aeration. Thank u for the advice.
Regards,
Sultan

Thanks again Ronmaggi. For taking the time to answer my q's patiently. That's helpful. One point tho, related to worms in the previous post, is there a way to culture worms on my own, as it's no where to be found for sale in my country?

Thanks ccBear for ur interest and interaction, it goes without saying that an air pump should be part of my system, sorry I forgot to add a reference to it in the diagram. Where exactly would u suggest I place air pipe outlet? FT? Filter?

Cheers,
Sultan

Don - what a great first attempt u got there - I had a look over it and by this u set the bar high

Most of my planning steps were taken after careful reading from that free document IBCofAquaponics, thank u all for a job well done.

I like to add a second barrel and maybe as a sump as per ccBear advice, your comments were helpful and relieving lol

I'll try to take pic of my build, and post here as u guys are full of energy and that's encouraging.

Regards,
Sultan

Anyone with more vermiculture experience able to answer that one? Do you have a traditional compost pile? There might be some in it. Nightcrawlers are often sold as fish bait. They could certainly work.

I would put the air system on the fish tank. The fish need the air and the circulation will help there also. Be sure the return line to the fish tank splashes the water to aerate also.

With Don on that one, cheers