Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I have completed the design I built in my head and have came to a stopping point where I think it is vital to get input from others before I proceed. I am not trying to eat the fish and merely plan on keeping them alive, will be using bluegills and most importantly shiners for bass fishing and minnows. But this is a ploy to eventually get to me on the self sustainment tip....

Fish Live in 20 Gallon Moeller Livewell I plan on insulating but will try as is for now. I have rigged a drainpipe so there will constantly be draining and not syphoning. The water from the grow beds will be cycled up to the fish and aerated on the way.

From the fish drain the solids go in to a swirl filter which is a 2 gallon bucket inside a 20 Gallon storage container. I will have a medium in there to hold the solids that allows me to clean as required... goal is to keep solids in bucket for quick removal. I have the bucket raised above the bottom of the container. There I have an aeration stone and the pump to take the water back up to the existing two flood and drain grow beds that drain via bell siphon.

This is where my stopping point is... I need to determine what method to use with the grow beds and whether to fill the entire bed with clay medium or to keep the lids on my containers and cut holes and use baskets with the clay medium.. I plan on growing herbs and lettuce and maybe peppers or something if I have room.. Now I realize I am late here and it may be just to raise green plants in Central Florida but I do want to give this a shot and maybe kill some plants or fish and spend money on water. Either way looking for advise on best thing to use for my grow beds.

Once I get my gallery uploaded I will share.

Repaired the Youtube link so hopefully everyone can see the video now

Please feel free to critique anything you see as I would rather fix it now than before I add plants and fish! Thanks for the edit!

Purchased some Growstone and baskets as the guy at local hydroponics shop said he preferred the stone over clay and it saves a few bucks here and there. So now the question becomes use the lids and fill baskets with plants or fill containers with growstone and then baskets for each plant.

Perhaps one of each is a good start.

I wish I had easier access to fish tanks. They are buried in ground under grow beds. If you were to add rollers to the fish tanks you could roll tank out and observe maintain that tank much easier.

Our set ups are very similar.

2 pumps? I think I can see a potential issue. If the flow on either pump gets restricted in any way, which will happen in time, the synchronizing of the pumping will get out of whack and one of the lower container if not pumping as fast as the other, will overflow.

Personally I'd try and simplify things with just the one sump/pump and standard chift pist style design.

I have made some updates and will share photos later tonight.