Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi,

Hopefully this is in the right area to post!

Recently my wife and I purchase our first home, No longer have to build temporary nft channels on rented property!!.

I'm planning my new build now, Its a sloping block and I've got approximately 8 x 16m on a block that has a gentle slope from right to left.

Digging is out of the question, my lawn is about 6 '' of top soil then solid limestone.

As I have a large family 2 adults 3 kids, and can easily get my hands on very cheap IBC's my plan is to utilise CHIFT PIST setup with 3 grow beds, sump and FT, but I want to incorporate another pump and a NFT (possibly A frame type design for lettuce/herbs/greens).

I have enough room across the backyard to create 3 of these setups, which hopefully allow me to produce a lot of food. Bartering in Port Lincoln is fantastic and opportunitys to swap vegetables is readily available.

Is there a simpler way to create a large scale IBC setup or for the ease should I stick with 3 separate systems due to the gradient of the backyard ( Leveling a pad of 2.5m2) would be a lot easier for me.

Any input is appreciated.

I will be cladding all my IBC's and grow beds because if they look ugly the minister of war and finance will halt the garden : )

Thanks all

Have a good night

Sorry another question.

Ft ratios to Grow beds everything Ive read should be a 1:1 ratio

Hence with a 1000lt IBC grow bed it should support 3 x 300 ltr growbeds adquately whats the remifications if I push it out to 4 x 300 ?

In order to create more GB space with the same ratio can I simply connect 2 FTs together through the drain at the bottom and utilise a SLO in each tank and CHIFT PIST.

Thanks for any advice.

Welcome to the forum Matt.

Enjoy the madness


When I was first getting started I looked at using a range of tubs from IBCs, Baths, Spas, barrels to fridge shells. What I found when I did the numbers was that in many cases even if I got the containers for free it could still end up more expensive than creating large pond liner lined GBs, FTs and sumps.

You will have to do the numbers for your self but even if you can do a system cheaper in IBCs you will have to buy 3 pumps which is likely to eat up any savings. Also pumps suited for larger systems tend to be more efficient so you save money on electricity having one large system rather than three small ones. Furthermore large systems are more stable and easier to manage.



If you are going to clad then making up wooden framed boxes is probably the way to go.

As it happens I am about to post a thread for some Californian Redwood that I will have for sale, perfect for pretty durable AP systems. It might not be economical to ship it to you though. Alternatives would be Australian Cypress Pine or Monterey Cypress. Durable Australian hardwood species would also be great but they would probably be too expensive.

Did you read this on this forum or else where? Some people recommend 1:1 but I would recommend 2:1 ratio GBs:FT.


I would go for 7 x 300 if you are going the chopped down IBC route.


Not sure what you mean by this. How would joining 2 FTs give you more GB space?

Hi Everyone,

Thanks so much for the feedback!

Im looking at the chopped IBC Route still, , if i can create one large enough for my family i would prefer to have a single "system"

Stuart i was refering to the fact if i increased my FT from 1000ltrs to 2000ltrs by plumbing in another IBC it would allow me to add more GBs while keeping the 1:1 ratio, But honestly if 1 single IBC of 1000ltrs would support 7 IBC grow beds adquately as mentioned above I dont think I will need to do this.

Thank you very much for your input.

Regards,

Matt

If you're looking to focus on the growth of veges as opposed to growing out masses of fish, there's the possibility of using one whole IBC as FT and as many 300L GBs as you can fit into the required space. Obviously you cannot pump all the water out of the FT to flood the GBs so you'll need a sump to provide the additional water capacity. Use the slope of the land to your advantage: put the FT at the top, the ST at he bottom (with the pump). If you were using hydroton as your media, you'd need approximately 120L of water to completely flood each 300L GB, plus a sullage allowance for a submersible pump, so a complete IBC ST would easily support 6 GBs, or 7GBs in a carefully designed system.

IMHO, ignore everything about FT:GB ratios as bubcas: the primary ratio which "matters" is the stock:filtration ratio. With say 7 x 300L GBs you could support a lot of fish, but with only one 1000L FT (for now) I'd be limiting the first season to 35-40 fish; adding a second 1000L FT in the future should be easy and would involve only a minor change to the layout?

Oh... and you still only need one pump (and of course, a backup!)

Found an old drawing of a similar concept... hope it helps.

Thank you thats excaltly what I wish to do, Im prioritising vegie growth of numbers of plants. I was just concerned about the damn GB to Ft ratio.

1IBC Ft and 6 GB's it is

Expanisions planned for later. : )

And, of course, a ST!

Before you start hacking into IBCs... carefully compute / measure the amount of water you need / have access to in order to be able to maximise your GBs. Many people (IMHO) cut their GBs too small; I'd prefer fewer but deeper GBs in order to maximise the filtration capacity (given that I'd ever have enough ST capacity) but not everyone has the same goal.

You must also take into account evaporation/transpiration of the water: your system may not be 100% full of water every day (or, it might if you have an automated system for topping up?) so you want to know beforehand what the thresholds are with regard to water capacity.

All this is easily computed, but it takes a little bit of time at the beginning. As they say, "Measure twice, cut once!" Or, "P.P.P.P.P.P."

Draw up a plan and post it to the forum -- generate some discussion and identify shortfalls on paper before building anything.

I know one size doesn't fit all, but if I'm reading the way the question was asked, if you are asking if you can have more GB's then the recommended ratio, I assume that it's a situation where you can't really have too much filtration. Having a higher rate filtration isn't really an issue, whereas not having enough can be? At some point nutrient levels may become an issue, but that's a good issue to have (or easier fixed) in comparison to not enough filtration??

Very good responses so far and I'm sure you have a much better vision of your goal after reading them. One more thing to consider is the cost of connectors and plumbing. If you build 6 GB's out of IBC's you will have a considerable expense in plumbing fixtures. As Stuart pointed out, building your own GB's might be a cost friendly alternative. You could build 3 - 4x8' GB's and spend half as much on plumbing. It may not sound like much but when you start to price bulkheads you'll understand. Plus, 3 GB's is half as likely to have issues with clogged pipes and such than 6 smaller GB's.

I would do as the diagram above shows, having your fish tanks at the highest point in your yard. Tie as many together as you feel you want / need for the number of fish you want to keep, then have your growbeds between your FT and sump, up to 6 GB's per FT. If you need a bigger sump to accommodate the amount of growbeds, you can always tie 2 ibc's together via a u siphon or 1 or 2 straight pipes through the sides of each ibc.

Another option to consider is to have half of your growbeds be DWC. These would be kept at a constant height and thus wouldn't effect the level of your sump at all. It would also be possible to daisy chain some of your growbeds, have one media bed drain into a DWC bed which then drains in to a large diameter pipe that leads to your sump,.. in this respect you could possibly have more then 6 grow beds per FT. as long as you had enough fish to provide nutrients.

There isn't a "recommended" ratio of FT:GB -- there's many threads around here somewhere where this is discussed infinitum, with ratios between 100:1 to 1:100 and everything in between, and all "working" but this is "within reasonable limits" i.e. you don't have one goldfish in an olympic swimming pool being filtered through one GB! Work your way through http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=12645 (just one thread of many on the forum of how to design a system, or at least, what numbers to consider)

I might as well make this my build thread...

GBs are 350mm deep, Im planning on leveling off the FT at the top and utilising another full IBC as the sump (will involve digging into limestone)

The Grow beds will be supported by besa blocks and large treated pine boards. to ensure they are level as the garden slopes away.

Are auto siphons still the way to go? I previously had build a single IBC and the auto siphon was a pain in the a$$ so I cannot imagine the trouble Id have with multiple growbeds, so honestly I think my plan is flood and drain using a 1'' standpipe small hole and the bottom and a bulkhead fitting in the opposite corner to the inlet into the IBC or a constant flood system.

Ive taken a couple of quick pics to show my rough layout.



Sorry had to edit, the world now knows Im an idiot and place pictures in a forum upside down.....