Good day to all fish and plant lovers!
This is my first [of MANY] posts here. I am truly excited for what is to come.
I am looking forward to getting a system constructed and running. I will share with you my main points as much as possible and will gladly accept any recommendations/tips for changes and alterations.
Going to be using a 275 gallon(1000L) IBC tote. I am limited in space but still want to harvest as much as possible, both fish and produce. For the grow media, I wanted to make use of the 5' ZipGrow towers both for the growing media and bio filtration. I understand that the number of towers necessary for the system will depend on both the fish stocking density as well as feeding rates, however, considering my fixed variable is space, I was thinking of starting with 5 towers and increasing them to a total of 9 depending on the system's stability.
I want to keep the plumbing absolutely simple:
Want to collect the water/fish waste at the bottom of the tank, bring it to the top of the towers and split the line into 5-9 smaller outlets. I hope that the towers will provide enough filtration for the solids, as well as enough surface area for the bacteria.
The water will be collected at the bottom of the towers and drained back into the IBC tank where the cycle continues.
I won't talk so much about the plant production as I believe they depend on the fish, not to mention there are way too many factors to be considered (plant species, stage in production etc), but I was aiming for a minimum of 50 lb of fish every 10-12 months. I am hoping to increase this to 100 lb per year. Is this unrealistic?
The idea is to have this system constructed, stabilized, and then working towards perpetual harvest cycles. This means that I would harvest a portion of fish and plants many times a years, while replace the harvested ones with younger ones (seedlings and fingerlings respectively).
A few concerns and questions:
Will I need an aerator? Will the ZipGrow towers provide adequate aeration? Perhaps for the roots it will but not for the fish?
What is the best method for collecting the fish waste efficiently in the IBC tank? I was thinking of placing an 800 gph submersible pump and relying on the aeration/returning water to agitate the solids.
My biggest worry is not having enough filtration for the solids. I have read somewhere that even a gravity based bio filter will let the smallest of solid particles return to the system which will accumulate over time and hurt the system. Is it necessary to have some sort of drum filter for the 100% waste product? My hope is that introducing worms to each ZipGrow tower while closing the bottom so that only water escapes, will allow for the solids to be broken down. Another thought is having a proper removable filter either at the bottom of each tower or maybe where the waste is collected in the tank, so that the solids can me cleaned on a fixed interval basis.
Pertaining to everything I said, any issues with having the outlets at about 1/2 inch? Will they clog? I am hoping that by having a valve for each outlet will allow me to close them off while increasing the pressure for those open, and doing so every once in a while to force clean any clogging solids. Having valves would also allow me to control the flow for each tower.
Any recommendations for the vertical towers? I know there is quite a bit o success with media-filled PVC, and in some cases even low pressure aeroponics. I am just afraid of complicating what can be kept simple. Not to mention that having an actual bio-filter will require space to be taken away from the system.
Looking forward to your responses
Backyard Aquaponics
