Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello everyone,

I figure I'd start a system build thread even though my system isn't setup yet. This will be my first AP setup so I'm pretty stoked and full of questions. Hopefully, if something stands out as a giant warning flag to anyone they can chime in

The goal here is to build an indoor kitchen setup that allows me to learn about this new hobby with a relatively small setup at this time. Hopefully I'll be able to grow some leafy greens and herbs.

The current plan as of 04/22/15:

CHOP system with a Fish Tank - Growbed - Sump using a SLO to gravity feed the water from the fish tank to the growbed.

Equipment List:

30 Gallon Tall Fish Tank (113.56L for those that prefer metric)
Half a 55 gallon Blue Barrel as the Growbed ~27.5 Gal (104.09L)
20 Gallon Fish Tank as the Sump (75.7L)
HydroFarm 250 GPH Pump (946.35LPH)
Crushed Granite as grow media
150w Heater
Lighting (Not sure at the moment)

The SLO will branch out into a distribution network to disperse the fish tank water as evenly as possible throughout the growbed.

Some of the questions and concerns I have are:

What diameter pipe should I be using for the SLO, return pump and growbed drain?

In a tank this size, I'll be opting to use decorative fish - what is the likelihood of the fish or perhaps potential fry getting sucked up through the SLO? Having never used one before I'm not sure how much of a current it produces.

The total height from return pump to fish tank is around 5ft - based on HydroFarm's chart it should be pumping close too 100 GPH (378.5LPH) which I believe would be turning over too much water in my growbed. So I'll likely need a ball valve to redirect some of the water back into the sump?

The cut out at the top of the SLO used to make sure the SLO doesn't create a siphon - does it need to be at the same height as where the pipe leads to the fish tank or can it be further up (closer to the fish tank max height) - See the third image below. Normally I see the cut out at the same level as where the pipe exits the tank. Does the cut out in any way affect the water height in the fish tank other than making sure it doesn't siphon out water below that line?

Here's a few mockups I did of the setup:

@PoweredByFish - Hi and welcome

Hello and Thank you Curious!

With regards to the plumbing, if I'm aiming for 30 or more gph of water flowing through the growbed at a height around 60" the pump is rated to push what looks like 75-100gph at that height. How do I determine how large of a pipe I need for the SLO to gravity feed the water fast enough (reaching the minimum 30 gph) but also enough so that the fish tank does not overflow?

I'd rather be oversized than undersized as I need to drill a hole through the glass fish tank.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

@PoweredByFish -I can't really say if you are aiming for a certain flow rate, for i personally don't run with a SLO in my system.

But I do agree that you should over size, it gives you expansion capabilities in the future. You can always reduce the size of the pipe after the glass tank and put in a ball-valve or two to fine tune your flow rate. (P.S. Just my two cents, please take it with a few grain of salt)

Regards