Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi guys,

I have also been contaminated by the AP virus.

I'd like to submit you my project, in order to get external point of views...
I'm a total beginner, but i'm willing to learn thanks to your experience.

Project:
- 2 fish IBC with trout, inside a fresh garage
- 6m² growbeds with U siphons, in a 12m² greenhouse, which has a south exposure
- a 200L biofilter
- localization : French West Coast (temperature between 41 and 86°F).

This is a long run project and i'm still at the theoritical step, but i'd like to share this project from the beginning with your community. I'll keep this thread updated with pictures of the building, starting and hopefully operating system.

I uploaded 2 Sketchups images of my project (sorry about my poor Sketchups talents).

So, do you think my project could work?
Or am I missing something, and already comitting beginner mistakes?

Cheers,
Shanga

Welcome to the forum Shanga

Shanga,

Nice looking sketches! A few questions to clarify things...

So those are 6 IBC tops (or bottoms) for growbeds, right? Why not interconnect them like you show for your fishtanks? Many don't like using U-siphons because of their tendency to get airlocked and stop working. If you distribute water directly to each growbed you could then also drain each bed individually. That would probably be more reliable with a smaller chance of catastrophic failure.

Are you planning to do constant flood? Or flood and drain, either with timer or auto-siphon (like a bell siphon?)

So after draining back to the sump tank, you'll have a single pump sending water back to the fish tanks, right? You could do a SLO drain from one tank to the other, and then another SLO drain back to the growbeds to make the tanks somewhat self-cleaning.

It looks like this will be a great garden someday! However watch out for that sneaky person hiding behind the wall... They clearly are up to no good.

--
Sam

Your still at the therotical stage in your planning,how about a rethink do away with your media beds and swap them for DWCs,ibcs are not the best fish tanks but ibcs-RFF- Static up flow filters - DWCs ,all waste from the RFF ran through a mineralisation tank with the nutrient rich water being returned to the system.At the size your troughs will be with the correct aeration all of your bio needs will be taken care of,cleaning is easier growth is as good,if not better,no clogged beds,no digging in gravel etc etc, I am a complete devote of DWC in Aquaponics,nothing would make me go back to media beds,but this is just my opinion.

Hi, nosliwmas and dasboot!
Thanks for your interest in my project, and for your advices!

I'll upgrade my project with:
- a RFF biofilter + static upflow filter
- a small DWC part, especially for salads and strawberrys

Instead of IBCs, i'm thinking about building myself the growbeds and the fishtank. It might take a while longuer, but it will fit better in order to optimize the space.
I'll use an IBC for the sump, though.

I had to take out the fish tank from the garage after a short conversation with my wife.
They have the power in my country

Hi APists,

I have been studying quite a lot AP since my last message.
Also, I bought 4 IBCS, a greenhouse, plumbing stuff, and found a fish farm nearby my house.

It turns out :
- As a newbie, i give up trouts till I feel ready, at the moment i'll just go with kois and might try yabbies or any local fish. I read so many newbies stories about Ph variation and trout genocide... I don't plan to become a fish exterminator while learning AP, and i confess that I was a bit naive thinking I could just start with trouts.
- Expansed clay is so expansive here in France, and harder to wash. Its cost-effectiveness is low when you use it for salads, in comparison with DWC and NFT. NFT needs a lot of plumbing. Rocks GB for bigger veggies and DWC for the smallest, seems to be the best combo solution.
- I moved the FT in the greenhouse. It's a matter of safety for the kids, but also for the fish in winter.
- Filtration seems to be the key of Ph regulation.
Among filters, RFF with biofilter seems to be the easiest system to clean.

Therefore, here is the updated plan:


3DWC, 2GB above 2 FT, 1RFF+biofilter to clean.
The pump will be placed in the biofilter, and will send 80% of the water to the 2GB+FT, and remaining 20% to the 3DWC.

Any comments? Do i have your approval?
Cheers,
M.

So the water flow is...

FT -> RFF -> Biofilter 80%-> GB -> back to FT
and
FT -> RFF -> Biofilter 20%-> DWC -> back to Biofilter

That is it, right? So with no sump, the media-based grow beds would be Constant Flood?

Why not drain DWC into FT? The nutrients going into the DWC would be diluted by remixing the DWC output with the DWC input in the Biofilter. It would be like the beating human heart without separated chambers. You would have some blood circulating back out without a trip through the lungs to get recharged.

Maybe I'm reading it wrong?

--
Sam

True.

I just followed the FAO guide (Fig. 4.74 A Small Scale DWC Aquaponics Unit in http://www.fao.org/3/a-az028e.pdf).
But i think they drain the DWC into the biofilters just for gravity reasons.

You are right about your excellent heart comparaison.
The pathology you are describing is called a "right to left shunt" and it's indeed a very bad disease.

Thanks again, nosliwmas.
I'll modify my plan !!!

hi guys!

a small update about my project...
greenhouse frame built (did not put the panels yet... too windy here!)
this is a low cost polycarbonate greenshouse that i'll try to upgrade, make it solid, insulated, but this will come later, probably next autumn.

i changed a bit the design.
i downsized my system, it has now only 1GB and 2 DWC, but i have added a sump tank.


on the left, you'll see the filters (RFF + biofilter; the biofilter is a lot of volcanic rock with oxygenation, i hope that i'll have a lot a aerobic bacterias in this filter!)
at the second plan, GB above ST.
4000L/H AQUAMAX pump in ST.
at the third plan, IBC FT.
on the right, 2DWC, not set up yet.




Water goes from ST to GB, FT and DWC.
From FT, dirty water goes to RFF+BF and then back to ST.
From GB and DWC, it goes back to ST.

the system is cycling for 2 days.
i peed in the FT, to start the cycles.
it was quite nice to pee in such a big aquarium

i'll put yabbies in the ST, and perch in the FT.
looking forward to buy the animals...
i looked for trouts siblings during a few weeks, it turned out that each and every trout farm went bankrupt in my region! i dont know why exactly, i supposed thay could not produce cheap enough trout, in concurrence with norway...

in the construction process, i was very careful about which plastic and especially which PVC i used.
99% of the plumbery is made with "food quality" plastic.
polyethylene, and "U-PVC" or "pressure PVC" (i don't know how this PVC is called in english).

it was much more expansive, but that's the only way to be sure that i won't be eating fish which would contain small plastic particles.

If it's not too late and it can be done, lower the DWC beds otherwise you will be having troubles with the plants not having enough room to grow upward. When it gets cold where the plants touch the cold or wet surfaces they often die.

I raised the greenhouse base up to gain sidewall height and lowered the beds as much as possible to gain plant growing space (this is a 6 x 8 greenhouse) - http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=9511

thank you so much for this precious advice !!!

Wish I'd caught this a bit sooner but didn't know how you were setting up in the greenhouse. If you're thinking of raising the base height using another board, I think pocket hole screws would be a good way to join the existing boards edge to edge with the new board. The bottom layer touching the ground should be pressure treated or it will rot.

If you're willing to have something more permanent a greenhouse knee wall might be a good option - http://greenhouseplanning.com/foundations-and-flooring/

thanks, scotty.
this is not a permanent greenhouse, it's only for 4/5 years maximum.

when my finances allow me to afford a nice greenhouse, i'll pay a professionnal to build a really nice one.
at the moment i'm counting every euro

i lowered the DWC about 20cm.
this was indeed a good advice.

on the other hand, this aquaponic greenhouse will be dedicated to leave-veggies like salad,
other big stuff like tomatoes will keep on growing in my second traditionnal greenhouse.

Bush beans and basil work well in the greenhouse during the summer when you might not be able to grow lettuce because it's too warm. I usually start them in Late May or June but it's pretty cool here most of the year so you may be able to start them earlier

Kale and Chard are also good crops in my greenhouse for the cooler months.