Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I am putting my system back together. I'll have my FT, ST, 3 grow beds and a horizontal strawberry tube. Might add a tower if I have room. The spot is 5'×20' concrete with a slight slope for drainage.

Trying to figure out best way to make it all work from a routing and pump perspective.

Routing: FT at the highest level and sump at the lowest? ST NEXT TO FISH? I put the grow beds on blocks so it is possible for them to be at the lowest level but higher than the ST.

Pumping:

1. pump from sump to grow beds and growtubes is my thought. Return to FT by gravity and then overflow through SLO and RFF filter to sump.

Or

2. Pump from ST to FT and overflow through SLO and RFF to grow beds?

Here's some pics of what I have to work with.

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Here is what I am thinking. Drawing is not to scale.

Pump from sump into 3" pipe with holes to grow strawberries in net pots. Gravity takes water to fish tank.

SLO in fish tank to RFF filter. Gravity feed to 3 grow beds. 2 will be media. I'm deciding on what to do for the 3rd bed as it is shallower.

Plan to run flood and drain but may end up constant flow or a combination.




Crops. Strawberries, squash, cucumber, green beans, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, watercress.

Possible adds. Buckets to house some plants that tend to spread out and cover large areas such as artichoke.



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I wouldn't pump to the FT through the strawberry tube - the water flow rate in there is going to be wayyyyy more than plant roots will stand up to, and also that's a lot of points where the path of least resistance for the water is going to be out of the tube and onto the floor. If you pump enough water to circulate your fish tank properly it's going to spray out of a strawberry tube like a sprinkler, and if you drop the flow low enough for the water to stay in the tube then your FT will be pretty well stagnant. (The mental image of the strawberry tube sprinkler is awesome but not something you want to do in real life! )

I'd go ST -> pump to FT -> gravity to filters and then split off to growbeds and strawberry tube -> back to ST, or get a bigger pump and split its flow; one branch going to FT -> gravity to filters -> back to ST, the other branch going to growbeds and strawberry tube. I'd also suggest putting your sump and FT as close together as possible to minimise the length of piping under pressure (simplifies the plumbing, and the further the pump has to push water under pressure the more your flow rate will drop).

Now you went and pissed on my idea. After I filled my sump with water. Good points though about the flow rate through the strawberry tube. Guess I will have to rethink my layout.

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Smiley face I forgot to insert after first sentence. :-)

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Mocked up a move around of the tanks and I'm not sure it would work. I'm trying to set it up so my son can help with it. Moving the sump to the middle means raising the grow beds higher.

I could also pump the water straight up and let gravity run it the distance to the tank. I should be able to move the water volume if I don't put strawberries in it.



I would have to raise the height of the main tank more as well.


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That's a bit more impressive than raining on your parade!

Wherever you end up putting things, your growbeds are always going to have to be higher than your sump or they won't drain. Looking at those nice big level pavers, I'm guessing you can't sink your sump in the ground...

If you do the two-loop thing, though, you shouldn't need to raise your FT at all as the SLO outlet & water level will be comfortably above your sump.

Wups! Just had a second look at your diagram and you've put in that you're working with a slope there, missed that the first time. (Must have been distracted by the strawberry pipe sprinkler mental images ) In that case, yeah, never mind moving the sump to shorten your piping that's under pressure, you're better off working with the slope and lining things up the way you had them the first time. You could still split the output from your pump, with most of it going straight to the FT and a little bit (controlled with a tap) going to the FT via the strawberry pipe) - I think that would make setting up the strawberry pipe a lot easier, though you might find it ends up higher than is really convenient to work with?

Now you're going to have me thinking of strawberry sprinklers.

It could be too high to work effectively so I might have to plumb it differently. Maybe build some sawhorse stands to support it.

I wish I could bury the sump. Not in the cards though as you mentioned. Advantage is a nice stable surface to support grow beds.

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YESSSSSS my cunning plan is-- ER I MEAN woops, that was totally not my intent...

I can't dig my sump in either (for assorted reasons, most of which boil down to "I can't physically do it myself and I don't really trust anyone I hire to do it RIGHT especially since it's huge") or raise my FT (because it's even huger), and yeah, it makes things trickier.

Pumping water from sump to main. I need to move some stuff around and this water has been sitting for a while. I will need a bigger pump to move this water for the system.



The real question. That bed on the ground is only 6" deep. Is it even worth growing in? I would have to create some support structure for it and I'm thinking I would rather add some barrels or some of these which are 8" deep.



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DWC of leafy greens etc, stuff that doesn't get huge root systems?

Set some stuff up. Going to have you raise the fish tank. Wish it wasn't so. I could put the fish tank on top of the sump to drop it a bit. Then the smaller beds could sit on the bricks. I need to get the whole cut in the tank for the SLO so I know the exact water height.

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