Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi All

Well based on all the theory I’ve tried to absorb here’s the concept for my first system which I'll endeavour to outline succinctly below. Any suggestions, comments or constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated.

My main constraints are budget and available space.

Plan at this stage is for a 2:1 CHIFT/NoPIST system using an IBC for the FT and 200ltr barrels for the GB’s and ST’s. Figure FT will be in the order of 600ltrs.

The layout of the system is depicted below and as you can see the available space is tight and an odd shape however it is flat. Plan to have the system on 3 levels with the FT below ground, the ST’s at ground level and the GB’s higher than the ST’s.

Water will pump from FT to GB’s then gravity feed back to ST’s. Water level in FT will be maintained by gravity feed from ST’s controlled by float valve in FT.

All tanks and GB’s will have overflows to cater for malfunctions and feeds to GB’s will each get a valve to control flow rates.

Total head including lateral flow would in the order of 2 – 2.5m which should be manageable.

As I see it the real challenge (besides getting all that to work) is in designing a cover for the system. Am looking at a PVC pipe structure, mainly for cost and also ease of satisfying Council building requirements as I want to go almost to the fence-line.

The shape however doesn’t lend itself to the usual hoop arrangement but I’m still working on it so any suggestion would be great.

Looking over your plans seems out of whack to me i see 12 grow beds 1/2 barrels so if they all fill at the same time that could take 600 litres out of your fish tank you say [fill with ball valves] using fish water they will block up and they are slow they will never keep up with your pump
how are you proposing to use blue barrels as sump if using them whole that's 400 litres say all the grow beds empty at the same time that's 600 into 400!
better to use 2 ibc/s one fish tank one sump you can bury the sump and put the fish tank over and back a bit you only need small access to sump for cleaning then run ft chift pist
remember when designing a system KISS [keep it simple stupid]

Hi Food & Fish

Thanks for the feedback.

I still need to prove out all the values and you are quite right I may need to go to a larger sump. However at this stage I have been working on the assumption that the GBs, if all are filled at the same time, will hold between 240 - 300 ltrs based upon info gleened from this forum that GBs will hold about 50 to 60% media and 40 to 50% water.

I need to do some experiments to refine the flow rates but your suggestion of reversing the FT & Sump sounds like a good one which could easily solve any flow rate problems I'm quite likely to encounter in the proving stage.

It's all good fun though and certainly keeps the mind active.

Thanks again
Kevin

There's another thread on this forum about "the hidden cost of barrels" - I guess it's just saying that per square meter of growing area you don't actually get much medium in there, and the cost to plump them up actually ends up being quite signficant in proprtion to the cost of the barrels in the first place ($10 worth of fittings per half barrel will cost you an extra $20 per $25 barrel!).

Just be wary of those "hidden" costs like plumbing.