Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi all, "newbie" Julian here from Newport in Melbourne. First off, a big thanks to all of you for the wealth of info that I have been reading as I stalked this lil corner of the interwebby thing.

As with most good ideas, the thought of setting up a home AP system was birthed over a couple of bottles of fine shiraz. My brother-in-law in WA is quite knowledgeable on the subject and it captured my interest as I wondered how I could possibly achieve the following goals with my small, modern courtyard garden behind my modest townhouse.

Utilise our small space better (we just have a decking, some fake turf and a small fountain at the mo)
Add a pond (with fish - if I can eat some of them, all the better!)
Add some garden beds with plants that don't die (as above with the eat them theme)
Keep it very visually appealing and in keeping with our modern townhouse
Try & be a bit clever about getting the most from a small, closed in courtyard
Not end up in divorce court with an upset Minister for War & Finance

Anyway, I've done some planning, got some basic gear underway and drawn up a mud-map on my PC. Now it's time to become a lamb to the slaughter and put my novice ideas up for scrutineering by the Backyardaquaponics massive (that’s you lot by the way!)

Basic components

2.4M (L) x 0.9M (W) 0.85M (H) Fish tank/pool made from Aquaplated (food grade) Galvanised Corrugated Steel. (think of it as a really big bathtub)
External steel support frame for above (I am getting the tank made without the cross rods that you normally get in these for their primary purpose as a water tank)
High grade pond lining to put inside the tank to a)protect the non UV protected coating, and b) give me a longer life and good maintenance/cleanout option
circa 120L half barrel sump for keeping the pump and other hardware
Tank will have a water tank style 50mm tap outlet at one end which will connect to the sump
Oase 10,000L/hr Aquamax pump
"Y" diverter (each channel with valve control) straight after pump with one channel rising up to the grow beds and the other fed straight back into the tank to get excess pump output to create improved water flow within the FP (trout like moving water I believe)
3 x 2.4mx0.5mx0.3m raised through beds
1 x 2.2mx1.2mx0.3m regular gro bed
25mm or 32mm ribbed black piping running from pump up to grow beds
isolation/diversion valves to enable full flow control and isolation of any individual component
basic fill of river gravel in the grow beds possibly topped up with clay balls (30% gravel 70% clay?)
Trough grow beds running at a higher level, around the yard perimeter, with the larger grow bed tucked under them (like a terraced garden effect)
Fish Pond water (from sump) running directly into each grow bed but also the outflow from two of the 2.4m troughs also running into the larger growbed beneath, before running under gravity back to the FP.
75mm or 90mm return piping, sloped back to the FP
final section of 90mm/100mm pipe above the FP with a long slit creating a blade type of flow back into the FP (greater oxygenation?)
The down pipe from my garage roof will be diverted into this system to provide periodic topup from rain water

Hopefully these images of my design will make some sense of the above list & vice/versa



I gather the idea is to basically run the pump, the growbeds fill to a certain point with overflow running back down to my FP.

I'm sure I will have a heap of questions and I welcome suggestions etc but a couple of early ones from me to make sure I am on the right track..

I have a powerful pump sitting in basically 120L of water. Will the natural pressure from 1250L of 750mm deep water be enough to push water from the FP to the sump (via 50mm opening)
Do I just leave the pump on 24/7 so there is always an overflow situation with water running back to the FP or I have read that many just run their pump a few times per day.
I have seen people use a simple 12V bilge pump hooked up to a battery for when/if power fails. How does it get setup so that it turns on automatically if this eventuates?
I have chosen agricultural feed troughs for my narrow grow beds. Is there a problem with them being a curved base or must they be flat bottomed like the regular grow bed?
My grow bed volume to FP volume is about 1:1 - is this OK? (I dont plan on sh1tloads of fish - gonna ease into this)

Sorry for the epic intro post - hopefully I'll transfer it into " new projects" section once things start in earnest.

Look forward to some feedback....
cheers
J

Welcome to the forum

Wow, your first post really got my head spinning!

Good luck on your build and keep us posted.

Why do you want to "push water from the fish pond... to the sump"????
Pump it directly up into the grow beds... if you have too much flow tee off above the pump.. and return some flow back to the fish pond via a spary bar for aeration...

In fact you probably don't need a sump at all with the grow beds above the fish tank... just drain directly back to the fish tank/pond....

Looks like you did your research! Nice pics

Thanks for the feedback

TBH I'm not 100% if I needed a sump, was more to keep the FT clear of "stuff" I guess. The FT & sump are below the grow beds and I was just relying on natural water pressure for the water to flow out the 50mm outlet from the FT into the sump - kinda like if you left the tap open on a water tank I guess?

Just wasn't sure if that natural flow to equalise water levels in the smaller vessel would be fast enough to keep up with the strong pump. Would a 90mm outlet be a smarter idea than a 50mm one? I get a bit lost in the physics side of things

As per your suggestion I planned to already have a "flow tee" (I called it a "Y valve") with one side returning to the FT via a spray nozzle.
cheers
J

Danger is... if the pump isn't running for some reason... power failure... then the water will simply drain from the fish tank into the sump... overflowing until the level volume equalises...

Potentially a lot of wasted water... and possible fish deaths....

You've got a pump... and a big one... use it.. and pump to the grow beds from the fish tank... which you want to do anyway... to get the fish wastes into the grow beds...

Thanks again Rupert - appreciate the advice.
(my sump would have been up at the same level as the FT.. wouldn't that mean that the natural water level would remain same in both if the pump stopped? time for me to go back to year 9 science classes I think... was too long ago!)

Possibly.... but I don't think you need a sump at all... if you do...or want to...then where will you be pumping from... the sump??

It's a big pump.. you'd probably need a low level cut off float... so that you didn't suck the sump dry faster than the flow from the fish tank could replenish it... although a 50mm outlet would probably keep up???