Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi

Well I have been reading this forum for about the last 5-6 months and I'm most of the way through Aquaponics Gardinging by Sylvia Bernstein. I have a good basic understanding of how an Aquaponics system works. That being said, my knowledge of plumbing is extremely limited.


Thanks to the generosity and assistance of my Father-in-law I have a 45 gal (170L) fish tank and a newly constructed grow bed measuring approximently 2x4 feet (60x121cm) with a depth oS 1 foot (30cm). (This being step one)

Now I need to figure out my plumbing. I figure with having the fish tank sitting above the grow bed that I'm going to have to use a sump tank and pump the water back up to the fish tank and, I can follow the instructions to build a bell siphon Now, this is where my ignerace shines. Do I want to pump out the water or use a siphon? Will the bell siphon drain the grow bed faster than its filled? ... Any advice on the best way to get my system to properly cycle would be GREATLY appreciated.

To round out the system I'm going to use a mix of 3/4 inch river stone and pea gravel. The tank will be filled with some gold fish and a few flashy colored silver ones for my daughters entertainment.

Here are a few pictures of what I have done already. I'll continue posting progression photos as the project advances. Thanks in advance. I look forward to the conversation.

Hi Masterpea,

With your fist tank (FT) sitting higher than your grow bed (GB), you are going to need a sump tank (ST) underneath your GB. The pump for the system will be in the ST and it will run constantly if you are using an auto siphon.

- The water is pumped from the ST up to the FT
- The FT should have an overflow at the max desired water level (which it has), which then flows down to your GB
- The GB will flood to the height of the siphon standpipe, siphon will kick in and drain the GB water down to the ST
- When the GB is drained the siphon will suck air and stop, the GB will then fill again and the process will repeat

Using this method the water level in the ST will vary, the water level in the FT will stay constant, and the GB will flood and drain (F&D) via the auto siphon. Depending on flow rate required to operate the siphon correctly, the GB may take (example only) say 15 minutes to fill and only 2 minutes to empty.

Cheers.

P.S. You're going to find it hard keeping water in that FT and gravel in that GB... I'd turn them up the other way!...

Hey mate,

heres a quick little design i just did for ya. Basically its a S trap, what it does is allow you to run pipe over the top of the glass to the growbed without sucking the whole fishtank dry it does this by having the s type bed and then an airbreak the only thing with a design like this is the s bend needs to stay primed to make sure that the s trap works. You'll need a sump as Mr Damage has said. The rest of the plumbing is the easy part from pump to fishtank few bends and your away

Got the liner in and fish tank up. Hopefuly I will have time this weekend to wash the stone and make the auto siphon.

This is how I was thinking about running the piping. There will be a Continues flow of water into the fish tank with an overfill drain back to the sump tank. I plan on just using a siphon to fill the grow bed. The auto siphon will dump directly into the sump.

Hi Masterpea,

To my unexperienced eyes, the fish tank might be too small for the growbed. Perhaps a constant pump from the sump to the fish tank, and FT overflow to the growbed might work?

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I forgot to mention, my 'to be' plywood FT and GB will look like your GB. I get to see how they look even before assembling them. Thanks for sharing the pics.

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