Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

My name is Stu and I'm brand new to AP. I have dabbled a little with gardens in the past, but I'm still a novice. I work in forestry though, so I have some knowledge of plant ecology and fish habitat. I'm looking to set up a small system in my apartment to grow some lettuce and peppers.

- 100L (~26 g) FT
- 2x 50L (~13 g) GB's
- 50L (~13 g) ST
- ~800Lph (210gph) pump (http://www.amazon.ca/Aquarium-Submersib ... water+pump)

Here's a pic of the general set-up I'm thinking of going with:



The orientation will likely be slightly different in the end, but that is the basic idea.

I grabbed an AP book from the local library and this diagram is pretty much what I'm looking to do, I think, just with 2 GBs:



I've got some more reading and shopping to do before I attempt to actually put it all together, so I was just wondering if anyone saw any glaring errors in my initial idea? Thanks!

HB
(MCFC)

Hi HoneyBadger. The diagram is a CHOP system, which was quite common, but I could never figure out why you would want to dump your fish waste in your sump then pump it back to your FT, makes no sense to me . I would pump from the sump tank to the fishtank then have the SLO go to the two growbeds from a common pipe and each with a valve to control flow (or use Jayendra's trick of having elbows at ends of pipes to the GBs which can be twisted up or down to adjust flow). The GBs then dump their water via bell siphons into the ST >>> no solids in the ST means less wear on your pump. This is a CHIFT PIST set up. To be safe you could have another overflow from the FT to the ST in case of overfilling. You only need to turn over your FT volume every hour so your pump may give you too much flow for your GBs to deal with. Just add a T with a valve above your pump outlet to short circiut excess flow before it leaves the ST.

Good luck with your build.

Joc -

My larger system will be the same pumping to the beds and the fish tank, it was recommended to me for the sole reason to keep better aeration of the water for the fish and for the conversion from nitrite to nitrate.

HoneyBadger -

Looks good! Have fun with it!

@HoneyBadger - Hi and welcome. I have to agree with Joc, it is more beneficial to pump from sump to FT and overflow to GBs. There the solids will have time to breakdown and the nutrients used up by your plants. If you are worried about aeration you can always put in few air stones to help. With your system indoors, you might want to look into lighting, you need at least 4 hrs of direct sunlight for the plants to grow.

Regards

Thank you for your replies!!

After doing some more reading and taking your comments into consideration I've decided to re-jig my potential system. Should I keep posting updates in this thread or should I start a new one in the "Member's Systems" section?

@ HoneyBadger - It is better if you start a system thread to document your progress. Or you might ask around and see if any of the moderators would help you move and rename this thread. Keep in mind that 4 hrs direct sunlight is the bare minimum for plants to grow, you will need more hrs to make sure they do well.

Regards

Stu, I'm bc as well, but south coast.
I'll snap a couple pics tomorrow of my (2nd) trial/temporary system, as it is very similar to your proposal. Only had this one running for several weeks now, and already really pleased, I've had an indoor bed over my aquariums for almost two years now.
Anyways, I'll start a system thread tomorrow, and add some pictures, then place a link in this thread. It's a really simple system, chift pist (that is, tank level is constant and overflows to grow beds, pump in sump) four bins, all the same, one pump.