Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hey folks. I'm a Northern Californian retired in Thailand, and I have been keeping aquariums for a long time, but have never really had an opportunity to try aquaponics. Now I have recently moved into a house with a big garden space and freedom to garden as I wish. It also has these:

They are water storage jars, I'm told they are 1000 liters each, which seems about right as they are about 1.5 meters tall. With taps at the bottom. I figure with some shade they could make great Tilapia tanks. Thinking about a pretty simple system using one jar first. Water leaves the tank out of the tap at the bottom. Gravity feeds water to a few gravel ebb and flow beds, then into a small sump pool, and then is pumped back to the tank.

Over time, I envision using all 4 jars in a combined aquaponic-rainwater catchment-water storage system, but I want to take it slow and give my self time to learn and evolve the idea to fit the space I'm in.

What do you folks think?

Welcome to the forum Enki

Double posted problems now, many SQL problems

Unless you are going to elevate those huge jugs, how is gravity going to work for you? The other problem with direct out of the bottom is; If any thing sticks open the entire FT Jug will drain dry and you will be left with floppy fish in an inch of water. Maybe go right to a sump with an over fill jug pipe. Would need to bore a hole in a jug. Circular Diamond tipped drill, like they use for glass, drilled in from both sides half way. They also have those large jars here. They use them for making local Bo-Joe. They steep the rice in them for a time. Home made brew.

Maybe the yard is on a steep enough angle and I can't tell from the photo but it looks pretty flat so far, In AP if it can go wrong, it has for someone. If I had a sump, I would do all pumping out from it. It seem to be the safest way. The FTs would then get the water back and overflow to the sump. IMO, If you hook up all 4 Jugs, you will either have to tie them all together or make 4 systems. You can tie with the bottom drains. They will all fill evenly. Add a T fitting and ball valves. One side to the 4 jug loop and one to a jug drain. This way you could isolate a jug if it gets in trouble or to clean it out.

Thanks for the feedback.

The ground is very flat the dirt here is rock hard right now but as soon as the rainy season starts it should be a lot easier to dig.

As an alternative to drilling I was thinking that U siphons might work to link the jars when I get to that point. If it works between 2 aquariums it should work between 2 jars, right? That would just take some big pipe and some fittings. Then I can just put a hole in the pipe to break siphon if the level gets too low.

Water siphoning out of the jar would have enough pressure to flow water to some media beds that were set low. Outlets a meter high or less will have ok flow with about 1k liters stacked about 1.5 meters high behind it.

Eventually I'd like to use one or two of the jars for rainwater catchment and one or two for fish tanks, but at this point I am taking it slow and keeping it small and simple.

Ok, at this point I would run a test with a couple of simple pipes to assure of a good build. Just get a bucket with a hose set at the level you want with a return pump and test you FT water syphon idea out and go from there. Then add the second jug and see if one will balance fill the other. If all is done right , it should. BUT? Gremlins like to play with AP all the time. Even if a bird lands on the pipe. Keeping the rain water off line should be Better. IMO practice makes perfect.

Welcome Enki.

I've lurked in this forum for a few years now.. and can't recall many examples of established systems with a U-syphon... but that's irrelevant for now because you wisely intend to start with just one jar/FT.

Your proposal looks OK to me... many (perhaps most) use a SLO to get water out of our FTs. But, if you want to avoid drilling your pots (and if your pipes are big enough and you avoid too many fittings and right angles) you can send water a long way with very little difference in height.

Yes... there's a risk of a leak and your fish tank draining. But there are heaps of other manageable risks too... like blackout and pump failure and a leak somewhere else in the system. Just pay careful attention to your plumbing and you could consider some sort of alarm for low water levels... assuming you're in Udon Thani which, from memory, is a pretty big city and would have good enough internet and mobile coverage.

Just a tip, learned from my own failings and in case you'e not already aware... the bigger your grow bed volume, the more fish you can fit in that jar.

As an aside, I wonder whether those clay jars transpire (if that's the word) water. If so, perhaps there is a cooling effect on the water inside? Food for thought for those of us with problems keeping FTs cool in summer.

If those jugs are made the same as here, then there should be 2 glaze coatings on the inside and maybe 1 on the outside. If the water and air temp is different they will sweat a lot. If the inside glaze is chipped or cut then they will slowly leak thru the wall. The outside coat is not that water proof. More like a brick then water cup. You need to give them a good cleaning and fill them to see what condition they are in.

Regarding the u syphons, finally enough I had the same tanks in a house I rented and can verify it worked for rainwater.

Welcome to the forum. Where in Thailand are you?

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Im in Udon Thani. On the edge of town so it's mostly countryside quiet with downtown just a few minutes away.

Big windstorm last week left me with no Internet for the last 8 days though. That sucked.