Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Been lurking for a little while so i decided to pull the plug and join.
I want to build a small ebb and flow system.
All gravity flow.
I all ready have the fish covered.
500 koi,channel cat and hybrid brim fingerling's in a 50 long x6 wide x3 feet deep cement tank .
Now i need to add some grow tanks.

Welcome to the forum North

Yeah.... another american.... LOL.....

better watch out au.. .we're catching up

welcome to the madness.....

no turning back now

jT

Welcome

Welcome aboard

You are only 400 miles from me and near the beach.
Maybe a road trip on the bike to check out your system is in the future.

Once water is at the highest point, gravity can be utilised to get the water to the lowest point, but there has to be at least one pump somewhere in the system.


Scott

Do you have to recirculate the water in a system or can you use fresh water coming into the fish tank and then into the grow tank and then out of the system.

That wouldnt be a closed look AP system and Id imagine would get quite expensive. Especially how often you would need to replace the water at that stock level of fish.

AP is about saving water... not wasting it.

Your system would never really do good unless you used some kind of fertilzers. The whole point of the fish is to fertilze the plants by the bacteria breaking down their waste. If you don't circulate the water this won't happen. At least not to any real extent.

That is what is so frustrating about all the AP info.
It is geared to the 99%.
That i am not.
I have access to a hundred gallons a Minute of fresh water.

Do i go with a traditional system or can i use my resources to make a better system?

Some things i would have to consider.
How would fresh water affect your water temp and chemical balance in the plant beds?
I am sure i would have to figure out the correct amount of water to let flow thru the system.
I probally should take some pictures to show what i have and post them up.

You couldnt grow veg in a flow through system, the idea of AP is to use fish waste through conversion to feed plants. If you ran fresh water through your tank then into beds there would be highly diluted amm that just wouldnt have the chance to form any kind of benificial bacterial colony.

Im not sure what you are trying to achieve..

What is this source of water? Does it have the nitrates in it for plant growth. What is the ph of the water? Not sure what you are wanting to build.

The idea behind AP is to use the water the fish have been swimming/pooing in to feed/water your plants.

Using a flow-through, I'm assuming, would be like taking a plant and sticking it in a cup filled with water.

What i am trying to do is let a set amount of water from a creek flow into my fish tank.

Where it then would be enriched by the fish waste and flow into my grow bed.

The clean water would then flow back into the creek.