Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Thanx Freo,,

Really after ideas,as i have read heaps ,but done nothing re;aquaponics.

The exact dimensions are 1900 ltr
2480 cm wide
500cm deep

It looks much smaller in the pic,than when you stand next to it.

Is the fish tank depth,need 600cm for a reason,,
is it for temp stability,or fish comfort,
or something altogether.

Freo just seen your IBC system,looks great.

Maybe i should just build a chop system,and use it to learn from,

Stick the trough in the paddock for my horses.

As i am new to this could someone explain chift pist?

Chift pist is "constant height in fish tank, pump in sump tank", this was the original naming of this style of system, someone else renamed it chop for commercial purposes..

I love this forum. Design of fish tank and growbeds have changed in half a day...

A big thankyou to all you guys,

It is great to have people with real knowledge help save me time and money,from finding out things the hard way.

Yep, no one wants people making more mistakes than what they need to..

Hey guys,
I have taken your advice,and will use trough as grow bed,
I have a smaller trough about 350 ltrs that i will also use as growbed for herbs.
What i am planning is

2x IBC's fish tanks,2000ltrs
2xtroughs grow beds 1900ltrs+about 350ltrs total 2250ltrs growbeds to start
1xIBC 1000ltrs as a sump dug into ground

will get some sketchs done,and post soon

Can anyone see a possable problem with this starting setup,or any tips,please let me know.

Thanx to all who have helped me so far.

And special thanks to freo,who helped me see the light by turning my proposed fish tank into a grow bed.LOL.

To early in the morning to be very sure (need to drink coffee first), anyways I think your sump is too small to support the water needs of your growbeds.

Water required for growbeds is roughly calculated by taking the total volume of our growbeds and divide it by 2, (2250 / 2 = 1125) this will be the amount of water required to fill your growbeds will water. The reason is that the gravel or growing media usually takes about 50%-60% (space) of the volume in the growbed.

Ivan is right, 1000l just won't cut it
Several ways around this.
Run contsant flood in the big bed, FD in the small bed. I have great success with cF beds.

Get a bigger sump

Put the stand pipe drain hole above the bottom of the GB, so it only partially drains

3 use 300l tub as sump swell as the IBC, and put floating rafts/ baskets in for herbs, and yabbies underneath

Thanks ,

Think i will source a bigger sump,thinking a small water tank,say 2000 litrs,or 2x IBC's.

will too big be a issue,was thinking that i can grow into it,LOL.

As my system evolves,will have plenty of sump up my sleeve,

Seen as though i probably have one of the biggest grow beds i have seen on a small system.

Just on my grow bed being so big,do you guys think i will have any probs getting it draining right with flood and drain.

Nope not at all

Pretty ironic really,that this tread is named starting small,and its now twice as big as most people when they start small.

Just what size system will i get,when i decide to go big,,LOL.

If i use 1 x1000ltr IBC,and the 300ltrs trough both as sump,how do i plumb it up so that the water level is the same in both.

in otherwords so one does not empty and other is full,without 2 pumps,I have heard of a bridge?