Hello from Lewiston, CA

z0mb31hun73r

Hey, how y'all doin? I've been readin the forums for awhile now, watched all the dvds i could find, and i finally started building my first system a little while ago. Figured it was about time to start posting as I'm sure I'm gonna have a lot of questions.

So heres what im doing. I have 2 IBC's for fish tanks, and i cut up 4 others to make 7 grow beds and 1 sump tank. I cut the growbeds at 15" to allow a slightly deeper bed as i will be using gravel and it seems an extra inch or 2 is beneficial with gravel. My sump is the other 2/3 of an ibc with a gb cut off. My plan is to SLO from both fish tanks to the sump. I have a large pump there which will be used to fill the grow beds and the fish tanks.

Heres some pics.

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I plan on plumbing the fish tanks together(not sure what height to do so at) and building my auto siphons today or tomorrow. I found a great deal of uniseals so i was going to attempt to use them instead of bulkhead fittings for the siphons. has anyone tried this?

comments and constructive criticism encouraged.

Lyndon346

Nice start!

I don't thing you'll need a pump to fill the grow breds, if your using a SLO, it with gravity feed to the grow beds.( if there lowere than the fish tank) Pump from the sump back to the fish tank.

I'm glad you found some uniseals, I couldn't...

4xjbh

Lyndon, Contact these guys and they will have them to you in a day or two. http://www.uniseal.com.au/

z0mb31hun73r, I am really happy with the gravity feed from my 90mm SLO to my FT. Definitely one way to go.

bryjjk

Nice system,
Looks like you have put in some homework on this one, enjoy the ride.

bunson

z0mb31hun73r wrote:

I have 2 IBC's for fish tanks, and i cut up 4 others to make 7 grow beds and 1 sump tank. I cut the growbeds at 15" to allow a slightly deeper bed as i will be using gravel and it seems an extra inch or 2 is beneficial with gravel. My sump is the other 2/3 of an ibc with a gb cut off. My plan is to SLO from both fish tanks to the sump. I have a large pump there which will be used to fill the grow beds and the fish tanks.

Are you going to sequence the flooding of the GBs? If not, I don't think your sump has enough capacity:

Lets assume each GB filled to the brim with media is approximately 22000 cubic inches (360L, I'm metric) and lets assume the gravel holds 40% water (144L of water in 360L of media) So, to flood 7 GBs simultaneously is going to requires a sump of at least 1008L plus some sullage for a submersible pump to sit in whilst operating. If your sump is only 2/3 of an IBC i.e. approx 600L, then you are going to struggle to flood 4 beds in a single cycle.

I think you need to lose a GB and add bury a complete IBC as a sump; or add a sequencer to flood the GBs (3 at a time, pausing until the water returns to the sump before flooding the next beds => complexity)

None of this accounts for the water which is going to be in the long lengths of piping, so there is more water outside the sump and FTs than you have planned for.

Or, is there something in your design which you haven't mentioned or that I have missed?

The other option is to use two pumps, one in the FT and one in the sump; but I think CHIFT PIST is a more sensible option.

Scott

Backyard Aquaponics A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello from Lewiston, CA

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A place to discuss aquaponics