Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi all. First off, thanks for all of the great info on this most interesting subject. In truth, I know next to nothing about aquaponics, other than what I managed to gather from websites over the past few weeks.

Actually, I began reading about the subject almost by accident, while searching for economic ways to filter the water in my koi pond, which is currently in sad, sad shape.... The oversized golfish and swordtails swimming around in the muck must be of a most hardy variety because, in spite of the abuse, seem quite healthy.

Anyways, my initial situation I guess would be the dream for a lot of people. I have a 20,000 litre fish pond with a 1.5 meter tall waterfall (good for areation and relaxation ), complete with an attached sunken pump house (floor 1 meter below waterline). Attached is a pic, just to get an idea.

I have around 15 square meters easily available for growth beds, right alongside the fish pond. Another great and fortunate circumstance is that the ground level in this location is around 0,5 meter below water level, which means a continuous flow gravity fed system is possible.

OK, the first thing I need to do is to find and repair a leak in the pond, which is costing me around 150 mm of water depth. So far, this has proven frustrating, I´ve drained down and patched twice, but the leak continues. I´ve had to wait for a few months to try again, until the end of the rainy season in April.

But assuming that I get this solved, the next step will be to install a decent filter and pump arrangement, to get the water moving again. And that´s where I´d like a little advice.

As I said, I have around 15 square meters available for growth beds. I can and will build additional growth bed space in the future, but until I learn the ropes, I´d like to limit the scope of this project for now, both in area and number of fish, which will in principle, be tilápia. But, from what I´ve read, it seems that I have an awful lot of water in relation to my growth beds.

Questions:

1) Will this large water volume create any sort of problem with the system??
2) Should I size the pump and filter system as a function of the water volume or in realation to the growth bed size / fish quantity??

My inclination is to install a large pump and filter system, adequate for the water volume and then divert excess water directly back to the fish tank. Would this be the way to go??

Thanks!!


Bill

Here´s kind of what I´m thinking for a plumbing set-up. Please let me know what you all think....

I noted a discrepency regarding the volume of my fish tank....

There is a 7.000 litre, 0,90 meter deep sump in the middle of my otherwise more shallow 20.000 litre tank.

The tank´s perimeter is irregular but in basic numbers it´s 2,3 meters wide x 22 meters long by 0,4 meters deep.
The sump is 2 meters wide x 4 meters long by 0,9 meters deep.