Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi im a new member from the Houston area and Ive been working on building my setup for a few months and money has been tight so im trying to get this finished and wanted to run it by everybody here for some help with my build.

My setup

I am making a grow bed from 2*8 and 2*4 and 2*6, Its a box with 2*6 on the bottom as support and stacked 4s and 8 on the sides to be 12 inch tall. I will be using pond liner for the bed. I plan on putting gravel and doing flood and drain with 1 1/2 in pipe as supply line for grow bed and 2 in as the drain back to the fish tank. I will have the grow bed outside my barn up from the ground by 3 layers of cinderblocks and then the pipes will run 10 ft or so into the barn through the outside wall and i will have my fish tank (250 gallon IBC tote) in there along with a swirl filter i plan on using a 100 gph pump.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0049X ... PDKIKX0DER

This is my first build and wanted some help from all of the many talented people on here I got many ideas from this website and youtube. Does everything seem like it would work or bad ideas thank everyone for your help.

Hi Ben10,

Not really enough info yet to tell you whether it will work. The box sounds sturdy enough but can't tell the length or the volume.

Do you see any changes that you think I should make? I'm at the point where I'm about to order the final parts and hope to put it all togeather.This next month I hope to order the filter and bulkheads from amazon and then go to the hardware stores to get ts and valves. What kind of slope do I need for the growbed and for the return to the fish tank I was thinking of digging it down into the dirt because that might be easier then raising the grow bed.

The grow bed should be level, not sloped. As far as the pipes try to limit the bends and I'd just do them either level or in the case of the return pipe, sloped toward the fish tank (you want to have a drop at the fish tank to help with aeration). You might want to have a look at the IBC's of Aquaponics pdf located here for some ideas and examples of other systems using IBCs - http://ibcofaquaponics.com/

FYI - the thickness of your walls might cause you some difficulties with installing your bulkhead fittings. It's more common to see plywood with a wood frame support. It should work your way but you'll have to figure a way to do this (it's do-able).

There are basically a couple of setups, in one a sump is the low point of the system and in the other it's the fish tank. Whichever is lowest is where the pump belongs. Your idea of digging the tank in sounds good and lots of people do it this way. Make certain that the water table isn't high enough to cause problems (The bladder of an IBC can collapse if enough force is pushing from the outside when the water level is low). If you can't dig the fish tank in for some reason then go with a sump and setup what we call a CHIFT PIST (Constant Height in Fish Tank, Pump in Sump Tank) system. Either way works - I have a preference for CHIFT PIST but I'd go either way depending on circumstances .

On the pond pump you need to determine the head height - from the top of the water the pump is in to the highest point you'll be pumping to. Most pumps then have a chart or table that tell you the volume the pump will deliver at that head height. You want to be able to deliver the volume of the fish tank once per hour. It's also good to have a pump that is efficient and that can handle solids.

Is there anything specific you're after information wise? I'm having to use a shotgun on this and I'm leaving a lot out so ask and I'll do my best to get you squared away.

It looks like im going to have to go CHIFT PIST i got it all set up today and tried it out and the grow bed used 3/4ths of the water in the ibc tote so i guess ill look into that but i have a question how big does the stand pipe and cover need to be? I have a 2in pipe as the drain with a 2 in bulkhead and i tried a 4in cover with a cap and it wouldnt sit flat because of the bulkhead and even then it didnt drain down to the area where i put slits in the pipe.

So it seems like i need an actual media guard i tried to avoid going to the store so i will use a 6in pipe with cap also i was trying to get this to all work with just water and i used alot of it but i didnt think about the media will take up alot of it and i may not need to CHIFT PIST ( not sure on this one yet) what would be the safe level of water drop/rise in the fish tank? Also i will get some pictures of my setup after work.

Hi Ben, sorry I missed your earlier post. The safest level is no change at all, like you'd get using constant flood (without siphons and pumping all the time). The 6" media guard will work and makes it easier to get at the standpipe . Probably 20 % is a safe drop and up to 40% might be OK but I'd try to keep it under this. With your media in the bed the water will be about 40% of the submerged volume in the grow bed. So if that's 100 gallons of media then you've probably got 40 gallons of water in the bed. I wouldn't try to factor it out when you're doing your calculations but the water in the bottom 2 inches in the grow bed will probably remain after each cycle but the rest will go to your tank.

If you have to switched to Constant Flood so you don't get fluctuations, it's easy so long as you can remove the bell and switch to a standpipe without a hole for drainage. If you need a better description let me know.

Cheers

Hopefully that allows the pics i took of my setup, I looked up the bell siphon and i had mine 3 in to big so i cut it and broke it so i had to start over but im working on getting the grow media. I will be using river rock i did the ph test with vinegar and had no bubbles so i hope it works well. Let me know if it all looks right or what i need to change.

here are the links
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1Py2Sti3MJHMl9tMmhnb1ZMYzQ
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1Py2Sti3MJHNVJndzZ6dFJrZTg

hopefully they work the pics are way to big to upload here.

It looks like a good start. It's hard to tell much about the siphon setup but what I can see looks OK.

I'd consider adding a support under the center of the grow bed. I'm not sure how strong the bed is built though. One other thing to consider is your buried tank - sometimes the walls of these collapse if the tank volume is low and the water table is high or soil presses in on the bladder too much. You may want to consider protecting the bladder somehow.

The water table won't be an issue and I have 5 2x6 boards under the grow bed I don't really have the siphon done yet I just bought 6in pipe as the guard and I have 4 in pipe as tall as the stand pipe plus the cap and then it's just a 2in pipe in the bulkhead.

It will certainly work fine for a Constant Flood system. Some of the guys that are more into siphons might be able to tell you if the 2" pipe is going to be an issue for a Siphon system. Seems to me that the larger pipe might be hard to get your siphon going with since it drains pretty fast. It's going to depend on the flow coming in and some other factors as well.

yeah I am having issues getting it started it wants to start but then it just keeps it at the stand pipe level and just sucks air i have it all filled up with river rock now and i will add support under the middle its hard to tell if its bowing any but it doesnt hurt any to add support. My siphon is currently a 2 in straight pipe that is 10 in tall no holes or anything and the bell part is a 4in pipe with slits in the bottom where i want the water level then i have that in a 6in pipe, hopefully that is set up correctly here are some pics of the siphon. I went to HD and got stuff to make a 1.5 in stand pipe and 1 in stand pipe aswell if you think those will create siphon better. Could you post pics of your setup?what size pipes did you use for everything?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1Py2S ... sp=sharing


https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1Py2S ... sp=sharing



https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1Py2S ... sp=sharing

The slits on the bell are restricting flow. You probably need to open up the area so you can get more water flow through the siphon. When the growbeds full you can test this by pulling the bell up about 1/2" and see if the siphon kicks in. Or by placing two or three small 1/2" blocks/spacers under the bell. If the siphon starts and the growbed drains then all you need to do is adjust the bell. I hope you get it working!

I'm sure I posted some pics somewhere here showing my siphons but it's been a few years and I haven't had any luck finding them. I no longer use bell siphons but here's how I did it - I used a through hull fitting to go through the bottom of the grow bed. The standpipe sits in this and is not glued (You can use a pipe to pipe connector to accomplish the same thing if you want). On the end of the standpipe is a reducer fitting that actually flares outward at the top. This helps get the siphon going. I've used PVC pipe (3" pipe for the bell I think ) or pop bottles with their bottoms cut off as the bell. The media guard is a 4 " pipe with lots of holes drilled in it. The inflow on the grow beds goes from 2" to 1" at the spigot. I regulate the flow into the bed with ball valves but if you didn't it might be prudent to use the next size of pipe larger than the inflow size (ex - in pipe diameter 1" out 1.25").

Since I'm running CF I no longer use the bell siphon portion in any of the beds.

I think Max47 could be right about why the siphons not starting - the bottom of mine had large serrations to allow water underneath. When the siphon starts to pull, you need to have really good flow through the bell, It goes much faster than you'd expect. Sometimes not having enough holes in the media guard can also be the problem.

Don't glue any of the pipe within the grow bed. It's not usually necessary and leaving it unglued lets you make changes.

Changing the standpipe size within the grow bed might help (just use a reducer off your 2" pipe) but I'd add a flare at the top of the standpipe as well. Look up Affnan siphon and you'll get the idea.

Hope this helps

CF Scotty? Thought we had banned that abbreviation