Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hey jordan89 glad you got it down there, you will want the FT volume to turn over at least once per hour. The pump will pump less to greater heights so the relevant flow depends on how high you're pumping. If the height is like say a foot then the 300 GPH pump would be appropriate. Good pumps have a floe graph on the side of the box or somehow available that shows how much GPH at a given head height, which is measured from the water line.

Thanks Dave. I found that 300 gph pump in the house with no documentation. I will do a quick google search to find out if it will pump roughly 180 gph at the specified height. I will post pictures soon about my progress.

I would run the 900 gph if I were you. You can put a ball valve at the inlet to the beds to set the desired flow. Put a T in the line above the fish tank with another valve running into a spray bar to aerate your tank. This will dump any excess pressure, and helps with water quality. FYI, smaller pumps do not always mean less power consumption, especially if you are running a small pump to maximum capabilities, in fact, everyone I have seen recommend pumps always recommend going bigger for various reasons.

My FT is filled to 150 gallons. The 300 gph pump, pumps 178 gph with 4ft head pressure. I have a 1" bulk head with a strainer to dump the water back into the FT. It seems like the 300 gph pump isn't capable of pumping water into the GB faster than its being drained. Should I put a ball valve on the bulk head and reduce the draining capability or should I use the larger 900 gph pump? Thanks for all your help. O and my water is very cloudy, should I throw an aquarium filter into it?

I'm also dealing with the PA weather/cold. I've been doing a lot of research on this very subject. Currently I have 4 300w heaters that help keep my 2 fish tanks 'stable' for my Tilapia. The location of my AP system is in the basement, old un-insulated and the average temperature is around 45 degrees. I've done all I could with insulating the tanks but what I really need is a space heater. But I'm not going to continue to bleed money into a lost cause.

I stumbled across Rocket Stove Mass Heaters in my aquaponics heating search and have been debating about building one. However since I'm renting I'm sure that will be frowned upon by the landlord. I've read they are incredibly efficient and relatively cheap to make. If you do a quick search on youtube for aquaponics/rocket stove it has some interesting set ups. Not sure if this will help you or not but just an idea.

Hey Jordan:
Use a standpipe to set the level in the GB rather than trying to throttle the flow. Have you looked at the IBC of aquaponics already? It's at the top right of every page here and it's free (just in case someone who reads this hasn't seen it yet).

You should'nt need an aquarium filter that is what the GB will do as it cycles up. You might want to squeeze a healthy aquarium's filter muck into your system to get it seeded well with bacteria. I was able to start a virgin system in the basement without seeding it with bacteria at all, it seems they are all around us just ready to grow when the conditions are right. This was using fish less cycling, which is where you use ammonia to give the bacteria something to process. If you want to go that route do a search on here for it. I found ammonia that didn't have detergent or fragrance in it (shake it if it foams don't use it) at Weis if you have those there. Took awhile to find a store that had it without detergent. My system cycled in two weeks with the ammonia.

Hey Jeezy a space heater might help and that would be easy to do. Are your tanks insulated from the floor? I used to sit at my desk in the basement with my feet on a piece of blue board because the concrete really sucks the heat out. We have the same problem at work right now - the guy next to me rests his feet on an electric blanket haha.

Another option is "heat tape" which is used to keep pipes or RV hoses from freezing. I've seen those under grow beds before. I also saved my stepson's water bed heater when we got rid of it, in case I wanted to try using the water bed heater to heat a FT or bed. HTH!

Yeah, space heaters scare me to run when I'm not at work and the cost really puts me off. I have the tanks up off the floor on home made wooden rollers. I should have added another piece of insulation underneath them but wasn't thinking about heat when I first got started.

I'll look into the heat tape. lol at the water bed heater idea.

Jeezy, fortunately for me my basement stays relatively warm. I haven't recorded the air temperature, but it is warm down there. I might have to throw an aquarium heater in the tank to raise to water temperature up a bit so that I can successfully raise tilapia. Where are you located in PA? I live in Bethlehem, PA.


Dave, I do not have a bell siphon design. I have two drains in my GB. The smallest drain (1") is the one that is constantly draining. It is located at the bottom surface of the GB. The other drain (2") is located near the top surface of the media. It is in place to keep the GB from over flowing if the 1" drain clogs or if it cannot keep up with the pump. I saw this design in a youtube video and liked it because I can run my pump at 50% duty cycle instead of 100% duty cycle. Do you have any suggestions on how I can make this design work? Is the ball valve idea frowned upon?

Ah, your lucky. I hope the next place I rent has a basement that stays warm. I'm in the State College area. I'm running all my heaters at 68 degrees, but its so cold they only get up to 64. My Tilapia still look great and are eating regularly.

I think you should switch to a standpipe to control the water level instead of what the YouTube video showed. haha BTW a standpipe is just the dumb part of a siphon, I'm not suggesting you make a siphon, just use the standpipe part.

Dave, do you have a drawing or picture I can see so that I can better understand what you are explaining to me? If I were to put a stand pipe around my drain then my grow bed will always be flooded. It will never drain because of the stand pipe.

I have attached the YouTube video below.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=R-mCzjhj0Aw

Is your pump on a timer? I'm confused about your setup. If the pump is on a timer and you don't want to use a bell siphon you can put a valve in the drain to regulate flow down. That being said, it will be very tricky to keep the bed from overflowing when the drain starts getting buildup. I would run either a siphon or constant flood with standpipe. If you do the standpipe you could always drill a small hole at the bottom of it that would allow water to drain when the pump is off. It is a good way to run flood and drain with no bell siphon.

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Does your Garage have a South facing wall?

If it does I suggest building a Solar Air Heater to help heat the garage. You could probably build one for 100 to 200 dollars up to about what I spent which is $400. I always have to do it the expensive way . This will only help during the day but could put a major dent in your heating costs.

I just have a small one on an uninsulated garage and the temp goes up about 20 F on a sunny day. Air temp going out of heater can be 50 or 60 degrees higher than what went in. If you have an insulated garage then you'll do much better heating the garage up.

With the air heater you don't need to worry about pipes freezing like you would a Solar Water Heater.

Here's one example but there are others on the Simply Solar Yahoo group or BuildItSolar.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Solar-Heater/

If by 50% duty cycle you mean it's on a timer then yeah what JRL91RS said you just drill a small hole or two in the bottom of the standpipe that lets the bed drain when the pump turns off.