Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Ok, so this might seem like a stupid question but my mind won't stop as far as thinking of different options , I have a pump from my fish tank pumping out to my grow beds, but the GB drain pips are descending in height so that gravity will feed the line back to the fish tank, but the height of the return piping is about 2 ft BELOW the top of the fish tank, I am trying to think of a solution as far as getting the GB water back into the fish tank without the use of a pump to pump it up those two feet and back into the FT, any ideas??

Are the growbeds higher than the fish tank? If they are then you can drop the drain pipe to the ground and travel over to the fish tank then come back up and into the fish tank (you can bury it if needed). Your flow through this drain needs to be sufficient to prevent backup and you might want a flush out valve to drain this in the Winter or if it needs cleaning.

If the growbeds are lower than the Fish Tank you will need to add a sump to take the water from the growbeds. You will need a pump in the sump tank that pumps back to the fish tank but you can replace the pump in the Fish Tank with a SLO (Solids Lifting Overflow) and just gravity feed the water to the growbeds.

One of these two scenarios should cover your situation. Hope this is what you're after. Cheers.

Could you insert an airlift into the return pipe to help?

Woz

Hi Woz,

You could but it probably isn't necessary. Most of the time when I've seen this used, it's for low energy setups where the level of the bed and tank are almost the same but they want to save energy by using an air pump instead of a water pump. As long as you're using a regular pump anyway, and either the tank or growbed is higher you can run one of the systems I mentioned, with the provision that the piping is adequate for the flow.

Cheers.

No the grow beds are below the lip of the fish tank, I figured I would have to use the pump unless I was genius enough to bend the laws of gravity a bit


I thought about that Woz, could be that since I'm not that familiar with it I scratched it off before even considering it, but wouldnt it have to be a big air pump if the return line is about 25mm?

Not sure, have never done anything like that myself either. I know there are a number of threads dealing with airlifts for supply to GBs on here, may be worth doing a search an if all else fails experiment! (but let us know how it goes).

Woz

Sounds like you either have to lower your fish tank and keep the pump in the fish tank OR get a sump and move the pump to the sump then put a SLO in the Fish Tank . If you run Constant Flood (pumping 24/7) you can have a very small sump. Just big enough to handle what flows into it if the pump stops. Other systems usually allow the growbeds to drain which would then require a larger sump.

If you're interested in airlifts I remember one of the first threads and LEAP or Low Energy Aquaponics was in the title, so it might be worth looking for.

Would you be interested in changing where your water is pumped? Do you have room for a sump tank?

UPDATE: I went ahead and buried a 110Gal sump tank I will more than likely end up using a small bilge pump or pond pump to push the water up back into the fish tank, thanks again guys!