Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I found a really good article explaining Aquaponics and the different systems used yesterday. I thought I would post it so others can read it.

http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/aquaponic.html

Has some photo's of EB's systems and lots of links to other articles also.

Nova

Excellent, thanks for the post Nova.

Ironically, reading that was one of the things that got me linked up with this site!

What goes around, comes around....

LOL went to save it on my hard drive and I had already had it. Still so much to reread through. Good info.

I'm having trouble finding anything free, apart from the barrel ponics doc., that gives and easy to understand description of setting up the plumbing.
Or even the difference between continuous and flood and drain.

So lets say I want continuous flow. Is that simpler than f&d?
I've 2:1 gravel:tank volume (figured that bit out) and a pump.
Is it as simple as water goes in one end of the bed and drains out a hole in the other side? Or is there some reservoir or something involved?

Samantha

Flood and drain is not difficult - and it is better than continuous flow.

With continuous flow the water will tend to only take one path through the growbed, and plants will struggle to get the water.

With flood and drain you can put a standpipe in, and have a small hole in the bottom of the standpipe, and let the bed fill with water until it overflows into the standpipe. Turn pump off, and bed will drain through the small hole.

Or use an autosyphon - I recommend you browse around a few users systems

Thanks Outbackozzie ...

I'v spent a lot of time looking at people's systems over the last couple of days ... I might get the sack actually.

Anyway, so flood and drain ....
Tank, beds with autosyphon, timer on pump.
Run the water up to the beds for say 15minutes every hour (depending on system). Drains through auto syphon. Is that right?

So all I need is tank, pump, timer, beds with autosyhpon(s).

Am I right? Is it that simple? I'm asking these dumb questions because I think I'm missing something about sumps and reservoirs. Or are they "advanced" options?

Ah now I'm more confused. What's the difference between a stand pip and an autosyphon. I thought an autosyphon was just a pipe sticking almost to the top of the gravel. When the water reaches the top of the pipe, it drains.
But that sounds like a stand pipe!

thanks


Samantha

With autosiphon you do not really need a timer as the autosiphon starts when the water level reaches your setpoint and slurps it down to empty. One end needs to be near bottom of growbed, other end is lower than that and dumps into a sump or fishtank, and the high-point determines how full your growbed gets before triggering the siphon. Clear as mud? Well, there are lots of pics in the forum...

Standpipes make sure that your beds can never overflow even if something goes wrong with your "foolproof" main plumbing. *grin*

If you use a timer, folks typically have a drain hole in the bottom of the growbed, the pump fills the bed (with any overflow going down the standpipe), the pumps shuts off, the bed drains. This is really effective, but may be hard on pumps.

If you are going with the rule of growbed volume=2xfishtank volume you will find that filling your beds nearly drains your fishtank. One solution is to have a sump that fluctuates and the fishtank gets to stay constant. You could also have a much larger tank (say tank=beds or larger) and you might find the fluctuations tolerable. Some other folks are trying to cascade beds so that you use perhaps 1/3 as much to fill them and the fluctuations or sump can be a lot smaller.

Don't worry too much about dumb questions. Do a bit of research, then ask! I think all of us have the occasional bruise on the forehead from moments of "DOH!".

PS: don't get the sack! It might seem tempting to have more time for AP, but it seldom works out.

Thanks hydrophilia.
Still not getting my head around the autosyphon but now I understand the point of the sump. I had an idea in my head that there was 3x litres of water in the system. But if you have continuous flow doesn't the water sort of stay evenly distrubuted amongst tank and beds or is that naive??

I think I'll print out and read carefully the barrel ponics thing.

DH has just bought down a rack thing. We've got a small bowl/tank thing (55l) with fish.
So I'm imaging tank on the ground (where it is) 2x tubs of gravel on the first rack shelf and the reservoir thingy on the top shelf.

Hmmmm....

thanks for the help.

Samantha

This is a standpipe



And this is a standpipe with a syphon over the top



Barrel fills, overflows top of standpipe and initiates syphon. Barrel drains until syphon sucks air from the bottom of the barrel. Rinse and Repeat.

but dont double post

Samantha,
If you are in Adelaide, you are welcome to have a look at my fairly basic system (in Royston Park). Nothing like a good look see.
Also several other BYAPers in town who would probably offer the same.
PM me if you like, in the meantime here is a link.
http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum ... sc&start=0

Samantha

My 2c worth is go with a flood and drain standpipe system using a cheap 15min timer from Bunnings. Use a raised growbed and drain directly back into the fish tank, no sump. Of course this is a biased opinion because that's what I did with my system.

cheers
Derek

+1 derekh
Me too - only 1 Pump

Me to