Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Thanks Derek,

so you don't have trouble with the tank draining in the flood cycle?
Let me think ... in the 15min (is that 15min every hour) the water fills above the standpipe and then starts running back out again and drains to below the stand pipe in the 45min down time? And the standpipe has its top just below the gravel level?

In a continuous drain system the water would just be always just below the top of the stand pipe. Is that right?


Samantha

Hey Peter,
that's a really nice looking system. I wouldn't mind having that in my courtyard. We might take you up on the offer of a look see. Thanks for that.
In the meantime we are focussing on a simple goldfish and strawberry thing. I should make a drawing so people know what I am thinking.

Samantha

The standpipe is a 90 or 100mm stormwater pipe with 12mm holes drilled about 30mm from the bottom.

The standpipe pushes into a union that passes through the bottom of the growbed and has 3mm holes drilled at 30mm and 100mm from the bottom. The length of this inner pipe determines the water level.

Water begins to drain as the bed fills but at a slower rate than it fills until evently the water enters the top of the standpipe. When the pump stops, water slowly drains through the 3mm holes.

Simple, and virtually fail safe.

Derek

if you have a frame ( or the money /time to build one) then going with raised beds is the way to go, pump striaght to the grow beds which gravity drain via stand pipe back to the fish tank , use a timer to conrtoll the pump and your set.

Cheers

Thanks Delgrade and Derek.

Here's a very clumsy drawing of what I imagine happens.



So the scale of the setup will be small. The tank is ~50l.
All I want to do is keep some goldfish happy and grow some strawberries in a way that millipedes can't get them.

So is what I've shown in the picture sufficient? Will it work?

And if, say I make the beds only 15cm deep, will that be very bad?

thanks
Samantha

So ... not quite getting this.
There's an outer pipe with 12mm holes, 30mm from the bottom.
Which encloses an inner pip with 3mm holes, 30mm an 100mm from the bottom.

The inner pipe passes through the bottom of the grow bed and that's what the water actually runs out of.

The outer pipe just holds the gravel back???

And the two pipes aren't actually joined togethor??

sorry to be such a nuisance!

Samantha

to the last post, yes to all the questions

thanks Jaymie!

OK. So I'm "this" close to having millipede free strawberries.
If I have 90x40 beds 15cm deep then I have a 1:1 bed to fish.
That's Ok as long as 15cm deep is OK since we are not interested in growing fish in this system.

Should I distribute the water across the grow bed through a line of pipe or will it be ok for it to just go in at one end and come out the other?

And do I need more than one stand pipe?

Slane,

Have a look in the hardware section on the forum under standpipes, some good pictures there

dont think water distribution is going to matter too much in such a small system, but a distribution grid of length of pipe is always beneficial, esp. if you're running continuous flow versus flood and drain

You will get there slane, don't 'P' as in panic...

Thanks everyone.

I think I've got it all figured out for this little system.
It will have to be continuous flow because, without a sump, the poor old fish would be high and dry during the flood cycle.

And now I've got a much better idea of what's involved for a "proper" system. I'm just eyeing off my daughters plastic sand pit / wading pool and wondering how long 'til she outgrows that.