Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I discovered aquaponics! I have had a garden in the past and some cycled aquariums with some aquatic plants. This seems like the next step.


I need some advice on how to convert the following half built unit to aquaponics.
I was making a

Basic 3 prong DFT 10' 6 inch diameter pvc system and the 6 inch pipe reduces to 4 inch leaving a 1" pool in case of power failure. The 1/2" feed pipe is run inside the 6".
http://picasaweb.google.com/SUICIDEDUEC ... 3313295458

48 gallon trash can reservior (going to look for 55 gallon barrels soon)
http://picasaweb.google.com/SUICIDEDUEC ... 5860907074

I also dug a hole for a small pond in the last couple months but I smashed a finger and all I have is the completed hole.
http://picasaweb.google.com/SUICIDEDUEC ... 5384226738

I plan on digging the fish tank into the ground.

So I need some expert advice.

Do I...
A. Use the half finished DFT system and cut holes and use pots and and create a biofilter to run the water through first.

or...

B. Cut sections of the top of the PVC away and fill with lava rock or gravel and convert to a flood and drain system.

Do I..
C. Use the trash can for a tank and shade it easily

or...

D. Use the pond in lots of sunlight with a liner (not sure if it can be used in S Florida)

Z. Help!

a) surf through all the info here and make a decision

I can say that filling PVC with anything other than water is going to give you problems eventually when you have to get plants out.
I took an angle grinder to mine to get out the cherry tomato.
Add a filter before the PVC to keep solids out and run straight water.

Just my 2c worth

I've been surfing for days here with information overload occuring and needed some help from experts... I dont want to spin my wheels with a poor choice.

So you think that I should stick with a DFT system? It seems that flood and drain is the prefered system here. Using another section of pipe to create a biofilter would be relatively simple.

However after seeing most systems here I was considering cutting off the top section of the pipe and creating a long trough filled with lava rock and pebbles. Then converting to flood and drain. Using a hook shaped piece of metal should make it possible to get roots out of the pebbles in the trough? Why did you need an angle grinder???? What am I missing here? What diameter was your pipe?

+ 1 Definitely spend some time reading through the forum. There is a CHIFT PIST thread that may help quite a bit too.

I would definitely do a gravel filled grow bed that is flood and drain before sending water to the pvc tubes.

You can use both the trash can (or food safe blue barrel) as fish tank/ sump.

Here is an idea for the set up. PVC tubes set up physically higher than the can/barrel tank and they can drain into it. The can/barrel tank can gravity feed by venturi drain into the gravel filled grow bed. The gravel filled grow bed can auto siphon drain into the in ground pond (call it your sump) where your pump will be and it can pump back up to the PVC pipes.
That is just an idea.

So things you will need to learn about for this idea are CHIFT PIST (constant height in fish tank pump in sump tank, there are other spellings but they all mean pretty much the same thing.) Venturi drains (a way to suck solids from the bottom of a tank without risking draining the tank.) Flood and drain gravel (or other media) filled grow beds are handy since they filter solids, they provide you with a bio filter and they are a handy place to grow plants, flood and drain of media filled grow beds ensures enough O2 for the bacteria in the bio filter and helps mix the solids around in it, it also makes a good place to put some composting worms to help clean up the solids. You will want to learn about siphons since you will probably need to run the pump constantly for the NFT tubes. You will likely want to size your pump big enough to run the NFT tubes or larger and split off a feed directly back to the can/barrel fish tank for extra aeration. Then there is the fact that most people will expand or build bigger systems once they start their first.

Now if you haven't already purchased the pvc tubes, scratch the suggestion and do some reading since you will probably re-design the system several times.

I recommend the cheap 1/2" brown river rock as a media for the grow beds, a bag or two of washed shells may be good for buffering but don't fill the grow beds with shells like I did. Avoid limestone gravel as it will buffer the pH too high.

Make sure you understand the nitrogen cycle and have a fresh water master test kit on hand when you start cycling the system. Tests you will want to do usually include Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate and pH (the freshwater kit has both regular pH and high range pH.)

What is your water source? City (chlorine or chloramine?) Well, how hard? Rain?
What type of fish are you thinking?
What are the volumes of the fish tanks or in ground pond?
What type/how many plants are you wanting to grow?

Answers to all these questions or even some of them will help others help you when you start your system thread in Member Systems. We love pictures even if they are just of a proposed location or the hole in the ground or the pile of parts

Welcome to the addiction

If you do use small pipe make sure to glue a smaller pipe inside the larger pipe so that water can bypass the gravel and roots in the event of a root clogging up an area. This will avoid pumping all your water over the top.

I took me about 2 months of hours of daily reading before I was able to read everything here so be patient and you will get it. Also, plan backwards. Start with the final project and goal and work your way backwards to solve how to get to your goal. If you just want to learn and try something new then do the pipes if that's what you have . Don't expect anything, but rather learn and make notes about what works, what does not, and what you should change. Stick with the basic idea 4 gallons of water to 1 pound of fish and 8 gallons of gravel or filter. This coupled with reading this site and what others have learned will get you to a great working system.

Imagine a mass of rocks all held together with roots, you can't even really get your hooked bit of metal into the tube very well let alone pull the mass out through the little hole.

If you already have the tubes, use them as they were designed since filling with gravel and roots usually spells overflow and blockage eventually. They should make a great place for growing strawberries and lettuce etc and you can use a regular grow bed with the gravel for the bigger plants.

Thanks for the replies! I know that I have only scratched the surface of what I need to know but I guess I should start a system and learn as I go. I will probably redesign and expand this system several times as I learn from here and my mistakes.

Welcome Evilgenius!

Yep, everything that TC said. Filter through gravel before going through the pipes. Start with a small more flexible system to start right away then design versions 4, 5, 6, infinity!

Show you what I meant The pipe was 150mm.

I would not be adding media to pipe under 300mm, even split in half. I would however look into splitting pipe the size of synaptomans as it gives plenty of room for the roots.

I see your point about the roots! I'll keep the 6" pvc as dft as my research for hydroponics indicated that I could grow tomatoes without the roots clogging it.

I saw some white 55 gallon barrels that were used to store concentrated car wash soap and started to load them until I decided that the corrosive sticker wasnt good. Would these barrels be safe to use once rinsed good and then let sit with water in them until algae and mosquitoes grew in them? I would prefer blue but figure I could paint them with plastic bonding paint.

This is the soap label. It does say biodegradeable...
http://webfiles.acuitysp.com/psr/psr_0371.PDF


The plan would be to get 5 barrels - 2 barrels for fish and then 3 barrels cut in half to make 6 grow beds using fill and drain siphons with lava rock as the grow media. The drained water will be routed back to the 2 fish barrels by using the 30' of 6" pvc dft.

Does this sound like a good plan?

Can you keep fish in a sump?

Sure you can, makes a good place for smaller/younger ones. Just make sure the pump has a screen over it so that they don't get sucked in. I had about 7 fish in the sump until just recently, they grew up from babies in there.

TC I am trying to understand what you are proposing.

[quote="TCLynx"]+ 1
I would definitely do a gravel filled grow bed that is flood and drain before sending water to the pvc tubes.

You can use both the trash can (or food safe blue barrel) as fish tank/ sump.

Here is an idea for the set up. PVC tubes set up physically higher than the can/barrel tank and they can drain into it. The can/barrel tank can gravity feed by venturi drain into the gravel filled grow bed. The gravel filled grow bed can auto siphon drain into the in ground pond (call it your sump) where your pump will be and it can pump back up to the PVC pipes.
That is just an idea.

quote]

Dont I need a grow bed with media before the dft pvc tubes to filter the water for solids before running through the pvc?

I've been assuming you mean NFT (nutrient film technique) for the tubes as I'm not sure what DFT means unless it is deep film technique? Anyway, before sending fish water through a NFT or DWC (deep water culture) or even strawberry towers, you generally need to filter out the solids so that they don't clog up the set up or start rotting in the roots of the plants causing low Dissolved O2 for your plants or just generally cause a rotting stinking mass where it is of little use. Those solids are of wonderful use within a gravel filled flood and drain grow bed where plants and composting worms can use them.

dft keeps a inch or two of water in the pipe so that the plants have some water if the power fails and can last a little while longer. It is a hybrid between nft and dwc. I am sure you know what you are talking about here but I'm having trouble visualizing what you proposed...