Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Link viewtopic.php?f=18&t=160&hilit=joel+blue+barrels
Good pics of multi loop siphons

Wow TCL thanks, that gives me some more options I hadnt thought of. I really want to avoid a complex electrical system. I would much rather have it be simple and consume less energy.

Sleepe - thanks for the link, I'm gonna go check it out right now.

Ok so how about something like this



I could set up a single pump to run on 15-30 minute intervals, pretty simple controls. The pump could fill the two tall grow beds and route some of the water to provide aeration to the pond as TCL suggested. The two tall barrels would be on a loop siphon and have an overflow. The overflow from the tall blue barrels would go into the horizontal grow beds. I would take (2) loop siphons off the bottom of each tall blue barrel and route (1) siphon to feed each of the horizontal grow beds. The horizontal grow beds would just have an overflow that would drain into the pond. Would it be better to have the horizontal grow beds on a loop siphon as well? or not?

This seems to take care of all problems,

It creates a fill and drain cycle within the tall blue barrels.

It uses a single pump with simple controls.

It creates a decent bio filter mass to pond size ratio... about the best I can get.

It provides lots of grow bed space.

It is cheap and effective.

Anyone see any potential problems with this set up?

Only problem I see Burton... is using complete barrels would require about 80-90ltr to fill each, before drain...

i.e a 210ltr barrel - 60% (media volume) = 84ltr.... minus a bit as you're not filling to the top with either media or water...

So ... two barrels = say... 160ltr.... plus 4 half barrels (say 40ltr each).... equals (potentially) 320ltrs of water from the pond.... before draining...

What would that leave in your pond ??? ... remember "x" number of fish will need to survive in what remains....

Assumes all barrels/growbeds full before draining.... potential, worse case...

Perhaps, cut the barrels in half (vertically) .... like OBO has done....

Still more than sufficient depth for almost anything you might like to grow....

If we assume that the gravel will take up 60% of the volume that leaves 22 gallons of water per barrel.

If I only siphon down the tall barrels that means 44 gallons will be taken from the 300 gallon pond. not to bad

If I siphon down the tall barrels and the horizontal half barrels then there will be about 88 gallons taken from the pond.

Nether one is to bad really, I doubt that I will have the pond full stocked. More than likely I will only have enough fish to provide food for the plants. If I can find someone to sell me tillapia or catfish then I may have more stocked in the tank.

The reason I want them full height is to provide more biofilter mass.

Was coming from a worse case scenario Burton....

ie... previous siphon of the tall barrels fills the half barrels... but not sufficiently to iniate the siphons from them... tall barrels fill again before siphoning to the half barrels enough to kick in the siphons....

Unless of course you run on a timer.... enough to fill the tall barrels, then pump off for "x" time until the half barrels have drained/siphoned....

All depends whether or not the siphon volume from the tall barrels is enough to fill the half barrels sufficiently to get them to siphon level.... might just have to adjust the depth level of the media to make sure....

i.e .... 2 half barrels would require 22 gallons to fill.... equivalent to the output from one of the tall barrels....

Good point... it may take a little adjusting to get it to operate properly.

Other than that problem, do you see anything else that may give me problems?

If the grow beds were to be fully drained, how long will the plants be ok?

What I mean is, how long until the plants start to have problems?

I will be using just gravel as the grow medium, they dont hold much moisture.

Would the plants be alright if the system drained and remained empty for a half hour?

Plants won't have problems for days unless it is very hot outside.

One idea I had that I haven't tried would be to line the perimeter of a tank with gravel-filled mesh walls, not very thick just a couple inches, to provide more biofilter volume right in the tank but not take away too much from the water volume. The plan was to have bubble curtains on the other side of the walls, to keep oxygen up and maybe draw water from the fish side through the gravel.

Your space is going to fill up with plants quickly, with any luck. Plan for support for the plants, like with wire panels and trellises and things. The plant bases can be very close together but you'll want to spread them out above that to maximize your total plant mass.

Thats an interesting idea, I wonder how much it would cost to run a few small air stones...


I hope so

Oh good, that may make things a little more flexible.

Does anyone know how high you can lift water with an air pump lift?

Do you think I could lift it about 3 feet to get into the top of the barrels?

My guess is probably not... But I would like to conserve as much energy as possible, any other ideas?