Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Ok been reading the boards for a couple of months

not sure if this is the place to post this but I have a couple of questions before I start building my system. Only need to resolve a couple of things (and find a couple of things) then should be able to move ahead with it.

Currently have a 1000L IBC and 3 metal baths all acquired from the tip . I will be building it on a concrete slab so no possibility of burying anything. I would like to make it CHIFT PIST (to minimise points of failure) but am not certain of the sump size I would need.
Baths come to 600L just with water but I read on one of these boards that media takes up about 60% of this so thats only about 240L (once the gravel has been added) - is this right? So my thinking is I could afford to maybe add a few more baths in the future and have a 500L sump?

Another issue at the moment is vertical space because I want to do CHIFT PIST the sump has to be lower than the baths and baths can't be higher that top of IBC so it works out that sump can't be any higher than 50cm high and even this is cutting it very fine . So i have looked everywhere and haven't been able to find any containers around that dimersions - of a reasonable price - Any ideas?

I am aiming to get this going in the next few months as have got some time but as this is my first system am sure I will have some issues.

Anyway thanks for any help / suggestions I have certainly gained a lot out of this board

Mine is a similar setup - 1000L IBC, 2 bathtubs. CHIFT PIST.

I have a 500L b* sump which is enough, but the sump level fluctuates more than I thought it would. This is because my tank "buffers" water flow a bit. I turn the pump on, it starts trickling into the beds, but it doesn't really flow until the level in the tank has risen by a cm or two. This is entirely due to my setup but the point is that the CHIFT part of my system is not entirely accurate. When the pump switches off it continues to overflow for a good couple of minutes until the level comes right.

Anyway, you can do it differently, but in my limited experience the bigger you can do your sump, the better. 500L for 2 bathtubs is plenty.

Don't let the concrete stop ya.
Also if you got the IBC from the tip just check what was in it before. Out this way they store and mix chemical in them.

Well, I suppose you could make a sump/bed. I have installed a sump pump into a sunken spot in a lined grow bed.
http://backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=2640&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=Monster&start=585
I suppose you could simply make a lined sump in whatever shape you need.

I did and experiment yesterday to check if this was the case with the media mix I use (currently use 2 thirds river washed pebbles, topped with one third fine gravel)... I will repeat the experiment just with fine gravel next. Anyway, I filled a blue barrel to the 100L level, then filled with water. I drained the water from the blue barrel to see how much water there was and it came to just over 40L of water (roughly 43L of water). My thinking is that finer media MIGHT used up more space and leave smaller air spaces for the water to use up, and that the larger pebbles would leave leave larger air spaces, so more water! I am yet to confirm or debunk this assumption with the next phase of the experiment... So far the results say that water will only take up roughly 40% of the container

I will keep in mind the building it option but my woodworking skills are somewhat lacking (everything I build with wood seems to fall apart)

Aquamad - thanks for confirming the 40% thing. It looks like a 500L sump may do me.

Maybe the best option for me might be trying to find another IBC and cutting it in half height-wise (a crime I know ) so it is only 50 cm high but should be about 500L. Depends how long it takes me to find another IBC took me forever to find the first one ( the wife enjoyed all those trips to the tips )

Anyway cleaned the inside of it (its spotless!) and got some goldfish to check its fish-safe for me. Realised after I had filled it with water i had forgotted to sillicone around the tap so its going to be dripping for a while until the goldfish have finished with it ( i figure a week max).

must have been well used if the tap is leaking... only one of mine leaked, but that was because I stuffed with it

yeah about a drip every second. I got it from the tip out near your school It had quite a few scratches on the inside but nothing major - looked like it had had paint (?) in it before but cleaned up the inside fairly well with a weak turps solution. Left the outside as is as should make it darker for fishes.

Should i do anything to stop rust on baths e.g. rust converter etc.

Shopping in my back yard! Well I never
Damn! Every time I have been there they have had NOTHING I can use for AP... Guess its just the luck of the draw hey

as for the rust - perhaps... depends on how long you want them to last - it should be quite a few years before they rust right through.

Aha...an AM reject no doubt

THAT IS RIGHT!!!!
I saw it and CHOSE not to get it

Here is an update with pictures .. if I can make them work I have a temporary carport structure that will be moved over the top of everything as soon as I can get the willing hands and I will look at dynabolting it into the concrete to make it stronger and more permanent.

I have decided to incorporate my hydroponics system as well - I have had so many tomatos out of it recently i am sick of the sight of them

So many little questions

So up to pipework (drains etc), figuring out how to do a fitting on the side of the ibc for the venturi like food and fish did in his thread p84 (are the flanges he used like the bunnings ones?)
Is 50mm pipe big enough for the bulk of the pipework? (from sump to tank and tank to beds)
How high do the inner and outer bath standpipes need to be? (I figured the outer one would have to be over the height of the gravel? but what about the inner?)

*Any advice on pump specs would be greatly appreciated baths etc are 1m high, 1000l Fish tank and 500L sump. I am aiming to do 15min pumping then 45min drain cycles.

Thanks all

wow, well done, I love the system set up so far I

Fittings on IBC - will let those that have used them advise on that

I use 50mm pvc from FT to GB (gravity feed) and 40mm GB to sump tank but 50mm all round would be okay

Pump piping - this is normally set by the pump outlet size (mainly 20-25mm) - 15mm is liable to put pressure back on the pump which will shorten its life expectancy

Height of inner drain pipe - this needs to be 25mm below the height of your GB media...this gives some dry media on top to help the plants and to reduce any possibility of algae growing

I have cut up an IBC by cutting it twice vertically to take out all the fittings and now have two 300 litres (partial) halves, one I use as growbed and one as sump
they need a simple rectangular frame to keep them in shape
they are stacked one above the other but turned 90°
I cut off the legs of a metal table frame to the right size and dumped that into the sump half and just placed the growbed half on top of that
efficient space use

frank