Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Thanks Jessy and OutbackOzzie, what you have both said makes sense.

OK, I have finalised? the Design ..... Now you can see why my Pond was planned over a few Months before I dug the first hole because everytime I finalised a design I found a better way or method. The Wife calls me "The Idea's Man" as well as other names!!!

Instead of the Grow Beds I have gone to the "Pot System" that Ell Gro has developed, they are only $6 each so a far cheaper option but I feel it looks quite good too. The Channel Jessy is also reasonable $26 per 6 metre length. I have placed the Channel side by side rather then above each other so the lighting is the same and one doesn't get shaded.

Was told its not a good idea to have a single water source travelling over 12 metres because of heat buildup of the water after it travels 12 metres, somehow makes sense if its a 38 degree's day so I am trying to allow sending from the pump 3 separate water sections, 1 for each Channel and then 1 for the Spraybar. Just need to do a 3 way connection from the Pump. Was thinking of adding a Tap to each section so I could control the Water Pressure to each as the Spraybar being lower won't need as much force as the higher channels, the Tap for the Spraybar could be closed by about 20% to allow less water force here. Good Idea???

Pot System I have drawn is a continuous drip, would this be better designing as a Flood and Drain?

The Channels will have about 50mm Fall from the Left to right.

Pump size around 2500 Litres per Hour.

25mm Hosing I was going to use the Black Anti Kink Hosing so that there aren't any 90 Degree Corners.

OK I Promise I won't change my mind too much more

Well, blue barrels would be cheaper A dripper style system does not really work, it gets blocked up with algae, however a trickle works ok most of the time. My 4 barrel system runs on a smallish trickle into one side of the blue barrel. Plants on the opposite side still grow ok.

A tap on each line is recomended.

For 8000 litres you will want at least a 4500 LPH pump to circulate the water, up to 8000 LPH would be best, very power efficient pumps can be found here:

http://www.rockaroundtheblock.com.au/product.asp?pID=328&cID=63

The tornado pumps are awesome.

wow, they are dirt cheap , lol, I am sold, i love the pots and the NFT channels, I would love to try fruit trees in the pots and a steady supply of lettuce, and spinach in the NFT channels. Thanks again

i have four of the tornado 4500's

Only require to pump 6 hours a day, instead of 24/7

How does that work OBO??? the timing with the pumps. Love the Ell Gro gear, and here I was going to make my own , by fibreglassing out my channels,

The pumps run together.

I like the redundancy.

This will change once the IBC expansion happens.

hey ken, i'm gonna get all techie on ya, but i recon that your temperature gain in your tank will be MORE by using multiple shorter runs than one longer run.

i see you scratching your head. It helps when you keep two things in mind.

1) tank temperature increase can be calculated via the temperature of the return water, the number of litres returning, and the litres in the fish tank

2) the water in the pipes will gain more energy (observed as temp increase) the higher the difference in temperature between it and the ambient (or the pipe wall)

Put another way the water will go from 10C to 20C quicker than it will from 20C to 30C

so you might get two "lots" of water coming back 10C hotter (which is the same as one lot at 20C)
versus one lot coming back maybe 15C hotter.

The example above is completely arbitary as you'd need to use Kj, Kj/Kg, thermal conductance of the pipe, and a few other constants to actually work it out.

the only thing that you need to remember is that "the greater the TD the more energy is transferred" and that in the second half of the long pipe the TD will be less. Where as in the two shorter pipes the TD will be higher.

just trust me

oh, unless you're worried about the water temp for the actual plants, in which two things are true;
1)the multiple smaller lengths are better and
2) i've just wasted 20 minutes

ROFL

Well I'm sure your advice will help others out there Steve so not a Waste of time for the rest of the Forum

In my case I'd been advised about running the 3 or at least 2 hoses to keep then water from heating up on the roots of the last section of plant roots. I can see in winter that might be a good thing to supply 18 metres of channel with one, though I can't see the temperature increasing too many degree's over 18 metres of channel. Summertime and especially when Temps get to 35 degrees and higher then possibly the 3 could be benefical.

Another thing I thought of was if the water was lacking in Nitrates and the food source right down then surely doing 1 hose means the first 12 metres of plants may take all the food from the water leaving the last 6 metres to suffer, while spliting into 3 hoses means all three 6 metre channels are fed the same water quality? This may be more important then the temp of the water

Nope, its multiple cycles, all the nutrients are not taken in the first pass.

So the first plant is kind enough to leave some nutrients for the next plant?

plants arent that quick, osmosis occur's, the plant transpires, and nutrients are taken in, usually at optimum pH for the plant

Gotten the Quote for the Ell Gro System like I designed in that last Image. $251.46 for all materials except for the Pump and any hoses. So quite happy with that

Using the Pot System will this be easy enough to convert to Flood and Drain or does that look like it will have to remain as a trickle system? Pots have a 50mm hole I think in the bottom.

How big are the pots? If under 100 liters, a fast trickle in the top, and drain out the bottom is all thats required. If over 100 liters a siphon may be do-able.

OK, I'm back after months of absence. Finally gotten the Top section completed after getting our Shade Sail up on Friday. Bottom Section with all the Pots will be done now after the decking material is added so that will be another few months away while I save for that.

Delay has been because of a few factors.
1) Needed to have the Shade Sail up as one Post goes between two channels and would have been to hard arranging that with fully planted channels.
2) Wanted the Pond more established and stocked to provide more food for the plants.
3) Money Money Money

Pond now has around 100 Goldfish sizes around 150-250mm These have been growing at an incredible rate and feeding them Barramundi Pellets, 2 Cups Morning and 2 Cups at night. Natives and other fish have bred and numbers of these are around the 1000 mark.

Bought some Lettuce and Sweet Peas seedings today and after washing all dirst off them I placed them in 50mm Pots using Clay Beads.