Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I'm still in the design phase. I plan on raising Rainbow Trout. I'm still unsure of how large i should make my grow beds, and the sump/mesh tray bio filter container. Any suggestions or comments appreciated. I should have it constructed by the end of the month.

Heres the Rough Design: (sorry it turned out so poorly, i had to shrink it for it to fit within the forum)

Hi there and Welcome!

I'm wondering if there are particular reasons you wish to do your system as you have planned. It does seem a little complex but I don't know the reasons for it.

It might be good for you to do a bit of reading and research here into concepts like CHIFT PIST (do a search, there is loads of info on the forum here about it.)

Normally a sump tank goes at the lowest point in a system to absorb fluctuations in water level or to house a pump that can pump water back up to a higher point in the system.

As to how much growbeds you need, well that will depend on a couple things,
1-what type of growbeds they will be. Will they be flood and drain gravel or media filled grow beds?
and
2-how much fish are you gonna stock?

Your design shows a separate bio-filter contraption which I am not familiar with. Many of us here use the flood and drain gravel filled grow beds as not only our plant growing space but they also act as our bio-filters and solids filters. Since I don't quite know how to answer your question based on your design which I don't entirely understand. I'll answer the question based on a simpler system that has a fish tank, grow beds, and perhaps a sump tank depending on if the extra water space is needed.

The quick and simple answer (for a basic system) would be 100 liters of grow bed space for every 3 kg of fish you want to grow out. (Sorry, I've never managed to remember the conversions of these numbers to gallons and lbs. But it probably about 25 gallons of grow bed for each 6 lb of grown out fish.) How much fish tank to go with these numbers, well that depends on the system but for a simple system where the fish tank level fluctuates as the grow beds flood and drain, you should have 100 l (25 gallons aprox) of fish tank for that 3 kg (6 lb) of fish and the 100 l (25 gallons) of grow bed and that would be a 1:1 growbed to fish tank ratio system.

If you want a 2:1 growbed to fish tank ratio system, then you probably need a sump tank or some other method of dealing with water level fluctuations but you could have 3 kg (6 lb) of fish in 50 liters (12.5 gallons) of fish tank hooked to 100 liters (25 gallons) of grow bed so long as there is some way to keep the fish tank water level from fluctuating (generally a sump tank.) Such a system is often set up with the fish tank higher so it can overflow into the grow beds which will flood and then drain into a sump tank where the pump then lifts the water back up to the fish tank. Benefits of this type system is that the fish tank can't get pumped dry and the solids can go directly into the grow beds and the pump stays cleaner by pumping filtered water from after the grow beds.

Anyway....... Now either you already know lots about this stuff and most of what I've just said doesn't make any difference to your situation or....... I've just thrown a big wrench into your design plan (hopefully you haven't invested too much into in in that case) and you gotta go re-thinking everything.

So, welcome to the maddness we call our addiction to Aquaponics!!!!!!

Tell us more of your plans and I like your diagram of your system plans, just need more info. Keep the pictures coming, we all love pictures here.

Glad to see we have converted you TCL
Swandazi, I would have to concur with all of TCL's comments!
And welcome
C1

Here is a modification of the diagram showing aprox how I might set up such a system.

This is assuming a flood and drain gravel or other media bed of about a foot deep.

For grow bed sizing I would recommend the total grow bed volume be equal or double capacity of the fish tank and the sump tank needs to be able to hold all the water needed to flood the grow beds plus enough for pump operation and some extra for evaporation and better yet depth enough for a top up valve just below the normal low water level in the sump. So Sump needs to be about 60% of the volume of all the grow beds combined probably.

Thanks for the feedback. I don't know where to start... I guess i haven't entirely planned it out, but that's why i posted it here for criticism. I think i may need to rethink several parts. lol

I plan on growing Rainbow Trout. I'm unsure of what stocking densities i will use yet, but am thinking of stocking the trout between .2-.5 pounds of fish per gallon. (of fish tank water)

Explanations:

Mesh Tray Filter:
It's just kind of a experiment of mine. It will be placed inside 2, 55 gallon barrels. The basic idea of it is to trap solids, for easy removal, and provide additional space for filtration in addition to the grow beds. From what i understand most of the nutrients are in liquid form so this will not affect the growth of plants? These barrels will drain into the grow beds. (aerator is probably not necessary?). (This filter is probably not necessary? lol)

The Sump:
The beds drain into the sump. The sump then drains into fish tank. I've yet to do the calculations, but was thinking it would be possible, to fill the fish tank at the same rate it was being drained. The sump would provide additional aeration to the fish tank.

Does it make sense/work? or is the idea off the deep end???

With the chift pist system how do you prevent solids from accumilating on the bottom
??? Is it a constant flow???

Thanks for the pic, I never really understood chift pist until now.

Easy way is to read through the member system thread and see how others have set up there systems.
viewforum.php?f=18

Its a lot easier to see, step by step how someone set up there system. Even see what mistakes were made and how they were fixed.

Hi and Welcome Swandazi

The beauty of CHIFT PIST is its simplicity as follows:

Water is pumped from the sump up into the fish tank.

Fish tank overflows into grow beds where the ammonia is converted. All the fish poo is also sucked out of the fish tank with the water and worms in the beds break it down providing other nutrients for the plants. This use of the solids is important and is why many of us do not remove them.

Clean water is then returned to the sump, so the pump is in clean water with no build up of solids etc.

One pump can run the whole thing and with all that water movement and splashing their is no need for any extra aeration allthough a backup is a good idea.

Stocking densities are not so much dependant on the water volume as they are on the filtration capacity, for example, if I had 500 litres of gravel I could keep a maximum of around 15 kilos of fish (3kg per 100 litres of filtration material). It wouldn't matter if I had that 15kg of fish swimming in 1000 litres of water or 3000. It is the filtration volume that is important and the ability of your pump to push the water through the system.