Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

It all depends upon the media in the Towers and the size and the temps. If the media holds water well etc you could run "intermittent continuous flow" (sorry couldn't resist that). When you say solar panel does this mean the system will stop when the sun don't shine? or are you feeding batteries?

I mean that Im not going to spend money on a constant 24/7 running costs for the pump. I will definitively get a solar panel to feed the pump, if there´s no sun I´ll have several backup batteries to keep the pump functioning. the energy system will be installed in the rooftop; future photos to be shown. ... That´s why I want a Flood and drain system. Does it allows strawberry towers???

Theoretically yes but see my post above.
If you could pump to a header tank (hard to design pretty) you could run continuous flow to the towers.
If you are using solar you will have to go standpipe rather than syphon if you want Flood and Drain (a pump stopping because of lack of sunlight could leave the beds flooded) also you will probably need a media that can hold moisture.

Just realised this will be difficult as you will also need a timer if you go standpipe.

There are a few things to keep in mind here. Depending on the system and how you want to run, a continuously running pump does not necessarily mean using more energy than running a bigger pump for a shorter period of time since many pumps use more energy at start up than they do when running. The trick here is balance.

Also, if you are gonna run solar panels and batteries you have a bit of research and learning to do to make sure you get the right equipment to do the job and hook it up correctly. If you get the wrong batteries or charge controllers, battery replacement will cost you far more than simply paying for the power to run a little pump.

Another thing to keep in mind, during initial cycling, it is often good to run the system often so there is little or no down time between cycles so that the bacteria have as much opportunity as possible to get established. And if you are running a system where the stocking is high or you are leaving the water pump off for extended periods, many people add extra aeration from an air pump in which case you are just using electricity in another way.

I commend your desire to save electricity. However, please make sure to set up something that can handle your system with some to spare rather than expecting an undersized system to do way more than it is capable.

As to strawberry towers and continuous vs intermittent pumping. If you only want to run one pump, I would recommend setting the grow beds low enough that the fish tank can overflow into them then put a tank under the grow beds to act as a sump tank. Put your smaller pump (probably 400-500 lph) in the sump tank a small pump that can more just a little more than the volume of your fish tank at a head of however high your strawberry towers are should be just fine. Anyway, the pump could lift the clean water from the sump tank up to your strawberries and they can drain back to your fish tank which will overflow into your grow beds. If you put loop siphons or bell siphons on your grow beds they will be flood and drain even if the pump runs all the time. running the pump all the time means you need not worry so much about the strawberries drying out and the fish are getting constant flow/aeration. A 400-500 lph pump can be pretty small. I'm using a few pumps that can move more than twice that amount of water per hour and they only use about 20 watts of 110 v power and only cost around $30 US. Just be sure to use a fish safe pump whatever you do.

If you want to pump intermittently, you will have to be far more careful of your media for the strawberry towers and you need to find a timer that will work with the pump and solar power set up. I'm not saying it can't be done, it might just be a bit trickier.

A timer will be bought. I beleive that It´ll be cheaper to pay a timer than electricity 24/7. Good point on the Stand pipe, never thought about that... and, about the media wel... I´ve never seen expanded clay balls here, but I guess that I need something like that, to as you say, hold the moisture.

I´ll post new design tomorrow.

Oh, by the way, I read some people grows worms... Is that useful? Is it posible for an AP system?

composting worms are really good to add to the grow beds to help deal with the fish poo solids. And if you already have a bit of a worm farm going, a handful of castings mixed into the media of the grow beds seemed to help my systems get a good start on cycling. Worms and worm castings are wonderful.

I'm mulling over ideas of how I might make even more extensive use of worms for my system but the ideas are not very mature yet and I still need to see if any of them might work.

Fierrovick , take a look at attached link ,, is about simple Vertical gardens , has a nice video etc ,, may be helpfull.
http://www.thegardengurus.tv/tv/latest. ... nt=2&sub=a

The pump I saw at the hardware store it´s an Evans one, of 1/2 hp it easily moves 1000lph and needs 110vm it´s submergible.
I´m going to make the FT of about 375lts.
I want follow the KISS rule on my first system, so I wonder if the implementation of a Strawberry tower will be a little bit to much for a begginer??

Anothe question, If I raise my FT, as you can see In the photos above, it´ll be close to the roof; the FT needs much sunlight??

The worms don´t feed on the plants roots??
WHat do I do if the reproduce a lot and suddenly I have tons of worms on the GB?

Fish tank needs no sun light, most of us put shade cloth or other covers over our fish tanks to keep the fish from jumping out and debris, children, small pets or other things from falling in.

Worms eat dead organic matter like dead leaves or other rotting stuff. Worms only breed/reproduce/grow to the extent that the environment will support them, the worst that could happen is some of them try and leave the grow beds and turn into little dried up worm sticks on your patio. Worms generally are a sign of good healthy soil and will not hurt your plants, in fact they will do all sorts of good things for your plants by eating away any rotting materials in among the plant roots and generally improving the bio-diversity of the grow beds. If you were to get "too many" worms, you could always sell them to people wanting to start up their own AP systems or worm farms.

If you do want to keep this first system very simple, you are probably right to skip the towers and just do the grow beds and the fish tank. You only need a pump big enough to move a little more than the volume of your fish tank in whatever fraction of an hour that your timer can run the pump per hour. Example a timer that does 15 minute increments might run for 15 minutes on then 45 minutes off then you would want a pump that could do 400 liters in 15 minutes or 1600 liters per hour at about 2 feet of head. Then you just make your stand pipes so that the beds will drain in 45 minutes. More common outdoor timer configurations might be 1/2 hour on 1/2 hour off in which case you would only need 800 or so liters per hour. Make sure to get a timer that can do on/off setting around the clock rater than the ones that have only two on/off settings per day. Be ware of digital timers that only give you 7 or 8 program settings per day.

Yeah, KISS rule. I really want the strawberries but I guess that first I need to learn how to grow stuff while keeping fish alive.
...After all, the towers CAN be implemented later right?

yep towers can be added later so long as your pump can handle the height.

In the mean time, you can still try a few strawberries right in your grow beds, just plant them so the plants/berries can hang out the corners of the beds and not rest on the gravel. I would also mound up the gravel a little for them and be sure to keep the crown well above the flood height in the grow beds.

...I´ve been thinking a lot about how to put a well balanced system, and now I realize that I know nothing about plants!!! ...I need to make some more research to know what Im going to grow. jeje this AP activity is very addictive yet entertaining.