Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

After a hiatus of a few months while moving house i've just finished my second system, larger and slightly more complicated than my first.

It is based on Olive barrels, cut approximately 2/3 of the way up. Makes them ~ 400 mm deep and about 570 mm diameter. I've been tinkering with the system for the last couple of weekends to try and resolve issues with the bell siphon setup. Initially it wouldn't siphon at all but after removing a set of pipework that created an airlock it started working well. The issue then became that the siphons would kick in and drain the tub brilliantly (~30 sec to empty) but they'd reach an equilibrium and inflow would equal outflow. Makes it a little difficult to refill the tub. Short of adding breather tubes to the top of the bell (fiddly) i decided i'd go down the simpler though 'technically' inferior route and simply cut one of the crenellations slightly higher than the other 2. Works a treat now. See photo below for detail - note pipe is 2".



The system is split into two halves, with each half having 2 barrels draining in 'series'. Water is pumped from the fish tank to a header tank. Note in the photo below i thought i'd have 4 outlets to each tub individually but there is a massive difference in water flow that makes the system pretty biased towards the closer tubs (higher flow rates to them and terrible flow to the rear tubs - closest to the camera in the pic below). You can see that i have blanked off two outlets and put a tee in with a tap on 1 of the outlets on each side. Allows me to regulate the flow so that flow is roughly the same to each tub.



The siphons flow through 1" pipe back to the fish tank. Flow rates are fine for this system. When both the tubs both start siphoning at the same time there is just enough capacity in the 1" to drain one of the tubs with just enough water being removed from the second tub that the water level more or less doesn't rise any further. You can see the return line in the pic below.



More to come...

Continued...

Pretty crude return system, but it's working!! The flow rate that comes out of the 1" pipe when the siphons are going full tilt is awesome!! Still have the original 11 goldfish from my other system. They survived living in a 60L garbage bin for 1 1/2 months while i've gotten around to setting this system up!!



Thai basil and Pak Choi planted at the moment, runner beans and straws to come.

Chatty

Forgot to mention: GB's are about 65L each, fish tank is 250L. GB's are filled with pea gravel.

Chatty

where do the fish live ??? not in the murky water ......please

They love it Jessy! Water is starting to clear quite quickly now that i have the system functioning. I'm filling the last bed today so that will release a bit more muck but a couple of water changes and a bit of time soon fixes things up.

Chatty

Ok OK settle grettle...... just looking........wish I could get pea gravel and at a good price....everything here come's with an expense....

what fish are you growing out
????

Don't take that the wrong way Jessy, wasn't trying to jump down your throat!!

Just the old goldies for now. Might get something a little more useful - edible - in the near future once this system cycles.

Chatty

Wait... so barrels don't always have to be BLUE (or IBC-Square)?!?

I like it, I like it a lot.

Rick