Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I am thinking about building a system using water troughs from plastic mart. http://www.plastic-mart.com They have a supplier in my town so I wont have to pay shipping. I am thinking about using 2x320 gallon round 72"x24" troughs for grow beds ($150 ea) with room for 2 more and a 610 gallon round 96"x24" for a sump ($220). I would then use a 600 gallon 72"x42" water storage tank with part of the top cut out for a fish tank ($325). I would use a Quiet one Model 4000 pump 1000 GPH at 50 watts (about $70). These are the most efficient pumps I have been able to find at a reasonable price. This pump with the head lift would give me about 600 GPH. Total cost so far $915 less tax. After gravel and plumbing about $1500 for a fairly large system. I would use cement blocks for GB stands. Auto siphons with continuous pumping. The FT will sit on the ground or on short blocks with the grow beds on blocks and the sump dug into the ground.

To make it even cheaper, bury the fish tank in the ground and do away with the sump.

Sounds like a good pump though, similar wattage to the ones I have been using.

Cheaper yes, but I'd never go without a sump now.

I know the indexing valves make a sump optional. But I too, definitely prefer the clean water sump to pump from.

However, I'm not so sure I would want such a shallow sump tank as it might not leave enough depth for the pump to operate so well. The bigger yet shallower the sump tank is, the less usable volume it actually has unless you actually plumb though the bottom and use the pump in line below the physical sump tank level (which might be possible with the quiet one pump I think, to use them in line that is instead of submerged.)

I do think the quiet one pumps are probably a really good choice but I've not gotten to try one cause every time I've ordered one, they were out of stock. I guess that is actually a good sign in a way though.

Funny how we all have different wishes, I would love to have no sump and have the extra volume in my FT. I reckon sumps and sump pumps are the weakest link in any system they are used in. My FT will be dropped down to my sump level and the two connected as FT's as soon as I get the energy to dig another 600mm down into the clay.

Burnsy et al,

The bottom half of my Fish Tank is the Sump!

The pump is a macerator type of Centrifugal which can handle up to 10mm solids and the 25% of insoluable fish crap ain't that big or that hard!
Any Grit that collects is manually removed from the FT with my "Sludgevac" before it gets the chance to pass through the pump etc. I have had no problems with Pump performance or maintenance issues with this regime. Some supply to the GB's is diverted via a By-Pass valve, through a venturi that returns DO and recfirculating water to the FT.
Never had to clean the pump etc. for 5 months now of 24/7 running. Sumps may be suitable philosophically or systematically for some people, I am not one of those people because I obviously can't see the need for them. Not knocking those with sumps and swear by their use, but I get the same results without the extra expense, space requirements or another place for things to go wrong.

Cheers IanK

Yep, my pump takes all solids as well, straight to my grow beds.

Sumps are handy and crtainly work for some who cannot make levels work without them but as I said, in my view they are the weakest most vulnerable part of a system and although I have one at school and at home I would happliy get rid of them when I get a chance.

Yup, I am most happy with the performance of my system using no sump. The PondMax pumps have been faultless.

I am currently running with no sump and it seems to work well enough. I like the sump idea with my plans. I currently have a 55 gallon drum next to my FT that has a siphon running into it and the pump is in the drum. I drain the bottom off the drum occasionally to remove the solids that settle there. It works like a sump in this that the pump pumps mostly clean water. I like the sump because of the way the water moves in the system. If your FT is tall enough you dont need to bury anything.

i run a underground tank system 2 by 1600 joined
made from 2ft by 2ft concret slabs lined with pool liner
i have no sump
but i have found that it works very well
but i shall be making a sump in bottom of tanks
to drop the 6000 litre pump into help pick any solids or
what ever even though it keeps pretty clean now
but part of the fun is to improve all the time
darryl :

I don't see a sump as a weak point because I'm doing CHIFT PIST!!!!! It is actually a safety point that the pump is not in the fish tank and therefore I don't need to worry about some major plumbing leak running the fish tank dry.
(I do agree that a two pump system has more points of failure and agree that a sump pump in a two pump system is a failure point.)

Also, the initial system was noted as having total 640 gallons of grow bed (with the option of adding another 640 gallons) If only having a single 600 gallon fish tank, it would be pushing the envelope on fluctuating water levels to do away with the sump just on the first two grow beds and make adding the additional 2 grow beds a non option.

I'm gonna recommend upgrading one size on the quiet one pump. For only 10 extra watts (and not much additional cost) it will give enough extra flow to provide additional options.

On another note. The relatively shallow sump tank could be a bit of an issue. Do remember that the bigger footprint means the pump can actually use less of the volume of the sump tank. As in the pump might reach the minimum pumping depth but there might still be quite a bit of water on the bottom of a large shallow tank. This is just something to keep in mind for the design process.