Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I think not butting the IBCs together has some advantage as well, since some plants tend to have a fair bit of overhanging foilage and not butting the IBCs together allows such foilage to overhang or overgrow without clashing with plants from another IBCs... somewhat maximising the growing area...

As far as I am cocerned, the current spacing is ideal for maximum growing area, however I do not have unlimited space, so the 3rd and 4th stages will have to be more compact to reach the desired filtration ratio.

Hiya,
can I ask where do you get your IBC's?
I am not near Kal. but was wondering if you approach businesses that use them for food stuffs and buy there 2nd hand ones or do you go to a 2nd hand building supply type place?
thanks
DAle

From memory none of OBO's systems have been particularly insulated (apart from having the tank in the ground and occasionally the growbeds shaded something growing from the system (aka rockmelons)). So I gather that Kalgoorlie's weather doesn't have too much of an effect? It's more a space thing than a temperature/insulation for OBO?

Thats right Gemmel, I just use the ground as insulation, this keeps the temperatures a lot more stable.

Dale, I get my IBC's from an oil distributor. It is cheaper for them to write them off rather than transport them back to Perth.

Sorry that you lost all those fish. Must have been a bad day that.

I like earthbounds idea of the little archway between the growbeds for stuff to go on. Aesthetically and functionally pleasing.

Though I would try and copy your design OBO. Hope you don't mind

Are there any other hints or advice you would have regards to the plumbing fittings or layout or suggestions as to what you would change.

Nope, I think it's pretty good the way it is now....this is design 4.

50mm from pump to spider, 40mm from spider to bed, 32mm in the bed.

40mm Standpipe, 50mm drain to 90mm back to tank.

This is for a 16,000lph pump, probably running at around 10,000lph, going to two or 3 IBC's at a time. Full flood time is around 8 minutes, similar drain time.

Thanks for that. I got the 50mm pump to spider but I didn't realize it was 32mm in the top of the growbed. I have ordered 100mm dwv for the main drain, I already had some pipe. How big are the aerators that you have ordered? I currently have a 60l/min for what will be a 4500L tank. Should I go larger then that? Rupert said 1 litre of air for 1 litre of water every hour. I only have a 10000l/h pump but I should still have fill times under the 15 min mark ( good old cheap timers ). How large do the drain holes in the stand pipes have to be? Are they 90mm bulkhead fittings our of your fingerling tanks? Weren't they expensive? I couldn't find large bulkhead fittings for under $50. I thought two 50mm might be cheaper.

Early on you gave a little budget for your project have you found that your plumbing fittings ware more then you estimated? Mine are over $1k

Cant remember what I quoted for fittings, a bit over 2k so far...

Standpipe has a 10mm drain hole, bulkheads are a 50mm bulkhead from mining supply shops, $18 each. I also use a couple of 75mm ones from the smaller tanks which are $65 each. A 100mm elbow fits out of them nicely Two 50mm might be cheaper, but they flow no where near the amount a 80mm one does.

What size holesaw would I need for the 50mm bulkheads?? For the inside connection from bulkhead to standpipe, can you share what fitting you have used there... cannot seem to visualise connecting a 50mm (female BSP thread I presume) via an elbow to a 40mm pipe...

50mm BSP to 40mm PVC adapter, same for the 50mm pvc.

AKA 50 mm MI or FI adaptor(MI Male Iron or FI female iron)
G'day Col...

Correct Ivan

Thanks guys... Col, is there a reason why you used a 50mm bulkhead instead of a 40mm bulkhead since your standpipe is only 40mm??

Gravity flow reuires stepping up the sizes rather then stepping down. If something falls down the standpipe (gravel) I want it to make it to the fishtank, rather than blocking up the bulkhead.

In my old system (design 2) I have 19mm poly standpipe, which shrinks down to 13mm fitting to initiate the siphon reliably. Guess what happened to water flow reliability. Hydroton is a bugger sometimes.

Probably not a problem at 40mm sizes, however it's a design rule that I have made for myself. I can 100% gaurantee that none of my growbeds will ever overflow from a blocked standpipe. Overflowing growbeds have caused me a lot of grief over the last 2 years.