Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Looking at an expansion to my current system. I have acquired about 25 Blue Barrels all for free so im thinking, make some decent Grow beds.

1 option im thinking of is using a loop siphon to each of the barrels running into a 75 or 90mm storm water pipe into a sump. In the long run, im looking at incorporating up to 30 x 1/2 barrels and I think that buying all the plumbing, this will be cheaper than a Mega Siphon and still work fine (like Rupert's )

A couple of questions I have though:

Will a 19mm loop siphon pipe be enough? I can get a "top hat grommet" & a 90 degree elbow to suit for about $1:85

Best positioning of the outlet - bottom underneath or the lower part of the front of it?

I want to gravity feed it from the FT (CHOP) and the tank will get approx 3500 - 4000 litres an hr into it, will this flow be enough? Can I supply GB's via 19mm irrigation poly pipe and taps on the end? Will I need more than 1 pump?

Ive searched and searched and unable to find answers for these specific questions

Thanks in advance

How big is the fish tank Erich??
I dont think it would matter where you drained them from with external loops as long as its at the bottom of the curve
My thoughts are that 19mm would be fine as a half blue barrel will only hold about 30-40L of water

Sounds like lots of work, have you started a thread on it yet??
25 barrels thats 5000L of growbed cool

Thanks for the feedback

FT will be a 1200 litre Fibreglass tank + an IBC (+ ive got 2 more coming incase I need em). I didn't want to do a build thread yet because I want to make sure a loop siphon will be ok. I will start of with 10 x 1/2 barrels and slowly add

Another issue is Sump, I may just use 2 or 3 of the 500 litre tubs I have

Use the 25mm soft tubing.... 19mm tends to narrow down/block with bio-film buildup much more...

And the bigger tubing drains faster....

Thanks Rupert - agree 25mm is a better and safer option

Anyone able to comment on how I should set up the inlets to the Blue Barrels?

You 'acquired' 25 blue barrels for free?! Well done!

Sounds like a big build, ought to be a lot of fun.

The inlets to the GB's, in my limited knowledge, are not at all complicated. You'll just hve to find a way to distribute your planned gravity flow from the FT at an equal rate into all of them, simply but not easily achieved by putting a ball valve at every GB inlet.

Anyhew be sure to be very careful with the SLO pipe which will be your flow from the FT, fish tend to get sucked into these if there is enough space so holes in SLO must be smaller than fish and plentiful to make sure there is enough flow from the bottom so that level does not rise above the SLO outlet.

Pump capacity should be enough I think to move the volume of the FT every hour, make sure to account for the height you'll be pumping at. I think I read sme advice about going with bigger with regards to pumps, and its all good because you can adjust the flow easily with a ball valve to pipe excess flow back to your ST. One should be enough, and is best I think as it reduces points of failure, given that it is big enough.

All the loop siphons I have seen have the outlet coming out the lower part of the front, i don't think you could make them with the outlet at the bottom, wouldn't be space to make the loop without it being right at the face of it, or even if you did manage it it would use more pipe, but hey who know maybe I'm wrong.

Good luck with your system, it'll never be boring