Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi there folks,

This is going to be the documentation of my first system build.

So, what have I got so far (refer to image attached).

One knackered fish tank now lined with plastic and strengthened a little (the water is in there testing it ...... there is a hole in the bottom covered with padding so no plastic touches sharp edges).

A barrel for a sump tank.

Two halves for grow beds. I cut the damn barrel along the first seam I saw but then realized after the barrel wasn't round, so I ended up with 2 x 20 cm deep growbeds. I know the line of thinking in here, 30 cm is the recommended depth. I might be able to get another barrel .... any thoughts?

An airpump and stones (for fish tank aeration) .



I have seen a pump, new, for a cheap price from the local 'homecenter'. Here are the specs.
0.5hp
1 inch input and output dimensions.
Suction to a depth of 7 mts and push to a height of 30 mts.
30 lts per min at 3 bar.
Sorry if that sounds a bit gobble-de-gook but it was translated from Spanish. The pump is a Humboldt TPM-60. If you think it is a bit lame then I'm screwed because I will have to wait longer to afford better - much longer.

For fish I'm going to start with Goldfish. Any ideas on numbers to begin with would be a help.

The aim of this system is to get a 'proof of concept' AP system up and running so I can introduce the idea here in Chile so I can get some financial backing for bigger plans.

I ideally would like to have 5 growbeds at 2.4 x 1.2 mts and then the appropriate size and stocked FTs on my property.

Ok team, hit me with your thoughts on 'System 1'

Cheers,

Brian

Deeper would be better for the grow bed but use what you have to get started. Later once you expand to a bigger system, you could turn the shallow beds to use for something like growing water chestnuts. I'm using 6 inch deep bins for growing water chestnuts, constant flood constant flow.

As for the pump
1-make sure is fish safe, no metal other than stainless steel touching water.
2-Should move at least the volume of your fish tank in the time it will be on each hour. Up to perhaps a few times the volume of your fish tank each hour, too much more than that and the poor goldfish will be exhausted swimming against the current.
3-remember that any gravity drain plumbing needs to be much larger than the pumped plumbing leading into the container.

So if that's like a 200 liter fish tank... Well are you going to pump all the time or are you going to run a timer?
Pumping full time, that pump is probably ten times bigger than needed for that little system. I expect you could find a fountain pump that would take care of that system for relatively cheap.

If using a timer with that pump, you probably need to get a repeat cycle timer since a 15 minute timer may be too long and a digital timer won't give you enough cycles per day to pump each hour.

How are you going to plumb out of the fish tank to the grow beds?

Ok, following on this planning phase.

Regarding growbeds. If I need more filtration then I have some working hydroponic 'flood and drain' systems I can link in to the set up.

A smaller pump meant for a fountain from Homecenter cost twice as much! But I will keep my eyes open elsewhere.

Ok, the plumbing .... the whole system is a CHRIS PISSED one and the 'way out' of the FT is one of those set ups I've seen you all chatting about, a "no holes overflow" or something like that.

And now a treat .... another photo from Chile. My lovely green garden.

The buckets are the Admin Area. I don't have any working parts to my hydroponics. Flood and drain is all manual - lift a bucket and then put it down. Cheap, simple and working like a charm. There are also gravity fed drippers for numerous plants and a lettuce tower off photo.



Cheers.

Brian

Well, if the overlarge pump is fish safe (as in has no lubricant or seals that will leak or metal that will corrode) then there might be ways to make it work. Keep in mind that cheap pumps often use lots more electricity and therefore don't save you money in the long run.

I once got a cheap sump pump, warranty was for like 3 months, it quit working in 4. I think a big part of why it quit working was the corrosion of the metal parts, I'm darn lucky it didn't leak oil and kill my fish.

I'm kinda partial to the Quiet One pumps from 5000 model on down though the smallest one I've used was the 4000, I'm fairly certain the smaller ones would be good for small AP systems as well. They seem pretty low energy consumption for what they deliver. The larger Quiet one pumps I'm not so impressed with anymore and if a set up needs something larger than the 5000, I would probably switch to the danner mag drive for the next two sizes up and beyond that, probably time to look for an inline Aquaculture grade pump.

Anyway, enough of that, you are looking for a small pump, Do you have anything like a Harbor Freight tools there? I have purchased several of there little tiny 258 gallon Per Hour garden pumps and thought they were great for aquarium size projects. I even used one with my solar water heater for a winter and the hot water didn't even manage to kill it. They are small pumps and are easy to clog up if you overload them on too big a set up but for a 25 ish? watt pump that cost between $15-30 US (I usually got them on sale) I really couldn't complain.