Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

after weeks of lurking/reading these forums I'm sloooowly getting my act together. My plan is a 3 bathtub growbed with an IBC fishtank. PIc below basically explains it. So far I've got 2 bathtubs in place , a 3rd is coming shortly. I'm digging a hole for a semi-buried IBC fishtank at the foreground. No sumptank for now. bathtubs have been coated inside with bitumen paint and I will be adding pond liner also.



plan to use a 4500lph pump like this one:
http://www.aquaponics.net.au/prod117.htm

I think a bell siphon is too complicated for my setup so I'm just going to use a timer, 15on/45 off which seems to be the standard everyone else is doing

would appreciate some advice on the following:

1. is the pump above adequate? from bottom of IBC to top of bathtub is about 1.8m head , pipe length will be about 3m to the furthest bathtub
2. what pipe size from pump to bathtubs?
3. what pipe size to drain the tubs?

thanks

Are those metal bath tubs? You will need to have some kind of coating to protect the fish.

Also if that is the IBC bottom ummm i would hate to see the plastic

ahh.

Can i ask what is the volume of the bath tubs?

Most bath tubs are around 200-250L...

any opinions on above?

The pump should be fine. What will freight cost you?

I would use 40mm pipe from the pump to the growbeds, probably stepped down to 20 or 25 mm to the growbeds.

Not sure what return pipes you should use.

Sorry if you feel neglected... we are normally pretty good in getting back to queries..

I reckon return pipes should be 40mm as well.

As for the pump, the style of pump look very similar to the pumps sold on ebay for less than $50... (shipped from Australia as well)...

Keep in mind too that pumping head is from the water surface, not the base of the tank..

It's very hard to know if the pump is suitable without seeing the pumping head graph....

thanks for the replies!
see Kim Jong is useful for something...

pump was just an example I googled 4500 lph pump and that was the first hit that popped up
I'm open to any pump suggestions

You can get an almost identical pump about $30 cheaper... but with a 4.5mtr head...

isn't a bigger head better?

I thought it means the maximum height at which it can pump the 4500 Lph or whatever it says it can pump..

or Rupert are you suggesting that this may be not enough

The volume of 4500 lph will be at zero head. Head has different affects depending on the pump with some losing volume faster than others as the head increases.

Ideally you want a pump which will turn over the water in your fish tank once per hour at what ever head you are pumping at. If your are using a timer and pumping for 15 mins and 45 off you will need a pump 4 x larger than if you are pumping continuously.