Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi Everyone,

I am new to Aquaponics and soon will be setting up a home system. Thank you for all your collective information sharing as I will be pouring all over your systems and info to ensure I have a fighting chance of not killing all the fish and creating a rewarding garden.

One thing I am keen on is to have my fish tank on the ground level of my 2-storey home and to have the garden beds on the deck/patio on the top story. The decks are unused and 'free space' so no issue. I guess this means a really good pump to be able to get the 6m height, but gravity draining will be no issue

Cheers,

Peter - Tewantin, Qld

Hi Madcap, good luck with your proposed system. We were asked to quote on a rather large system with the fish tank on the ground floor and growbeds on the first story of a commercial building. One of the problems is the amount of water in the pipe during the irrigation cycle, 1 litre = 1 kilo 1, 500 litres = 1/2 ton Yep, that and a big pump. We look forward to seeing what you come up with.

Welcome Peter

Mmmm, yeah, a 6m head is certainly something to overcome. You'll need to think hard about whether the cost of running a pump with that much grunt is worth the benefit.

Welcome madcap!

Good luck with your adventure!!

Regarding the pump head, be aware that the capacity of the pump (L/hr) will be much less at higher pressure. Get a graph showing the capability of a pump before you buy it, otherwise you may only end up with a trickle of water from your pump at the balcony height.

Thanks for the advice so far. I'll be sure to weigh up the disadvantages of a second story install and may now open my eyes to other alternatives for the grow beds.

The better half is keen on me not detracting from the house and making a visual disaster. Thinking about the colourbond grow beds locally made as they are a bit extra but look quite neat. The cost will jus slow down me getting all underway.

You would also need to consider the weight bearing capacity of the balcony as the grow beds can be quite heavy once full of water. You would probably need to go with expanded clay or something for the medium which is far lighter than gravel and the like

Wife convinced me we should start more realistically and dumped the second storey idea ( for now

Purchased 2 x IBC on fleabay on the weekend, just need to pick them up. Was planning one as the FT and cut other in half for 2 x GB's. All will be the same level now when set up.

1st Question where you could point me.... Is there a consensus on a pump brand that is used, or is it all trial and error? Why does a pump need to be submersible? My pool pump is not submersible... so I feel that I am about to be enlightened......... appreciate any directions, especially towards a reputable pump.

No they dont have to be submersible Madcap, its really just easier in a lot of situations.

As for pumps......well, where to start.....

the only reason for submersible is there is only one end to buy connections for and its best to be sucking from the bottom of the ft

With your suggested setup, you would have the growbeds draining back to the fish tank yes. No problems there and one of my systems does just that. But unless you can dig in the fish tank to lower it, or have sloping ground, your growbeds will by 1.5m high

I am looking to halve the ibc into two 500 GB,s but only fill with media to about 400 mark. Most of the forum always mentions min 300 so I thought 400 sounds okay with a 100mm lip all around. Happy to be schooled on the matter though .

Looking then to set ft a little higher than gb so it can run in on a chift pist style if I can.

On the pumps, do you really get what you pay for as they seem to range from 30 to 500 dollars. I am guessing reliability is a huge factor.

Soon I'll be in a position to start a thread in the members systems, once I get my head around it all of course.

Fill the gbs up all the way, it'll increase your filtration capacity

MC,

I just got rid of my 100mm lip, restricted vision of the beds, and no air flow. My lettuce were growing like trees.

Submersible pump has no suction pipework to worry about. You don't need a huge pump. I have an Aquapro1300ish sized pump. Only one IBC though. It provides plenty of circulation. I send most of the water to the grow bed, with a tee off to circulate the tank water and add more aeration. My water is clear (tea coloured) with no build up in tank. No residues on bottom of tank. Cycles every 8-10 minutes, pump runs 24hrs.

Good luck

Dave

Thanks for all the great info to date. One thing I am not quite clear on is this;
If I am using drained system on a timer, what are the real benefits of using a bell syphon, over a nice simple couple of holes in the base of the standpipe, one just drains faster than the other right??