Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi All,

The Junior School of where I work at have a sustainability garden (vegie patch). Being an avid AP'er I suggested that an AP system would be great to complement the sustainability 'precinct'.

The site is not ideal, but I believe workable. It is long @ about 7650mm L and narrow at 1030mm W. The building it would go in front of faces North, so it will cop a lot of sun throughout the day.

I was thinking of using colourbond (and have a supplier willing to make a custom set of FT and GB's) and dividing the area into 3, with two GB's @ 2500 mm L and 1 FT @ 2500 L, all at 1030mm W. The system would be a simple Flood and Drain based on a timer.

There are a couple of options as I see it:

1: The GB's would be on stands at each end of the system, with the FT in the middle. The FT would be 800 H and the GB's at 300H.

2: Have the FT at the end with the drain/sump, and the 2 GB's next to each other(end on end) in the middle and the other end.

Due to it being a Junior School, the FT will need a steel cover to stop the kiddies form falling in.

Any suggestions / help gratefully accepted!

Thx.

Gday dustyshelves, nice looking school building, is Hawthorndene a suburb of Adelaide?
Is there any chance you could go a bit wider than 1030mm? Im not sure how much pressure a square or rectangular colorbond FT can handle, usually they are round as they are much stronger this way...

Hi Gazza,

Yeah Hawthorndene is a suburb in Adelaide (hills to be precise). The colourbond tanks would need some supporting struts to hold the sides in, but shouldn't pose too much of a problem according to the manufacturer. the 1030mm is the width of the area from concrete edging to concrete edging, it kinda has to fit into this space.

Actually 1m wide works out very nice for am IBC designed system.. IBC are about 1m x 1.2m x1.2m tall..

You could go something like 1BC tank to 2-3 Growbeds.. Also teach the kids about recycling[IBC's]

It could be a good project for the kids..

Juergen

Actually that's a great idea Juergen, thanks!

And it would save a bit of cash so you could get a shade sail rigged up over summer...

Why do not you go for a ready made small kind of a ap system that shows all the features and give better explanation than that hand mad system. It will also consume time too.