Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I have 635 gallons in my GB, I have 3 beds that come out too 84 cubic feet.

Ah OK... should be OK....

I take it you meant "if I (didn't) add grow beds"... as in more...

Yeah, with my current setup is what I was referencing too. I plan on building a hoop house over the tank, because it's gonna have direct sunlight and I wanna grow maybe tropical things in it. I presume if I keep the humidity up it may allow me to play around with varieties not available here because of the very dry heat. I don't really mention much about myself in my profile, but I'm really interested in growing things one can't purchase at the store. I've got some interesting varieties I'm slowly finding that are just UNIQUE as hell. Plus, with all the wealth of information I can pick from the APer's brains here I figure I might as well. Direct answers is the best answers imo. There is things I wanna figure out on my own because I do to some extent like trial and error, however stuff like killing 100 fish is a bit different compared to a bad measured cut.

Good point about the bags and oxygen Rupe. The distance you have to haul the fish and their size will determine if this works for you. You should ask the supplier and they will be able to tell you if this is a viable alternative. It's certainly easier and cheaper.

You know I wonder, the size of my tank keeps on going back and forth in my head if I am making too big of a tank or if I'm doing the right thing. Just spent $266 for the initial parts for the build and it's making me reconsider HAHAH! Usually how it works, as soon as the money flowing it's time to tighten it down. I'm pretty sure now that I will go back to the original size but alter it a bit. I'm gonna make a 6x6x4. So 6 width/length, and 4 feet deep. Calculators say 1080 gallons, I think that's more than enough for my setup. It also gives me plenty of room to expand. With the ratio of GB to Fish tank it'll be like 1:1.72 and I can do ratio of GB to Fish at 2:1. So I roughly have the room to expand up to 4x my current GB if I decide too in the future. This way I can cut my pond liner size down to a 15x15 and I can take back nearly half the wood/metal fittings I bought. I'm the kinda person that says put up or shut up, but this time I was putting a bit too much. the math shows should I make the tank near perfect square that the 15x15 will be right on the money.

Is there any disadvantages to a cube type, I was reading though that surface area is important to a fish tank and I can't decrease the depth otherwise the gravity feed to the GB and ST wouldn't work.

I can also decrease my pump size significantly and that'll also reduce the monthly bill.

I been following this tread...Wish i had the confidence to start building a larger system in the back yard...I haven't even fished my fishless cycle (has fat head minnows, but those dont count theres 10..)

I will be following this tread now.

You started following it right as soon as the wallet said hell no, I mean I could afford it but I started asking myself.... how many grows beds would I have to add to just get the tank to an eventual 2:1.. The ratio would have been something like 1:3.5 (with a GB of 600 gallons, and a FT of 2200 gallons), and I could go as much as 2:1. Considering the math for a 2200 Gallon tank I'd need 4,000 gallons worth of grow beds, that's a lot of yard hah

I was working with in the confineds of pond liner size and how it would work if I made a nice size hoop house for the winter months. I also considered the surface area for fish, so it kinda worked out this way to get to a 15x15. So I got a lot of work besides my fish tank... work on the beds. I'm gonna be adding more onto it soon, but for now I was gonna keep it simple and plumb in one for now and work off that. Unfortunately my job has asked me to work an extra shift so I won't be able to continue working on the bed until Friday. I wanted to get all the wood work done while waiting for the pond liner. I suppose I can start planning the plumbing and trenching it out. It's gonna be a... good probably 30 feet run to some of the grow beds. I will be making the hoop house big enough to add additional grow beds. I'm working on other projects as well. I just got done building a pergola, and have been building beds around it.

Fish tank design and pump LAGUNA PT 346 MAX FLO 2000, should cover my 1.1k size tank.


This is what the pergola looks like if anyone wants too see
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set= ... 31dab3c9fc

Got a few more things to do, I plan on wrapping landscaping timber around the tops to finish it off a bit. I also have another planter box I'm planning to put together over by the fence (if you can see it in the pictures). I want to plant some potatoes and raspberries (in separate planters). On each 4x4 vertical post I'm going to be planting a grape tree, got 4 diff varities chosen, the one already there is a flame seedless, and the others will be Seedless Glenora, Himrod, and pink reliance. Not sure what I'm going to plant around the beds, but I may have to turn one into a GB lol. But I was gonna plant maybe some corn, tomatoes, worlds hottest chillies, and some strawberries (they get their own bed). Man just with all the starts I'm keeping myself busy lol.

Some of the first bit of construction. If anyone wants to chime in on the proper pvc to get, I remember reading about which pvc to get etc. But I went to lowes and they carry only PVC and CPVC (which the CPVC is way to thin for my pump). I'm gonna read around

I gotta research some more, I didn't really worry so much about the pvc/glue etc so now I gotta read a bit.

Also would you just use a stain or a water sealant? This stain is supposed to be UV/water sealant for 3 years. I'm not worried about that looks that much BUT hell I have the stain laying around so I figured why not.

I'm not sure about this Markymark, I've used cedar, it weathers well and doesn't require any kind of preservative. Most finishes are non-toxic once they've dried so probably either would be fine just so long as it's separated from the tank water (even so, I see no point in staining the inside surfaces).

Hey what type of material did you use for plumbing? Did you use standard pvc or did you use cpvc?

Either way I think it'll prologue the woods life, and the reason I was gonna use it on the OSB just to increase it's life. Cause you never know if moisture may get trapped between the two, that'd cause some issues down the road.

I used Schedule 40 PVC. Winds up being expensive with long runs, especially when you have lots of fittings.

The stain will help with prolonging the life of the OSB (Beekeepers use this or paint on Beehives about every 3 yrs if I remember right). I would feel fine using this on the outside but I would probably use ridgid polystyrene insulation on the inside. Shrinks your effective tank size but you've got plenty to spare.

Regarding my earlier statement that most finishes are non-toxic once they'd dried - this is something I was told by a finishing company rep while talking about finishing cutting boards. Although I do woodworking I am not an expert on finishes. I know for fact that some finishes contain metals and other compounds for either color or to give them a low gloss or satin appearance. I think it would be wise to err on the side of caution with regards to placing these in locations where they could come in contact with tank water before you were aware of it.

Yeah, schedule 40 looks like the regular white pvc. It is pricey when a lot of fitting are needed, but I probably got a 30ish feet one way trip from tank to grow beds and I have to run the pipe under a sidewalk. I gotta get me a pick axe so I can trench 1½ feet down, I doubt it would ever free given the amount of water (during winters we can get down to 25, haven't so far this winter).

Couple pics of todays progress:





I have a Trinidad Scorpion Butch T pepper growing in my starts table, and I'm gonna suggest this will love hydroponics. I have a little starter tray, and it has two trays one for holding the potting mix, and a tray that sits below it that'll catch extra water. I filled that bottom tray with about ¼" of water, and the roots have shot down into the tray.

With your temps as long as you keep the water running it won't freeze. Actually I'm pretty sure this works most places.

Question: on a gravity feed from tank to GB. My math right now is the tank is 4 feet tall and the drain for the tank will be plumbed to 3 feet high on the tank and I'll set it up so the pipe feeds to the bottom so I can get maximum waste removal, and my grow beds are 33-35 inches at maximum height. My question is with the gravity feed water would lets say 1 1/2" pipe allow enough water to escape to fill the beds and drain back into my reservoir quick enough. I was thinking since the plumbing is still in the planning stage if I should over size the Fish tank plumbing with a valve for water control. The pump I have can connect to a 1 1/2" pipe so I naturally thought that I would just run everything with the same size but I was thinking why not over size the pipe just in case I wanna expand and use that single pipe for addons for down the road? I was thinking maybe a 3" pipe for the drain and all the returns would be 1 1/2"? I was gonna connect all the GB returns so it would be less plumbing. Any opions on over sizing the plumbing for expansions?


Sorry for typos I'm typing on my iPhone.