Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

On this topic.. LOL..

With the pump in the end of the raft feeding the fish tank. outflowing to the swirl, then the growbeds and back to the raft, the level will never remain contstant.

The Fish tank yes, the swirl yes, the media beds will be filling/emptying at various times.
Hence the raft will be at various levels (its going to be around 1800 gallons plus the swirl and FT another 250gal.) I don't think the couple hundred total gallons that could be in the grow beds at any one time would be that crazy. It would be nice to have a sump or something that will buffer the flow and keep levels more constant, but I cannot see doing this without additional pumps and sumps..

I agree with the one pump scenario to syncronize 3 pumps is a nightmare and a waste of electricity



I am starting to build today. I'll take photos of my progress.

PHOTOS!! Made the greenhouse a lil bigger today.. some bad ones in there sorry..

UPDATE:

Got the Jebao 3200gal per hour pump. Bought enough materials for a 32ft trough instead of 60 ft. Then decided to go back for another 8ft materials. The raft is going to be 4ft by 40ft. I have a large container garden, 4 media grow beds, 24ft of microgreen grow tables I think right now 40ft is managable. I plan to get it built and circulating by Sunday(holy s%$!).

I plan to use a timer on the pump to fill and drain media beds instead of siphons, here's my logic someone talk me out of it if I'm wrong. I plan on using some 2-3 inch ball valves instead of the siphons. My siphons seem to need too much maintenance. Smaller valves need more maintenance I find as well. I am shooting to use some of my "lessons learned". .
The fill and drain cycle will be happening faster but the volume of water we have to turn is much larger with 210gal fish tank 1200gal raft another maybe 150gal sump/solids removal (too much water flowing for small 55gal swirl maybe).

These are my test and trials, trying to put what I have learned to practical use. I'm excited to be here and excited to be making progress.

Great idea for a greenhouse Landscaper. Your water level is a little high in the growbed, and perhaps you might add some more media as you have a deep enough growbed for it. Generally it is best to have the water level about 2cm (1") below the surface of the media.
Keep the photos coming

Thats the part where I had mentioned about stubborn siphons.