Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hey folks, been reading, and reading, and reading........thanks to all for the great community. I'm in kansas city and starting up my first AP system.

Here's the setup:

1 IBC i acquired from work
I found these (http://www.maccourt.com/lowes/mortartubs/st3608.html) tubs from lowes that I want to use as grow beds 14$!!
The IBC FT will be below my deck which is ~8ft below the GBs
I will hopefully pick up the clay today.
I have to look at the pump to make sure I can move 300 gph with 8 ft head. It's an EZ-clone 450gph. Haven't been able to find an accurate curve chart.

I'm starting with 2 GBs until lowes gets some more.

I really want to have crappie in the FT but not sure if I want to try them for my first AP experience. I don't really like fish....except for crappie.

I have as much free soybean meal available as I need, so looking into using that as a source of feed.

Anywho, I will create another thread in the systems forum with pictures when i get everything together.

Cheers!

Welcome Bogie!

Well,

Got the tote cut, cleaned, and set. Now filling. Let the fun begin!

Hi Bogie and welcome to the forum

Thanks!
Thought I'd post another progress picture. Here is my bell siphon.

Hey Bogie... Thats a big head for your pu7mp to push water, just make sure you allow for that when shopping for one.

Yessir EB. I thought about several different options, but I really like the idea of just walking out onto the deck to deal with the beds. The pump curve to the one I am getting has it at 450 gph at 9ft of head. My tank is filled to about 225gals. Maybe a little overkill, but I should be ok.

Edit: I'm at 8ft from tank bottom to where beds will be.

Hey bogie...

your pump head is measured from the water surface to the outlet height....

you dont count the pipe length underwater...

jT

I have since learned this.
Thanks!
I may bury that tote so I want to make sure ill be good. We'll see

Update:

Since i last posted, i had a yard drainage problem that needed to be addressed before I could continue with my system.

However, with cold weather around the corner, i would hate to put all this work in and have to shut it down for winter. Financially, I can keep my grow beds warm but the fish tank is a problem.

I have decided to relocate my fish tank to the garage, while leaving my grow beds on the deck.
I have a pump that is plenty powerful. A 3" insulated PVC drain pipe will run from the beds to the garage and a 1" feed line will run inside the 3" pipe to feed the beds.

Any thoughts or considerations? Been searching for some similar setups but nothing so far.

Cheers

Hey Bogie:
I had my fish in the basement and pumped water up to the backyard where the plants were. The plants had a small sump of their own, and the fish had little gravel beds on loop siphons. Worked well, and I was thinking about such setups again today. The weather here is very quickly getting too warm for trout, and I think having the FTs in a shed that could be heated and/or cooled with a little heat pump would be great, both for Winter and Summer. viewtopic.php?p=129491#p129491

I remember someone here had a converted freezer in the garage and the plants on the other side of the garage wall, anyone remember who that was?

I've attached my preliminary project diagram. I am currently rearranging the garage to accommodate the new additions (with my wife's permission).

From the bottom of the beds to the fish tank is about 15ft of pipe and a fall of about 10ft - 12ft. I found a 1000gph pump at lowes that would pump about 450 at 14ft head, so I figure i could find one online for cheaper.....just used that for reference.

As for fish, it has to be crappie for me......Maybe something else until i can grow enough fathead minnows.

Cheers

It was mattyry's chilly tank viewtopic.php?f=18&t=9917&hilit=chilly

Hey hey!

It's been a while, but I didn't get my aquaponics setup in time for summer. Instead, I quickly built a dual tower hydroponics system that fed my addiction.



I am starting now with my plan for next summer. I scrapped the tub idea and I'm going to build a GB out of wood. I will also be taking the two towers and putting them on each end (the square framed bases). I still have to pump the water from the tote up to the GB, and now even higher to the top of each tower.

I am looking at a harbor freight pump:
http://www.harborfreight.com/submersible-waterfall-pump-68418.html#pr-header-back-to-top-link

Hope it will do the trick.

Below is my GB plan......Thoughts/comments?