Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

OK, so I think I got it. I picture it three ways to determine water height in that set up (see pics below). I would lean towards numbers 1 or 2 because they would allow me to later on change over to a flood and drain pretty easily versus #3. I could do an external loop siphon in that case. would there be any drawbacks to one of these styles?

Also, I realize the worms will get the oxygen from the water and don't need "dry" media, but I thought there was better performance from flood and drain from the added oxygen sucked in during the flood for the bacteria.

There is no need for small holes in a flood and drain system. Mine only has the hole at the top of the siphon and I have never had an issue with my flood and drain cycle.

Well... perhaps not with siphons...

But timed flood & drain with an overflow standpipe... is a completely different story... and requirement...

Oh, yeah needed in that situation.

Two is the easiest to change the water level but works better if you go through the bottom - It's also the easiest to use a siphon with if you might do this but going through the side complicates the media guard since you have to cutout for the exit pipe. The siphon will work better with the straight drop. FYI mine are plumbed through the side in my rubbermaid stock tank growbeds because they are designed for it and some were predrilled. When I used to use siphons they worked fine.

one - your trying to leave the solids in the growbed so why pull from the bottom?

Three would be difficult to set the water level in and might be more prone to blockage than a vertical pipe.

If I did a constant flow, this is what I am thinking. If I decided to go with a flood and drain system later, I could simply change out the stand pipe to an affnan or remove the stand pipe all together and put a loop siphon on the out put.

I want to keep all the plumbing on one side and have the other side for primary access. I'm also thinking if I abandon the siphons completely, then I will drop the growbeds and fish tank down some. I would like to get as much ground contact as possible to keep it above freezing though the winter. I'm planning on trenching the pipes into the ground where possible.

My concern with something like this is that I want to minimize the maintenance as much as possible. I'm thinking I would need to lift the main trunk of the FT to GB pipe up to reduce solids build up. Also, would the valves not cause solids build up there as well?

I'm thinking that because I want to reduce maintenance siphons may be the wrong direction. Maybe doing a timed flood and drain or constant flow would be better.

Any thoughts or criticisms are welcome. Thanks.

The main reason I was going through the side was to keep the plumbing all out the back and sit the IBC grow beds directly on the ground (leveled out with sand). I was thinking about trenching the plumbing lines to protect them, but not 100% sure on that one.

As far as the media guard, I just pictured it stopping at the stand pipe elbow. That way I could still rotate it to cut any roots that may have grown in there.




My thinking with pulling from the bottom was to try and get more flow through a constantly flooded bed and avoid a dead pocket at the bottom as much as possible. I guess that's my biggest concern with constant flow is having slow / dead pockets. With the bed being 24" deep, and only 39" x 48", I would think it would be prone to dead areas on the bottom if to send the water in the top and bring it out the top as well.

Honestly, I wasn't thinking about pulling the solids out like that as they would need to work their way through the gravel.

Yeah sorry... Timed flood and drain

Most people use option two, and as stated above, go through the bottom. The side is good enough if you have a reason to do it. Option 1 would work well with loop syphon and is the way it is done in travis's barrelponics manual.

With option one you will need a gravel/root guard over the outlet and it will probably be more prone to getting block by roots... Or at least it will be harder to clean out the roots.

I did mine with an arch cut out that was larger than the pipe so you could twist the guard but not far - so far it's worked ok. You might want to see what TCLynx has done since she uses the same stock tanks I do and probably has a better way of doing this. Going through the side as in your number 2 is ok even though through the bottom is slightly better.

TCL also does use deep growbeds (stock tanks) and would be a good person to ask about these if you have questions. I don't think you'll see any dead spots within the growbeds.

Hello and Welcome to the addiction. One thing you have not mentioned is the use of a SLO device in your fish tank. That is a pipe that is starting at the bottom of the fish tank with small holes in the bottom side to pick up them solids your all talking about and delivering to the Grow Beds. There is much info on SLO here in the forum. If you setup your tanks so that you only have about 6 inches of difference between heights of water levels your pump head will be a lot smaller and will give you more flow. Remember pump head is from water level to water level once the pipes and tanks are full.

Thanks we got the IBCs a few weeks ago, but I've been on the road for work for a while. I actually planned on starting about a year and a half ago, but some life issues came up. Things seem to be moving forward this year though.

Btw, I'm assuming the pun in your name was intentional, it made me laugh.

Anyways, yeah, I have seen some info about a slow and actually it have in my model thought it's not visible in the renderings I've posted so far. I just don't know about sizing and all of the dynamics. I've noticed in one pic some one used a Tee fitting instead of an elbow at the top, I'm assuming it was to prevent siphon effect. I'm also curious about the shape and hole sizes. I always pictured it like a 'J' with an elbow at the bottom, but lately I've notices everyone seems to use a straight pipe to the bottom. I was also curious if people cap the forcing all the water to go through the drilled holes or leave the end open.

I'm still trying to get my sump to FT to GB pipe size and it looks like I need to find and buy a new pump at this point. I really haven't had a chance to look at the SLO and other finishing design details yet.

Thank you for the input, and it is always welcome.

For the drains, have you considered running a larger-bore main drain back to the ST and have each of the GB drains dump into this, instead of individual GB smaller drains?


Scott

It's funny you ask that, I just changed the model last night and was going ask this morning if it would cause issues.

Also, I was wondering if anyone has tried PEX tubing. Think it usually comes with brass fittings which would be an issue. I want something flexible on the exhaust so that I can change it out to loop siphons and do flood and drain later on if I want to. Also, I think trying to hit all four of those outlets when I'm gluing it together without screwing it up will be a pain. PEX (if I could use it) would make it a lot easier and I could change to a loop siphon pretty easily if I chose to.

What I am looking at right now is:

1) A 3" line on the pump from sump to FT.
2) A 3" SLO and overflow line from the FT.
3) A 3" line would overflow from the SLO in the FT to the GBs. This would act like a manifold as well, and it would have (4) 2" lines with individual shut off valves on each line. These smaller lines would service each of the (4) GB with a cap on the end and drilled holes to distribute the water. I'm a bit worried about solids build up in the 3" line.
4) Each grow bed would have a stand pipe with a 1.5" stand pipe to a 2" bulk head on the side towards the bottom of the GB.
5) From the 2" bulk head fitting, I am looking at running 1" pex (about 8" long runs) to a 3" main line back to the sump tank.

Add a screw end cap to the manifold supplying the GBs to facilitate cleaning, but I reckon you'll find you rarely use it as you'll discover that solids won't build up as fast as you fear if you keep the water moving at reasonable velocity.