Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

My tank is buried in the ground and I am doing flood and drain. My fish tank is 1500 gallons and my grow beds are going to be around 3000 gallons. I am going to need sump tanks without a doubt. What I don't understand is how the sump tank works. By that I mean if the water flows from the grow bed to the sump tank then to the fish tank what does it solve? Not sure how to ask the question. Do you restrict the flow so it drains slow out of the sump tanks, or do you drain them like the grow beds. My pumps are in the fish tank.

usually the sump is lower than the ft, the sump pumps water into the gb's, which drain into the ft, which overflows back to the sump
you'll need close to 1500 gallons to flood the growbeds if you go with "flood and drain", your pump could be running all the time and use siphons in the growbeds, or pump on a timer to a growbed with a standpipe with a couple of small drainage holes on the bottom..
how many growbeds? a spider valve may be the solution

Yeah, I wanted my fish tank to maintain a stable temp so I buried it. I will be using IBC's for my grow beds, and after they are cut my system will be using 32 growbeds 1 foot deep. I am planning on using a 55 gallon plastic drum under each grow bed. Each grow bed will drain into it's own drum. Then I was planning on a overflow on each drum incase it got to high it would just drain into the fish tank. I was thinking maybe a slow drain of all the drums into the fisht tank, but not sure if it will work. I will be using Afnan siphons in all grow beds. Might run a couple of them constant flood, but most will be siphons. Pump will be running continuously. Trying to keep it as simple as possible, so would rather not use a spider valve, but will if I have to.

yikes.. thats a lot of plumbing and fittings!
12" overall depth of the growbeds? or 12" of media?
the barrels and growbeds will be major heat sinks,, so most of the benefit of having the fishtank buried will be lost pretty early in the day..
having a timed pump going to banks of 4 beds with an 8 way spider valve would actually be much simpler i would think..growbeds could drain right back to the ft

LOL, yeah lots of plumbing. My entire system is going to be mostly underground the top of my 6 foot deep fish tank is 4 feet underground and the top of my grow beds are going to be just below ground level. I will also have a green house over it.

12 inches of media, so just barely over 12 inches total.


I will be running 3 seperate pumps, and each pump will have it's own grow beds to fill.

Here is a link to my system

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=11149

Run it CF helomech, doesnt get any simpler than that and you can keep a constant hieght in your FT without the need of a sump.

I really want to experiment with flood and drain. I do plan on running a couple CF to see if I get any different growth. Besides I need some sumps anyways. Want to do minnows and have a a spawning tank.

Hey

sounds like you want a CHIFT PIST / CHOP system

below is a quick diagram on how that works....

water is pumped from the ST, up to the FT where the fish waste overflows into the GB's and then it goes back into the ST...

jT

Thanks, but my problem is that my fish tank is the lowest thing in my system and my pumps are in my fish tank.

well you can convert the FT into a ST and it will still have the same heat/cold tendencies...

jT

Personally I'd be thinking of chucking in another fish tank or two and splitting it into multiple systems, it will make things far simpler. You can run CF or flood n drain then without having to worry about water volumes so much.

Might be a bit late for that now though I guess..

The fish tank is 1500 gallons, that would be a big sump tank. I think I may have it figured out. Only one way to know for sure.

Since your GBs are ground level, what if you had a tank sitting on the ground that you pump to from the FT, which then fills the GBs by gravity flow? Seems like you could use that for fry, growing duckweed or something, maybe getting some additional solids settling out, etc. Kind of like the original barrelponics design.

Just noticed you have a 25 page system thread, so you may already have this covered and then some

I think I have it figured out, Going to use a bunch of blue barrels to take the water from the grow beds and act as a buffer between the grow beds and the fish tanks. Going to have 5 fish tanks.