Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Thanks again for this active and knowledgeable community! Since I am now getting serious, I'd like to post the design and get started with a build thread.

This system is located in North Carolina. We have very soft water, mild winters, and hot summers. The soil under my 10 raised beds is red clay, which over the years has depleted the beds of any meaningful nutrients. So I am starting over with aquaponics.

Attached is the system design. I don't really know what questions to ask at this point so instead I'll break down the rough plan and ask as I go. Thus far I have two fishtanks dug into the clay. They are rectangular and about 1 meter deep. I will line them with polycarbonate sheeting which I can get cheaply. Then I plan to fill the tank with some garden soil and gravel and plant some aquatic plants (as Tom Barr does here - http://www.barrreport.com/showthread.ph ... -add-water ). Then fill the FT and maybe put some starter fish in just to get the ball rolling.

Do others have plants in the FT? I'm not as interested in maximum yield as I am providing a decent life for the fish before I pull them out and eat them.

Next step is to build the growbeds. I will dig two trenches, 4 feet wide by 1 foot deep (1.3 meters, .3 meters) and approximately 10 meters long. Then I will build raised walls around the trenches, line the trenches, and fill with expanded slate.

Next I'll build air lifts and drain tubes, turn it on, and hope that the growbeds fill up with water and drain back out.

Okay, wish me luck!

Great to see you started on your members thread there Dragon.

You can plant in your FT if you like there is no prob with that.

Running my eyes over your design it looks great and it will be good to watch this one unfold. If I can make one observation it is be mindful how you return water to the big FT from the small FT. If you use a simple overflow type set up you may end up with dead/anaerobic zones within that FT. I think it would be worth incorporating a large SLO so you are drawing from the bottom.

Looks great

Reality has already altered my plans a bit.

Today I continued digging out the smaller FT to do a test. I have heavy clay soil so I wondered if putting in a polycarbonate liner (which is not really waterproof because of seams) would be enough to keep water in the tank. It was not (which I expected) but it was worth a try.

Anyway, I encountered a yellow buried wire while digging out the bed. I knew the cable line (which I do not use) ran through there. I do not know what the yellow wire is. I presume it is for remotely monitoring the natural gas, water, or electrical meter.

Since I cannot go deeper than the wire (adding 6 inches of soil back on top to be safe) I instead bermed around the FT. This makes the tanks the highest point in the system, not the growbeds. The ground also slopes down slightly towards the growbeds.

So basically the above design is already scrapped. I am now considering a couple options. One is having dual systems. The other is combining both FT into one L-shaped pond and having one system. In either case I am unsure how to get the water back into the fishtank. I liked the simplicity of having airlifts, but now I fear I may need a water pump and sump tank. Other members have solved this surely, but it is a new idea to me so I'm back to the drawing board and reading a bit.

Is there no way you could raise the GB's a bit higher to sit slightly proud of the FT? Probably easier than digging a sump... Then just use a pump in your FT.

IMO it would be wise to have some kind of flow, whether that be from a pump or several air stones, with such an odd shaped tank. I am not sure just using an air lift would be sufficient.

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