Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Alright, I'm going to make the jump and get into it soon. But I've got some questions prior to "breaking ground". I have a 12x10 green house kit. (not installed, put together/ built). I want to put a 330G ibc in it as the FT. Then have 1 or 2 150G troughs semi buried on the sides of the green house as sumps. Which would give me 480G- 630G and then using either some 27G totes or cutting up some 50 G barrels and using those as my GBs. This brings me no where near the 1:1 or the 2:1 ratio needed. But I wanted to also run a NFT system over the top of the whole thing in the green house. I also would like to do both perch or catfish in the FT and then Crawfish in the Sump. So I have some questions if someone would be so kind to help me out.

1. Should I go CHIFT PIST? OR CHOP MARK 2? I'm thinking CHOP might be the way to go?....

2. How big of a pump am I looking at? I under stand head space but I'd only be running like drip line up to the NFT and not a full volume. Going from the semi buried sump(s) might only be 4 ft. should I look at a pump that sits in the sump or get like a pool one that sets out side the sump (if I ran two S i would link them.)

3. Do I even need two Sumps?

4. I'm still unclear on flood times and rates. How many times a day do you have to flood? could I say set the pump on a timer and then put an indexing valve on and run it that way? or should I just let it run free and all day long.

5. Auto siphons. what does everyone like? bells? or those extermal toilet gravity ones.?

6. Removing solids. Is this needed. I ahve read that if you put composting red wigglers in your GB then they take care of the solids and your plants do even better.

7.Since I live in WA State. Our winters are cooler then most and are lacking sun. Should I look into closing down my GBs in the winter? If I do, does it take as long to get them cycled as the first time? Should I link a biofilter in the system for this reason?

Thank you for all the help in advance I will post pistures as soon as I begin to break ground.

In my opinion CHIFT PIST is superior to CHOP 2


It is recommended, but not necessary, to turn the volume of your fish tank over once per hour. So if your fish tank is 2000L and your head is 1m it is recommended that your pump shift 2000L per hour at 1m head. (assumes running pump 24x7)


You need a sump big enough to keep the pump (if submersible) under water at all times as well as being able to cope if all your growbeds should drain at the same time - even if running constant flood as your growbeds should still slowly drain in the event of a power/pump failure


As mentioned above you should aim to turning over the volume of your fish tank once per hour. If you use a time and set for say 15 on and 45 off your pump would need to be able to pump 4 x the volume of your fish tank.


The two types of siphons I have seen used on here are bell/afnan or loop siphons. You dont have to run siphons, you could use constant flood or a timed flood and drain system.


The solids should break down in your growbeds. Worms will help this.


I will let someone with more expertise in this area answer this question.

Thank you. Why do you prefer the CHIFT PIST over the CHOP. In regards to the siphons what diameter pipe should the inner pipe be for a 30-50 G GB?

I need some help from anyone in western WA USA. Where the heck did you get an IBC tote? Everyone else? Got any ideas? Where did yo get yours? Are there any businesses I should call,to see if I can get a hold of one? Thanks everyone!

For that sized grow bed... I'd use 1" external loop siphons... and maximise the growing space...

I prefer CHIFT PIST over CHOP II as the path the water takes is fish tank with SLO taking solids from your tank to your filter/growbeds where the solids will get trapped and further broken down. The water, now clean drains to your sump where your pump moves the clean water to your fish tank.

As far as I am aware CHOP II your fish tank and grow beds drain to your sump. Your tank delivers solids to your sump where you pump move water to both your growbeds and fish tank.

The water being pumped to your fish tank could (and is likely) contain solids.

It is my personal opinion that you should never pump solids to your fish tank.

i found my totes on craigslist..
for search terms use 330 gallon or 275 gallon

Our local hardware store "Atwood's" sells them. They are a kind of farm & ranch oriented store.

Thanks everyone.... I had been searching Craigslist and all I could find we're the 275G. Then today when I looked low and behold a 330G bout an hour away but 130$ not too bad. I think... What did everyone pay for theirs?

You can normally pick up an IBC second hand in good condition between $50 and $100.

Slowly everything is coming together. Got some warehouse steel to put my grow beds and IBC on (sweet). Has anyone had any problems with their IBC settling? Or has everyone got theirs sitting on a concrete pad? I wanted to put a recycled concrete floor in my green house, there warehouse steel on top of that. So it wouldn't be one solid floor but compacted sand and then the concrete pieces. But I'm worried about the weight of the IBC and that it would settle out and go uneven. Any AP Gurus have any words of wisdom?

Get some pavers, bricks, slabs even timber and place under the legs of your grow bed stands to spread their weight out a bit.

The pavers in place:


The beds installed:

It's been a while but this is what I got... I have some questions prior to building the grow beds... How deep should I make them? What diameter of pipe should I use for my siphons and from the fish tank. The pump I plan on using uses 1 inch pipe. I plan on making my grow beds out of plywood and was thinking about lining them with fiberglass, it's cheaper then pond liner. Anyone have any better ideas?

Just thought I would mention that often it is best to keep your sumps very clean (so probably not the best place to keep your Crawfish) which is also why CHOPII is considered by some inferior to CHIFT PIST (as I understand it fish tank water is partly pumped to the sump.. which introduces particles by not being processed through the grow beds)
Having a clean sump is even more important if you are doing NFT as it requires cleaner water as does towers.
I originally wanted to have crayfish in my sumps but have decided against it as I have home made NFT tubes and Strawberry towers all fed from my 3 sumps that are piped together fed by water filtered from the grow beds.

I think you would be best of with CHIFT PIST constant flood (things don't seem to grow better with siphons from what I have read so why complicate it, unless they are for fun) .. just my two cents

Also pre filtering isn't really necessary as long as you have enough grow beds for your fish stocking density

I was gonna run the drop from the FT to the sump halfway down the FT to mitigate the pick up of solids. And my NFT system I was gonna run a larger hose that has a valve on it to restrict flow.