Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Ok so I am getting ready to purchase a pump for my system and I have read you want to get a pump that can pump the amount of your systems capacity in an hour my system will be about 550Gal (2082lt) with FT and two dwc GB is it still true of dwc or is that more for media based beds? I am planning on having one of the dwc beds be a sump as well will pump to FT-FT to filter (or media bed still on the fence) then to dwc 1 to dwc 2 and back to FT. I feel like a large pump might have too much flow but I could be 100% wrong.

Also if anyone has any pump recommendations would love some! I how to start my thread for my system later this week too. The beds are 50% done get my FT on tues!

Is 550gal the size of your fish tank or your entire system?

I'm no expert on DWC but I would aim to turn over the volume of your fish tank through your filter/media bed approximately once per hour.

If it helps, Ive never read of specified flow rates through DWC troughs. As long as the water is turning over to some degree.... but thats for the troughs/plants. As Arbe mentioned Id still be aiming to turn the FT volume over approx every 1 - 1.5 hours.... for filtration and water quality purposes.

Are you feeding the DWC via media beds? Or other form of filtration?

FT is 1 275 gal ibc tote. Yeah that's been my question on it with dwc is there a certain about of movement that does better than another.

Everything ive read points to a slow feed to your DWC my little one has a bit less than whats needed to run a 25mm siphon , probably around 200Lph . and its going great , early days for my setup . More important im told is lots of air in your DWC . You will need the cleanest water you can get in your DWC so the roots dont foul .

You need to turn your fish tank over every hour but you dont need all that going through the DWC , you can use grow beds or radial / swirl filters to clean your water up so your sump is pretty clean then bleed some off your Fish Tank supply and send it through the DWC .

A 2000Lph pump feeding an IBC fish tank with a bit bled off to the DWC should be fine of course there will be expansions so a bit bigger pump might suit .
Rob.

Yeah I would like it all to go through a filter system the thing is it will be a gravity filled system since the pump is in the sump. And the over flow will feed into filters. I think I will get a 300gph pump and see how it goes. Thanks guys.

A link to pump in DWC: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JXK33LkhNw

Longnt thanks for the link it was seriously helpful. But here's still my dilemma I wasn't planning on having a sump my dwc was my sump so now I am back to figuring out how to get the water turned over in my FT enough but slow enough for my dwc... Does anyone in here run big dwc troughs only?

If you watch the video at 4:45 you will see the pump in the DWC and there is no sum in that system. The DWC is long, not very wide or deep (the deep & width determine the flow rate) but can accommodate the circulation of 4 fish tanks in the shed so I think that your system should be fine with the pump in DWC.

Cheers,
Long

Yeah but I wouldn't doubt with his system he has part of the water going back to fish and part going to GB. I am planning on reading up on uvi systems today hopefully I will find more about it in there

Let us know what you find, I'm interested in this too.

Thanks!

http://hosted.verticalresponse.com/5273 ... 06429ea53/ ok so I found this article which is awesome, So for the size of my system I need a flow rate of 2-5gpm which is a 120gph-300gph pump. Which is funny because my fish tank will be around 250 gals (since I won't fill the IBC full) Now its time to find a good pump with low energy costs in that range.

Great find, thanks for sharing.