Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

uh, ...um... scratches head...

lol - glad you liked it. It was a straight line until I blew it up so it would load

Hey Rob, if you still aren't sure what's going on, have a look at this:



I took the image from this forum:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=12687&p=330128&hilit=slo+internal&sid=07d12d8156bd14ef23ab1e74d7003fff#p330128

Maybe you can learn some more from it.

And yours will end up looking like this:



I would search for 'internal slo' and read around. you'll learn more that way.

With this design you HAVE TO drill a hole through the tank wall and put a seal in. It's the only way that you can stop your FT from over flowing. They use things called uni-seals or bulkheads. You're just going to have to design it properly before you start drilling holes and making a mess.

haha happens to the best of us!

dan looks like his T is underwater and falling over

and alsdo so, should the top of my vent T be even with the top of my GB?

The T has just been turned to adjust flow. Your GB should be just below the outlet from your FT. That way the water exits the FT and 'falls' into the GB. It can be level but I would make it slightly lower to be on the safe side.

I don't really see many things that the height of the T can effect, as long as it's drawing air. The important part is that the outlet is lower, as stated in the above sentence. The height you drill your hole in the side of the FT will determine what height your water stays at.

Meant to ask you where you found those fish tanks Rob?

they are shipping crates made of plastic, i think military engine crates

ok last question before i start cutting, should the inlet pipe hitting my grow beds be at the max water height level or can it go into the BOTTOM of my grow beds and still work as in pic?

note blue line will be water level

this details my whole system for now, look perfect? missing anything?

In order to stop media flushing back into the inlet pipework, you're going to need a media screen over the inlet, and, because the inlet is at the bottom of the GB there is going to be increased back pressure on the water caused by the weight of media and water, and the screen. When employing SLOs the idea is to keep the water moving fast so that solids remain in suspension and can be delivered to the filtration.

You're not going to get an equal distribution of water to each of the GBs. The GB closest to the FT will have a higher volume of water passing through it than the GB which is furthest away from the FT. The difference may not be all that great in the short term, but over the life time of the system the GB closest to the FT will receive much more solid waste. In order to solve this problem, increase the size of the horizontal pipework to act as a common distribution manifold (CDM) and run vertical risers of equal height into each GB. If you're particularly worried that solids may collect in the CDM, simply add a flushing valve to the end of the CDM furthest from the FT and open this on occasion as part of your planned maintenance routine. Delivering water into the top of a GB means you don't need media screens on the water inlet.

If you're going to employ a CDM and risers, include an isolation valve so that individual beds can be taken offline without affecting the rest of the system.

e.g.



Note: the top of the risers must be below the water level in the FT.



$0.02c

ok. wel i have 2" schedule 40 going into the Gb , and instead of plumbing into the end i can plumb into the middle easily so its more of a 40/60 split between 2 beds on each side split

wait a minute, i see plenty of GB's that are plumbed into the bottom without issue ??

Who says they are "without issue"?

If you must plumb through the bottom of the GB, you'll still achieve the goal by adding an elbow inside the GB to a vertical section which will deliver the water to the top of the GB (from the inside of the GB) and this will alleviate the need for a media screen and allow for improved flow into the GB versus water trying to force its way in through media and a screen at the bottom of the GB. If you use larger diameter piping for delivery then you'll still balance the volumes of water to each GB. I'd still be adding individual isolation valves.

The more holes you have in a container, the more chances there are for leaks, especially when those holes are at the bottom of the container where the pressure is greatest.

Also when you have water flowing via gravity, you want as few restrictions of the flow as possible.