Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Moved into a new home this year and finally have the opportunity to delve deeper into aquaponics.

Here are some pictures of the initial build.

How big is that fishtank? 35g?

55 gallon tank. Got it at a moving sale real cheap. Saved a barrel.

Flood tank is coming along nicely

Return pipe from grow beds to fish tank complete. Still need overflow pipes in grow beds.



Flood tank with adjustable siphon still needs work and tested.

The inside of the flood tank.

System Update:

I now have water in the system and have begun testing. Sadly the drain outlets on each grow bed have tiny leaks, will need to re-thread and caulk. The flood tank drain works better than expected however the auto siphon drip drain was overflowing when the flood tank would drain. I added a ball valve to limit the water flow from the flood tank which solved that problem.

The auto siphon pulley system is almost operational. The 2 liter soda bottle will fill up but not pull the drain cover flap. I'm going to try and add different pulley wheels and see if that helps. What does work is when the flood tank is emptying the drain cover flap will return to position. The auto siphon outlet to the 2 liter bottle does have a noticeable leak as well so will again have to re-thread and re-caulk that. Thinking of bringing the height of the siphon down a few inches to help with the timing of everything.

The grow beds fill half way to their capacity after a successful flood. I'm not sure how the grow media will affect the water level in the beds once I added the hydroton. I have overflow drains but with my luck they probably have leaks too.

Hopefully after another trip to the hard ware store for more pipe fittings etc, I will have a fully functioning system. Fingers crossed.

Update:

So finally had an entire weekend to finish the system. I last reported that there were some leaks in the grow beds and fish tank. I took care of those with some silicone caulk, problem solved. I couldn't find 1" PVC ball valve with hand-wheel in any hardware stores so I ended up ordering 1" Gate Valves online. This should take care of the flood tank drain pressure issue.

I spoke last about bringing the height of the flood tank nozzle down a few inches. I did a better caulk job this time around and now have zero leaks from the flood tank.

I had to redesign the auto flood pulley system. The original 2 liter soda bottle wasn't heavy enough to open the drain cover with the weight of the water in the tank plus the additional weights to pull the drain cover back on after flooding is complete. I implemented a 3 pulley system and that is working very well. Almost better than expected.

My order of hydroton came this weekend. Free shipping! Whoo Hoo. Probably need another bag as I don't think 45 Liter is going to be enough.

The only thing I'm not happy with is how dramatic the water level fluctuates in the fish tank. I'll need to think of a way to incorporate a sump tank with my current set up.

I have the system off to allow for any water that spilled over the weekend to evaporate so I can hopefully later tonight check for legitimate leaks anywhere in the system. I hope to start running the system 24/7 later this week.

Here are some more images from over the weekend.

Update:

So the last time I posted I mentioned I was unhappy with the water level fluctuating during each flood cycle. So I decided to incorporate a sump tank into my design. After looking through craigslist, I was able to find 3 more tanks for my system. I picked up another 50 gallon tank, a 30 gallon tank and a 10 gallon tank. The best purchase was by far the 50 gallon tank which had bulkhead's already drilled into the ends as it was previously used as a salt water tank. This was exactly what I needed to incorporate the sump into the system.

I am going to use the 30 gallon tank as the sump that will sit on a custom platform with wheels to allow for easy maintenance and access. I switched the 50 gallon tanks and elevated the original wheeled platform four inches higher so the bulkheads will hang out over and into the sump.

I ordered the bulkheads online, 3/4" pvc size. I was limited to the outflow as the tank was pre-drilled and the dimensions weren't as ideal as I would have liked. I would have preferred to keep the entire system at 1" PVC instead of adding a 3rd PVC size to keep track of. But oh well, I wasn't brave enough to drill my own tanks so this was better than nothing.

I'm now waiting on the bulkheads to arrive as well as 2 pvc gate valves to regulate the flood outflow and the return aeration pipe outflow. The grow lights also have been ordered. I bought a 4ft 4 bulb T5 HO Grow Light kit that should arrive this week. I really have high hopes to be begin cycling this weekend, fingers crossed.

Finally I have decided to shy away from using trout in the system. I don't think it would be wise to start off with such a difficult fish to keep care of as I don't think I'm getting enough current into the water to keep them happy. The water is definitely cold enough though. I bought a 300 watt aquarium heater so my plans are to raise tilapia now. Ideally I would like to get a duckweed tank going for additional feed. I was thinking of using the sump but not 100% sure if that will work or be ideal.

Enough chatter, here are some update pictures.