Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Well, its been a fun journey so far. Figured I would start my first post with what I've got and what I've learned so far.
Currently I'm running my AP system out of an old IBC. So I have about 225-250 gal fish tank with the remaining 50-75 gallons filled with pea gravel so serve as my plant bed. I also have a 5 gallon radial flow filter and a 35 gallon sump tank.

So the process of circulating water starts with the sump tank. The tank is "theoretically" clean water that is pumped via a cheap ACE Hardware submersible pump through a 5/8"ID hose into the grow bed. The grow bed fills with 10 inches of water with the final 1.5-2in of pea gravel being left alone. At 10in the bell siphon starts doing its thing and pumps the 20-25 gallons of water into the top of the fish tank. As the fish tank fills the water is drawn up the SLO and brought down to the 5 gallon radial flow filter. The radial flow filter (still a work in progress) sorta settles out the heavy solids and waste and then dumps the remaining "theoretically" clean water into the 35 gallon sump. From here the process starts all over...yada yada yada.

Let me know what you think of my build thus far. I plan on perfecting this system a little further in the future. Most likely my first step is to add some high surface area media and an aeration system to the sump tank. This will be for the purpose of growing some bacteria as a biofilter. I will most likely then split the pump from the sump to feed both the tank and grow bed continuously. This will allow me to provide additional food to the fish as well as aerate the input in the tank more consistently. It will also allow me to pull back the reigns on the quantity of water that the grow bed is getting to allow the bell siphon to break more consistently.

Here is the public link to my aquaponics Google+ album;
https://plus.google.com/photos/11602843 ... 4396492305

Any thoughts?

Thanks for taking the time to read my senseless ramblings.

AP-on! my friends!
-Ryan

I'm pretty new to AP myself but your system looks brilliant! The only thing that I'd be in any hurry to add at this point is an air pump or some way to aerate your system. I built an IBC system and added a 4x8 floating raft and found as soon as I added an air pump to the system the plants in both the floating raft and media bed took off with great growth.

Just my thoughts as a rookie - and welcome aboard!

Looking good, the only thing I would say is you probably want to paint or wrap your FT and sump pretty quickly before the algae starts to take over. Light blocking lids for both of them as well.

Thanks for the info LowCarb! I never thought about the algae growth acceleration due to the translucence of the plastics. If I add some lava rocks to the sump and put an aerator in it, will the bacteria that I hope (fingers crossed) will grow take care of any algae growth? And in response to Alex, I know I gotta get an aerator in there. I plan on splitting the pump from the sump tank between the grow bed and the fish tank. The fish tank side will have a venturi on it to aerate the water.

I am kinda stuck in choosing where to dump my plant bed when the siphon starts going. I don't know if I want to dump it directly in the fish tank below, or if I want to split it between the bio filter and the tank, or if I just want to go straight to the biofilter/sump. The reason I may want to split it is because I can't create a long enough siphon pipe to reliably break the siphon and the water keeps going and going and going. This way with a longer output to the sump it will draw fast enough to break the siphon easier. Am I off my rocker?

I may be crazy, but gotta be good at something!

AP on my friends!

-Ryan

Here's my experience with siphons in a media bed. It worked like a charm until I added the media then the fun began -first it wouldn't start, then when I adjusted the flow rate up it wouldn't stop. So, with a six pack of my home brewed honey ale I setup in front of the bed and watched the thing cycle. What I discovered is there is a sweet spot range of flow - too little and the siphon doesn't start, too much and it doesn't stop.

The good news is there is a range I was able to mark on my inlet valve. This brings me to an important point and shouldn't take more then a six pack to accomplish (unless of course you want it to ) take the time to find that sweet spot and mark it on your inlet valve. Not only is beer drinking involved but then you never need worry about your siphon starting or stopping.

Mine has run flawlessly since I took the time to sort it out and I only have about 12 inches of run on my drain with two elbows.

Enjoy the beer!

I was on my second pack,then I remembered I was constant flow

Algae need light and nutrient to grow. Adding media and aeration will not stop algae from growing.

You are best stopping the light from getting to the water to prevent algae.

I've tried the beer method. Apparently fish don't enjoy beer as much as I do.

Thanks for the help guys.

-Ryan