Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Mmm. I will have to think that through thoroughly. I also like theidea of a pipe with a small hole to save the fish tank in case of something going wrong.

Excellent thread TC,

Thank you, and all who contributed drawings!

pictures are worth so much and diagrams so easy.

Does any one have drawings of how to make swirl and bio filters and where to install them in diffent systems for the greatest benifit.

My 2012 aquaponics plumbing class slides are up on the internet (most of the diagrams are very similar to last year.)

It can be viewed on my web site
http://www.aquaponiclynx.com/aquaponic-lynx-llc/aquaponics-in-detail/2012-aquaponic-plumbing-class

I was gonna attach the pdf but apparently that isn't allowed.
So here is a link to the PDF on my site
http://www.aquaponiclynx.com/Aquaponics%20Plumbing%20Class%202012.pdf

Hi Guys, I have a quick question (might be a stupid question too)

in this design, Would there enough water that will be distributed to the third GB from the SLO? I am thinking of the same concpt but only with two GB's and I am afraid that the all (if not most)of the water from the FT using SLO would go to the first GB and not properly distribute it in the second GB.


Cheers.

That diagram is pretty much my system to a "T".

No problems with filling the third growbed (and in my case triggering the siphon).

I think the key would be to run a large diameter pipe (eg 90mm/3inch) and then hand off to each growbed at a smaller diameter (eg 25mm/1inch).

Hi Kaishin,

I have the exact system that that diagram displays with 3 GBs... I use ball valves on my 25mm PVC piping to control the flow to each bed. My SLO is 40mm PVC which has Ts at each bed which reduces to 25mm PVC at the beds where the ball valve is.

and like you can see in Arbe's picture he has ball valves at each bed

Yes - forgot about them Tom.

Ya just gotta balance things such that there is enough flow to the fish tank to provide enough flow to the grow beds. I like to have an extra grow bed that is constant flood or something so I can have more flow through the fish tank and I set the plumbing such that the siphon beds can have a ball valve or adjustment to deal with balancing the flow for the siphons and the "overflow" bed has it's plumbing just enough higher than the other beds that the other beds always have enough pressure to have the right amount of flow to their ball valves and the "overflow bed" gets all the rest of the flow. If the overflow bed doesn't seem to have enough flow like normal, it is usually a sign that you need to clean the pump screen or something like that.

Getting even flow is about having relative even pressure along the length of the distributor pipe. If water is moving fast along the distributor pipe there will be greater friction which translates into pressure loss. Aim to the have distributor pipe relatively massive compared to the outlets.

You can check if the flows are even by having an ungluded 90 degree bend after the ball valves Turn all bends to vertical and adjust valves until the water jets are all equal height. Only works if outlet pipes are relatively small.

okay, first: as someone brand new to AP, I just want to say that this thread ROCKS.

I am trying to figure out which system to try with a 50 gallon glass fish tank indoors.
most of these diagrams have a side outlet drain on the fish tank. is there a good way to do a CHIST PIST (sp?) system without a side outlet drain in the fish tank?

if not, I was thinking about the system with an indexing valve, but seems from my reading that an indexing valve is considered way overkill on as small of a system as I am contemplating?

Look at Geek2Nurse's thread about her 55gallon indoor system. It is awesome and she has good description of no hole overflow. viewtopic.php?f=18&t=15248

It is the inspiration for my design. Though I made my no holes overflow look like this...
viewtopic.php?f=18&t=7396&start=15 Rob_K picture on 2nd page.

No there really isn't a good way to do CHIFT PIST without a hole in the fish tank somewhere.

No Holes overflows can work but they also carry some definite risk of failure if gas or air manages to build up in the top of them they will stop working and the fish tank can overflow. I have used them but don't really recommend them. Use at your own risk.

And you are totally right, the commercially available indexing valves are WAY overkill on a small system. Minimum size pump I've ever manage to get to consistently operate the gravity modified version of the valves was nearly a 1000 gph pump. To use any smaller of a pump would involve header tanks placed up at the ceiling and a FLOUT to feed the indexing valve and I suspect that would also be rather crazy to try to implement indoors and probably wouldn't solve the problem anyway which is the water level fluctuation.

for an indoor aquarium system you are probably best off simply limiting the system. You can't really raise much in the way of edible fish in a 50 gallon aquarium and you are likely not going to want to set up enough lighting to support enough grow beds to max out the fish load in a 50 gallon tank anyway so by only growing as many fish as you can comfortably do in a system with less grow bed and just deal with a bit of water level fluctuation.

Now if you don't want the water level to fluctuate in your fish tank, you could always run the grow beds constant flow/constant flood then water level fluctuation is minimal no matter how many grow beds you have or you could do a combination and only put siphons in a limited number of beds while leaving the rest constant flow/flood.

I love the indexing valves and use them heavily in my systems, they are NOT appropriate everywhere.