Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

First post and intro post over and done with. Now time to show my first plan.

This first picture shows the space I am going to be working with:


Excuse the mess (still cleaning up after a garage sale!). House is on the left and is 2 stories high along this area. North is to the left, so the site gets full sun all summer and the roof line shades the lower areas in the winter as the sun's horizon drops. The narrow area closest to the camera, never gets direct sun.

Next is my first draft plan:


I have not worked out exactly what containers I'll be using (but the overall concept is there). Majority of the plumbing is not in the plan yet.

IBC's and sump are labelled. Blue rectangles are 1/2 200L blue drums (grow beds) and the Yabby tanks are 60L poly tanks.

The army green boarder is a sleeper retaining wall. It goes from about 120cm tall at the far left, stepping up to about 160cm at the yabby tanks.

Centrally positioned is the sump and IBC's (which are on the ground). The whole system is run via a single pump located in the sump. The pump will most likely be a large capacity Laguna pond pump, as I get them cheap and they have a good power/flow/head ratio.

The grow beds will be raised and stepped to make sure they get winter sun. The rear bed will be sitting at about 120cm and the front about 90cm. They’ll be parallel and ‘ebb and flow’ into return channels (yellow) back to the sump.

The yabby tanks will be in series and have been placed there so they get no direct sun light.

I’ll construct a shade house over the sump and IBC’s to help with summer heat and rain.

I can also extend the system with the space on top of the retaining wall.

So that’s about it. Not too detailed a plan yet, but it’ll get there.

Comments or feedback are encouraged.

Aaron

Cool, another long skinny system! Umm it is prolly just me but whcih tank are the fish going to be in and how are you pumping the water back to them and the growbed with the same pump?
Axl

Axl,

Fish in the 2x IBC's.

Sump is at the lowest point. Single pump will pump to 1 to fish/IBC's, 2 to grow beds, 3 to Yabby tanks and gravity feed back via a channel/gutter system.

Will run a split plumbing system from the pump, controlled via ball valves.

Bulk of the flow will go to the fish and grow beds.

Forgot to add about oxygenation.... Water pumped to IBC's will exit (into IBC's) via Beckett 1408 Fountain Jets at the water surface. 1408's are basically like super venturis, so should aerate the water pretty well.

Also looking at a small winter solar heating system that a friend gave me the idea for. A low capacity solar pump pushing water through a length of 13mm poly pipe (closed loop) mounted on the shade house roof.

Aaron.

Hi Aaron, welcome to the forum...it all starts with a plan ..... then just seems to get out of hand lol...

Few years back everyone would have looked at a spare space and thought about filling it up with plants, junk, bbq ... whatever...

Love the way that now every space ... large or small is a potential AP space... lol

Welcome Elvis. From your pic (which is fantastic,) you have 8-100lt grow beds for 2000 lts of fishtank space. Is this correct? If that is the case, you need way more grow beds. At the golden 1:2 ratio you need 4000lts of growbed space for your fish. If your pic is to scale, you have 800lts planned, (not really counting the yabbies.) One less fishtank and more GB's would seem to be the go, otherwise you may have mega ammo probs etc down the track, as your biofilter will simply be unable to process the volume of fish waste. Others have far more knowledge than me, so i may be right off beam.

Elvis?

Not had that one before

Yep, 800L grow beds to 2000L (say 1600L realistically) fish tanks.

I'll risk the wrath of many and say I won’t follow generalised ratios!

A 800L grow bed versus 2000L with 10 fish

Or

800L grow bed versus 2000L with 100 fish.

Big fish? Small fish?

High feed? Low feed?

Productive plant growth (warmer months) or not (winter)?

Water temps?

pH?

DO?

Load now versus load after a given period of grow?

Even what species?

Same system, yet the variables are so huge!

So sure, use the ratio as a guide… a VERY rough guide.

I’ll also say that, as I mentioned in my intro thread, I have a marine aquarium/small scale aquaculture background, and ADMITTEDLY, am more experienced on that side than the hydroponics side of things. I’m trying to combine an area I know much about with and area I know little.

Ratios are prolific in Aq/AC too (1cm of fish per litre of tank, 4x system turnover for foam fractionators, etc, etc). But as I am sure is the case here with the more experienced hobbyists, they don’t hold up too well when system variables are taken into account. It’s about finding the balance in the system you have.


So yep, I am starting out with less grow bed area than the standard 2:1 ratio. However, I have no plans to chuck a couple of hundred fingerlings in the systems a few weeks after setup. It’ll be a gradual increase of the load on the system until I find the balance point. Of course this balance point will vary dependant on all the variables I noted above (and many others). If the time comes that the fish load is surpassing the plant’s needs, then (as noted) I can expand the system easily (easier in my case to add grow beds than 1000L tanks).

If I was to explain my logic in the design, I’d say I am gong for water volume to aid system stability and have contingencies to expand if need be.

OK, rant over!

Oh… the picture, thanks. Nothing more than MS Paint and a wee bit of Photoshop to crop it. Very UN-technical.

Aaron.

Double “Oh”… contemplating leaning slightly more with the aquaculture side of things still and may incorporate some kind of filtering of solids. Not sure yet, but would again remove some load off the grow beds IF that was needed.

Aaron and TT,

I think TT is on the money for max stocking sensities of 6kg of fish to 100Lt (never really got into the "inches of fish" )

AJ is definatly right about the variables and MANY of us are running ratios like his and using the lowest denominator as the "key" for the ratios. For example in AJ's system i'd use 0.5 times by his 800L grow beds to give me a "virtual" tank size of 400L which i'd stock to a MAX density of 24kg of fish. (feeding at the rate they want to eat at)


I've also mentioned the merits of having LARGE fish tank volumes (2 ibcs are definatly better than one IMHO. Reasons being temp and chemistry stability)

TT, MEGA points for trying to help out a newbie though

I still don't get the elivs thing though

Elvis' middle name is Aron

Ok, well, i'll blame my young age (and dashingly hansom appearance) for not knowing that

ROFL, you do that Steve

Yes, TT... hope I did not sound unappreciative. I most certainly am.

I'm in the awkward place of being a newbie to AP overall, but not aquaculture and fish keeping.

I should have 'got' your Elvis reference. Just a shame I can't fall back on age as my excuse!

AJ

The grow bed discussion continues here if anyone is interested

http://backyardaquaponics.com/forum/vie ... 6&start=15

Hi AJ, welcome
I've also got way undersized grow beds. In the beds try to use a gravel like scoria which has a much greater surface area for bacteria growth, and carefully select your plants to take out the most nutes as possible.

Consider this: If you put the first IBC in the corner where you have it, and then the second one against the wall and directly north of the first, and then rotate the sump 90 degrees and put it next to the first IBC, you'd have more space to expand the growbed section. If you wanted to, of course.

No sweat AJ, i was really just thinking out loud, trying to convince myself that i had half a clue on what i was on about. Think with my 1000lt tank and 400lt GB's i can only handle about 30 Silver Perch, real gently.