Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Time to upgrade...

Out with the old and in with the new, my old system has been up for almost 10 years now

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=1360

It's been fun and all, but it's time to upgrade, need to move forward and start a new chapter, go plastic and go modular..

Squares and rectangles are far more efficient in a square area and I can fairly easily increase my growing space by 50%, and my water volume can be almost doubled..

Now the only problem is layout.. I can fit 6 beds in without too many problems.

The bottom layout here is the one that I'm leaning towards.. 6000L of water and 6 growbeds, allowing me to mix up species a bit, lots of access and easy to get around everything.
The one above is just a couple less fish tanks, not really as good..
Disadvantages of this one, not a lot of water surface area to grow floating invasive plants.

These two layouts have 6 beds but less water, with only 3 x 1000L tanks and a 1500L tank, they still have reasonably good access, and a lot of added growing space on top of the 1500L tank, but less overall water volume isn't great.

These layouts still have 6 beds, but get a 2000L tank out in the open. Only 4000L of water all up, though in the top design I could probably put another tank under the top left bed.. making it 5000L of water and 6 beds, with a lot of open growing space on the 2000L fish tank, but access isn't quite as good as some of the other layouts..

Anyone have any thoughts, or see anything I'm missing?

Hi Joel,

Do you have access to the beds from outside the rectangular area?

I like the idea of 6 systems!

But you have to have at least one backyard system!

good luck making that decision

Cool stuff, EB. A new system will no doubt re-freshen you.

I like the bottom layout in image 2, I think this would keep your plumbing neat, good access to everything and have a good ergonomic feel.

Yep, loads of access all around the outside.. And just to confuse things even more, I'm making more layouts... It's surprising how many possibly combinations there are to fit into the one area.

I think you should get a bigger backyard so you can have more beds, more tanks, bigger tanks...

Joel I sort of like the first couple of layouts, but what are you planning on growing in regards to fish and plants?

I like #4!

My vote goes to the 6 systems.

But why not just move to byap janakot? You'd have 7 big system, would only have to wake up 5 mins before starting work and also have Nat and Seamonkey to look after the place for you...

Funny to see so many designs. Glad I'm not the only one. I draw up my systems with winter sun angles and optimise the layout so that all beds will get winter sun. This generally means having as big a gap as possible between the beds in the north south directions and planting lower growing winter crops in the northern most beds.

Are there any trees near by that may drop leaves? This is the other thing I take into account when positioning open tanks.

My preference is for less tanks - option 4 of the above.

have you ever thought of actually using a Water tank Partially buried in the ground for a fish tank..

A single sump..[an IBC]

Have the outflow of the Tank at such a height that it gravity feeds the grow-beds..
A single pump from the sump back to the tank..[High flow/low wattage pump]

I'm Still working on what I consider to be my ideal system configuration..

Juergen

What is the size of the area and how big are the growbeds. I was wondering if you could make a large U shape with a big tank in the middle?

I've always wondered if it was possible to have the gb's on wheels or allow for a lifting frame to go under it(with a jack) then you could have a pipe(large) running around the sides of the garden area for return water. Then you can move the gb's when ever you wanted. Just push out of the way or move to a better spot and add a feed line.

Dang! Going to miss that monolith of a system - off topic I know but here's some early days pix - it made the cover of the first issue of the BYAP mag

Well there you go Joel, 20 different layout opinions..... hmmm, that made it easier ay