Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I don't think that a grid on the surface would have a significantly greater loss of water to evaporation . My grids sit on the surface of the gravel with holes drilled in the under side, squirting straight down into the gravel. I find it difficult to even see if there is water going into my beds because the water is shooting straight down into the gravel.. If it's not open to the wind and sun then it's not really going to evaporate much...

Burying the pipes will lead to complications when you need to clean out your irrigation pipework. No doubt roots will grow into the pipes, roots grow into the pipes when they sit on the surface, so they will definately grow into your pipewor if it's below ground. Trying to cleaning out buried pipes will add a whole lot of work....

i stand corrected I was probably getting confused with a flood level to the gravels surface. Mine prbably evaporates some what becasue the pipe just sits on the gravel and the water exits, wetting an amount of surface gravel, instread of being directed down via holes.

Steve

And speaking of roots in pipes...

This was the bed where my tomato plant was, I ripped it out last week and found some roots had made their way down the drainpipe for over 2 metres...

lol, you need a caption like "dear god, where does it end?"

When we pulled a heap of roots like that out of our bathroom drain, H was captured on video saying, "Chrissy, how many times have I told you not to shave your legs in the bathroom sink?"

How much room do we need to allow between the top of the growbed and the roof of the shade house?
I know your gunna say that it depends on what we want to plant, but what are people using? You see, I told H that we'd just need to string a bit of shade cloth up, now it's looking like being 3 metres tall.
Don't want to go for a sump pump if we can help it.
Chrissy

Chrissy, my GH is 2m tall on the side, the top of the GBs are 700mm of the ground (waist height), I have corn growing in one of them and it is just under the roof - is that of any help to you?

Also got climbing beans and tomatoes and they seem to have enough height

I think my structure is about 2 metres on the sides and maybe 2.8 in the middle..

OK, here is the dream system. Please critique

Consists of
8,600 litre fish tank 60cm in ground, 50 cm above ground, filled to 90cm
8 of Murray's grow beds 4,680 litres
Shade cloth enclosure about 2 metres tall
One pump in fish tank (Laguna max flo 7500
One air blower for use during summer and backup
2 x 120W solar panels to run the system
S-D/N120W control unit kit (for solar)

Start with 200 Silver Perch

What d' ya reckon?????

Chrissy

seems pretty straight forward to me.

Looks pretty neat Chrissy, here are some suggestions that you may have already looked at:

1) run the GBs east-west, this will change then to having 2 long aisles (or 3 if you prefer)

2) I read somewhere that 30% shadecloth is recommended for veggie growing, I use 50% and not having any probs with light but not sure of veggie growth if the cloth is too thick

3) how are you getting the water from the GBs back to the fish tank, the bottom of the GB is 400mm above the ground, yet the fish tank water is 300mm above ground, a 40mm pipe elbow (from base of GB) takes up 90mm to turn so there is only 10mm drop left (over several metres). I have assumed that you will be drilling a hole in the side of the fish tank at the 900mm mark and not going over the top of fish tank (which is 500mm up).

Suggestions:
bury the tank deeper;
lower the water level in the fish tank and consequently the inlet pipe;
raise the GBs; or
use 2 pumps and have sump for the GBs to drain into

each presents a different set of problems to solve

Yep - Les has some good points. In terms of greenhouse height, I'd try for higher. Remeber that it is through vertical growth that you are going to get value for money. For example - look at how much your grow-beds will cot you. WHy would you grow a bush tom in the system (taking up horizontal space) when you could grow a climbing one and use vertical space.

The greenhouse that I am hoping to get one day is something like 3.5 meters high at the peak (it's a tunnel type).

Another comment Chrissy is that that system would take heaps more than 200 perch. You do say 'initially' so I expect you would intend to add more later. You would not want to plant out all 8 grow-beds straight up, because the waste from 200 tiny fingerlings is not likely to sustain the plants.

but you can still "Run" all the gb's.............

Les, I'm interested to know what the idea behind the east west growbeds is?? I would have thought north south is better because there would be less chance of some things getting shaded out???

EB, I meant east - west in the GH, turn them 90 degrees and run 4 on end, it would cut down on the number of individual paths, may even be able to fit in 3 rows of 4.

Tall plants could be planted along southern side (GBs1-4) and lettuce etc in front of GBs 5-8