Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

So I recently moved my green house to a better location. It was a very creative move to say the least. Finally go the time to put together my system. Having to wait on the bulk head put me back another week, and Im still looking maybe yet another week because I need one more bag of clay balls.

Im sure my system has many flaws, but I figured Id run with the punches. So I have a two tote set up. One as the ST and the other as the FT. The barrels I got for free were lidded so I decided to halve them then plastic weld into one long bed. The beds are fitted with bell siphons that leave the level of water at around the same level as where the lips of the barrels rise to.





So I figured two beds...Ill have two SLOs being its not a circle tank. I found that a lot of people make stands for them out of pipe with slits to suck up the solids. Yet, I found these nice flat bottom attachments at Tractor Supply and figured Id try them out. Two 2 inch diameter SLOs to pull off the tank.





Put in two ball valves because...well the pump I have is beastly for my system. I have a 1 hp 2600 GPH dirty water submersible pump. I think I shot myself in the foot by going big but maybe I can fiddle with my set up to make it work. I even put in another valve above the ST to redirect it back into the ST. I can have it almost full open and it still will over flow my FT in around ten minutes.



So I do have the 2 inch SLOs quickly tapering down to 3/4 inch. I wanted enough flow to go the length of the grow bed, but I also didnt want to release too much water that the siphons couldnt displace. The water pressure makes it to the end of the line with a steady flow from the pipe line.



The siphons kick in within 10 seconds of the first dribble.



Waters dirty because I forgot to wash out the scoria and hydroton, amongst other things. The 4th side of the sump will stay unburied and Ill have a little platform to remove when I need to get down there. I thought it might be a little easier than laying on my belly. As soon as this set up is working I plan to use the far tall wall for vertical towers. Just trying to utilize the lil space I have in there. I will expand eventually but until then.



Just trying to see if I can better dial back the pump a bit or maybe not taper off the 2 inch SLO pipe to 3/4 inch so quickly which will allow the FT to drain off without being backed up. Although, the FT drains off enough to fill the GBs for the siphons to kick in and thats within Ten or so minutes. SO Im wondering if I pull off enough from the FT to the GB to properly cycle within the hour if I have it times right.

Any thoughts?

Nice neat setup you have there.

Did you weld those barrels together? If so... very neat job, I've thought about doing this myself to save on plumbing costs.

Personally I wouldn't throttle the pump at all, I would put in a surface overflow back to the sump.

Water can be drained from the fish tanks water surface which removes the oily scum and floating detritus that tends to build up on the tanks surface. This will allow surface scum to be drawn off the surface of the fish tank and improve oxygen transfer at the surface

Site it just above the SLO outlet height so any extra water over and above that going to the grow beds just returns to the sump. Wth a splash you will get extra aeration and if you like you can incorporate some type of biofiltration to eat any detritus.

Oh yeah love the photo's they help greatly in problem solving.

Why thank you. Yeah I plastic welded them as best I could. I will say if you do attempt it then dont wait a day to attach each ends. I did my first barrel right away, but the second I halved and didnt get around to it till a week or so. The rim curled a bit and made it a little difficult to wrestle back in place to get the initial tack before the weld. Not sure just how strong the seam is, but I was able to throw them around the yard without any breakage. If anything its water tight.

I cant believe I didnt think about having an over flow line back to the sump! I guess I had been thinking about the overflow on the SLOs but even then they will only drain so much. Sweet! I dont think I was throttling the pump that much being that the valve back into the ST was almost full open. Im getting plenty of spray from that, the spray bar, and the two valves on the FT so Im pretty sure the aeration aspect is ok.

Nice compact setup. Just a couple of observations from a noobie:

1) You're gonna eventually have alot of solids in the growbeds. Some people like this, some don't.
2) I don't see an overflow in your fish tank back to your sump tank. If the solids plug the feed pipes to your growbeds, your fish tank will overflow.

Can't wait to see some progress once some greenage and fishes get in there.

Just noticed you were from Ga. I live about 40 miles west of Savannah.

So Ive messed around a bit with my set up. I put in an over flow. The first one was too high and even though it was the same size as the one below it it couldnt keep up, weird. This one works just fine and I can dump in all that the pump will provide. Both the SLOs and Over Flow keep up.



So my black SLO ends had too big of opening for the goldies I got. I was really wanting to get larger fish, but the store was fresh out. So with the risk of getting a fish up the pipe and stuck I wrapped the bottoms with cheese cloth.



That was no fun at all. Plus the cloth eventually throttled the SLO. SO for now I decided to expand my pick up area and keep my fish from the horror.





So Ive been trying to make the double barrel bed function. I had a double bell siphon set up at first. BUt I was running into the issue that the bed at first would fill, but one siphon would kick on and begin to drain. Then it would keep up with the incoming flow leaving the bed half full at all times. Tell me if Im wrong but I thought the main goal was to fill then drain, eventually, to allow oxygen to the roots. I fiddled with the flow a bit but both beds were having the same issue. Correct me if Im wrong. So I tried something different. I reduced the 3/4 inch drain pipe on the far end to 1/2 and pulled the stand pipe for the siphon out. The drain closest to the FT I kept the standpipe and pulled out the bell. So on the left I have the drain at the lowest water point and on the right has a drain at the highest water point. The 1/2 inch reducer allows the water to drain off but still allows the water level to rise in the GB.



In about 16 minutes the water level in the GB reaches to height of the stand pipe closest to the FT. But never flows more than a little over the drain edge.



So Im able to fill the GB, not over flow it, and after the pump shuts off, the far lower drain empties the bed in around 4 minutes. Id like to do 20 on and 40 off for the hour but I dont have a proper timer so as of right now Im 30 on 30 off. Does my Flow and drain sound right? my FT is 250 gallons and my sump pump is a 1 hp 2600 gph pump.


oh and I dug the today for a dedicated line to the GH today...I would like to eventually have solar, but I couldnt just have an extension cord everyday...

So in preparation for my coming delivery I wanted to get a separate bed for my hopeful banana tree. My old vertical single barrel will be dedicated to the sugar cane mainly because of the roots. SO I cut up two barrels today to take up what little space I have. Being my barrels have removal lids my grow bed will look like a cradle ahaha. If the banana tree takes off then it will be transferred to something larger. For now this is the new addition. IM sure my small pump will be able to feed the bed while letting a bell siphon handle drainage.

new additions...

I started myself some dedicated GBs for the two banana plants and sugar cane I received. Theyre all running on their own small pumps, but I think Im going to try and put in a 3rd SLO in my FT to test and see. I was thinking to let the three GBs drain into each other then to the sump while still utilizing the one pump idea.