Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi,

So I am hoping to start building my system this weekend and had a question on the size of my sump tank. We are using two 275 IBC totes and plan on cutting one bed to be approx 6-9" deep and the other 12" deep for my more deep rooted plants. How big (many gallons) does my sump tank need to be to support my system? Do I need to stay on a 1:1 ratio with my grow beds?

Thanks so much!

I think it really depends on the type of system you are making. Are you making the growbeds, fish and sumps out of the 2 IBC's?

The fish tank and grow beds will be out of IBC totes. The size of the sump tank will depend on what I need to use for that. We would prefer to have 2 FT and grow beds from the totes and use a 55 gallon for the sump, but didn't know if that would support it.

Are you using a CHIFT PIST with an SLO or some other method would also help with answers

A CHIFT.

Not sure what SLO means, sorry still a newbie.

Checked the FAQs section. Yes using a SLO method as well.

That seems to be not much bed for 2 tanks. If I was using 2 IBCs I would be going two 12" beds one of the cut ones semi buried as a sump below the growbeds and the ft next to it. Minimise plumbing and it's nice and compact. The real limiting factor on the amount of fish u will be able to grow is the amount of filtration delivered by the beds.

I was originally going to make the one tote that would be cut just under 9" my FT and make it CHIFT SLO and make the other tote a sump that I will be cutting 12" for a grow bed.

Perferrably I would like to have both theft over totes be FTs and make the sump out of something else like a 55 gallon drum, but wasn't sure if it would beable to support it.

Not for a CHIFT PIST. It's best to have at least the volume of the growbeds but more is better. As it takes time to fill the gb's and get water draining back into it and due to evaporation you have to top it up more frequently. (got that problem with mine. Going to have to plumb in an extra sump before next summer)

Thanks.

Thats what I figured, hoping someone was able to pull it off lol
The reason I was hoping that would work was due to us having easy access to the 55gal & 25gal buckets, and don't have the funds to buy another IBC tote right now. Hopefully in the future we can add on once we get the setup dialed in.

Here's a thought, can you setup multiple 55 gallon buckets together so that they equal the volumn of the beds and it being the sump? or would that complicate things and open more room for issues later?

It can be done. We set ours up with multiple sumps plumbed together. But they are cut ibc's so straight sided. If the buckets have curved sides I'm sure there is a way but I haven't looked into it.

Are you planning to expand your system a lot?

Only by adding another IBC tote in the future because we want at least 2 fish tanks (and we are limited by space as well). But if I can pull it off with the totes I have now and barrels I don't think we would need to expand it.

Ideally, the sump could hold all of the water from all of your beds, unfilled with gravel. That being said, if you want to push sizing down some, the gravel takes up about 40% of the GB volume (of course different gravels take up different ammounts.)

That little tidbit of info is what I've been trying to guess. Thanks for that info.

I have a single IBC FT and 12" top of and IBC for a GB currently, using a burried 55 Gallon drum as the sump.

Without growbed media, the sump is emptied almost 100% with just the one growbed. So, more sump is needed for sure.

I'd considered two blue barrels connected at the bottom via 1.5" pipe / uniseals to expand my sump. However, thinking more about the 40% volume, I think an additional IBC will certainly be necessary.

We are using clay pellets for our media.