Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I have been making some small progress. Not as much as i would like, my system is in a very transitional stage but i figure i cant go any longer without something of an update.

I have a fair amount of experience with bell siphons but i am not a big fan. Decided to try something new and i am having good experience with a 1" pvc siphon with 3/4" exit. Since my 600gph pump is so far away and has a fairly high head height it's a very slow fill and fast drain.. My grow bed may flood every 3 to 4 hours and drain in a couple of minutes but i havent actually timed it

I have a second pump in the grow bed just to increase water flowing through the fish tanks and grow beds.. lets call it a constant height pump. again this is just temporary while i build out a few more fish tank/grow beds and i upgrade to one bigger pump than can accommodate the whole system.. right now i am just using what i have on hand/cheap.a

a couple of more pictures to help orient the viewers to the orientation and long term scale.

The 2 x100 gallon stock tanks are being used as 1 sump.. there's a siphon between them to make it act like one reservoir.. again.. just making due with what i have on hand for the time being,.

Hey bcotton, that is impressive and that siphon is pretty awesome, I've never seen anything like it. Very cool.

I have one question - is that that much different to a bell siphon? Theoretically to my uneducated brain they seem the same where the first first vertical part of your pipe is the same as the bell siphon but in the bell siphon that first part of the vertical pipe encloses the standpipe. It's just a thought, I don't have the knowledge to do some form of proof.

Regards, Martin.

its true most siphons are going to have parts that perform the same functions, but you cant call what i have a bell siphon. it has no bell..

I dont seem to have the same problem with air pressure in this, but maybe i just got lucky with the exact right flow for my pipe diameters. It's unlikely thought./

Thanks Brian.

Regards, Martin.

I havent made much progress on ferrocement system but I finally finished my indoor "hatchery" system.

typically i prefer not to have indoor systems because of high power consumption but I feel like i was able to make this one reasonable and it serves my need for growing out tiny fingerlings to where they are big enough to go into the outdoor system. The large plumbing in my outdoor system is just too big for 1-3" fish.

power consumption
ecoplus 3 air pump (air lift pump) 35watt
ecoplus 1 air pump (suplemental aeration) 18watt
evadry petite dehumidifier 22.5 watts
75.5 watts run 24hx365d w/ 11cents kwh = $72.75 year

3x 2-bulb T8 shop lights 64 watts each
192watts run 12hx365d w/ 11cents kwh = $92.50 year

i am looking at about $14 a month to run this system


Currently the outdoors temperatures are reaching highs in the mid 80's F.. The little dehumidifier is keeping the room consistently between 50 and 60% which is maybe a little high but i dont think will be damaging. I am not sure if it can keep up as outdoor temps get closer to the 100's, but the efficiency is supposed to go up as the humidity does so i am hopeful i can get away with such a small device for this purpose. I will definaetly be monitoring it closely because i have quite a bit of tools and power tools on the other side of the garage that i dont want ruined.

a tour video

more pictures

two grow beds drain into each barrel fish tank. The long vertical pvc is the incoming from the grow beds. It is how i maintain the water level in the grow beds.

The exit drain is a short 1.5 inch pvc with slits and a cap

I wonder if it is possible to run a hose from the bottom of the dehumidifier back into the system... The water might as well go someplace.

I empty the tray back to the system about once a day when i feed the fish. It has an auto shutoff when the tray is removed. there may be ways around that but it's not inconvenient enough for me to tinker with it right now

When it comes to grow beds i think there's a few things that are important
1) you need to move enough fish tank water through the grow beds to keep the fish tank water quality good
2) keep good dissolved oxygen (DO) levels for your plant roots
3) make sure that there are no places that solids can settle away from fresh oxygenated water and cause anaerobic zones.


Something that i dont believe is important that people often debate is the importance of flood-drain speeds and frequency or flood-drain vs constant flood.

I have attached pictures of two of my old grow beds from a retired system. The system ran for 1.5 years and has not had any fish tank water for about two months now. The only water or moisture that has entered the grow beds has been from infrequent rains. About once every two weeks. Keep in mind my area is going through a severe drought. Most local lakes are about 8 foot (2.4 meters) low right now and there has been little relief this spring.

I did not plant the grow beds but some seeds from last year germinated and the growth has been pretty good. The plants are starting to droop a little because it's been a while since the last rain, but we should get some rain tonight or tomorrow and they will perk back up. However, even with the infrequent rain, the plants in this grow bed is still out performing my new 2 month old grow bed that is still maturing.

in summary, imho, as long as your are accomplishing my points 1-3 the details of how water is going through your grow beds doesnt really matter. The substrate holds moisture (and nutrients) a lot better than i think most people give credit.

It sucks that your lettuce in your old bed looks better than ant lettuce I have ever grown...

Depends on the plants. In my old system when I was learning how to tune a syphon there were times when Id come home from work to find a syphon not breaking (bed empty) and plants like celery and tomato were wiltered and falling over. Id pull the syphon out and restart the fill process and they would jump back to life after a couple of hours.

Charlie,

Well maybe. I'm willing to concede theirs variance based on a lot of factors that i dont really know. I would think my pourous media and grow bed depth is more of a factor than the type of plants though.

Nice. Since I'm from Texas and raisin hybrid striped bass in Israel, you think I'll have the same success

Im with Ron on that one...