Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I'm starting this thread to get some ideas before next weeks committee meeting.

I've been asked to help out with an AP design and then also workshops for our community garden.

I was thinking of incorporating IBC in the design and also blue barrel - to demonstrate.

Budget is ... ?? well lets just say I can hopefully make an awesome system with a good amount of funds, but I want to demonstrate to the community how we can use recyclables and minimal cost.


Option 1:
I envisage a large water tank for fish - thinking up the hill in the corner of the garden and CHIFT. The tank would be fenced off and have food plants trellised up and a ladder up the tank to an opening with security measures (mesh or door with lock). then cascade into growbeds going down the temp fence line and into a sump/pond.

Option 2:
In the ground fish tank down the bottom of hill (more work to dig a big enough hole). I've built 2 CHIFT PIST systems and I'm leaning towards option 1 for the fact that its safer if plumbing leaks etc.

Here are some pictures and you can suggest away!!!
(the concrete tank there is a wicking bed)

AP will go from far to near along fence.


From the other angle


Garden bed near the proposed AP


The other parts of the garden


The water tanks for watering the garden go on the brickies sand.


From afar

Wont you need to paint the tank with a membrane paint so the lime does not leach out of the cement?

yeah that was there already - wasn't planning on using it - but yes you would have to do that.

After a bit of conversation with others, the simplest design of fish tank buried at the bottom and pumping up to gravity drained beds might be the best option.

The tank would need a lid i.e. decking over the top

I'd be going with an above ground fish tank at the top and a common or multiple slot feeds to various grow beds and then all draining to a pond/sump at the bottom. Put water lilies and some goodies in the pond but edible fish in the fish tank.

You could use a water stock trough as the pond sump that incorporates a float valve so that it automatically tops up.

Use gravity as much as you can... and if you can pump clean water instead of solids the pumps will last longer too.

Why..?

First I've heard of reduced pump life with pumping solids. It's not like they are rocks or something, fish poop is quite squishy.

I'm a fan of in ground fish tank as well.

If it was me, I'd put the tank at the lowest point, dug into the ground. Make the beds in the same style as the existing beds, line with pond liner, and dig all the return lines into the ground. If there isn't enough of a dip, raise the beds a bit more. It won't be any harder building AP beds in the same style as the ones that have already been built, just need a bit of pond liner. The whole area will flow far nicer that way, no IBC sticking out like a sore thumb. Plus, I could build some nice sized GB's for the same price or cheaper than an IBC.

Just be careful with feeding of the fish. If it's a community system, if everybody start throwing in handfuls of food when they are doing something there, you could end up with issues. I'd recommend an electronic feeder for this situation.

Also, make sure you incorporate some sort of automatic water top up system in it (i.e. Float in the sump). It should save some hassles.

Excellent - thanks

So I've never done the pond liner thing - do you use bulkheads or uniseals?

110mm return be okay ? with pipes from growbeds going into it?

Maybe some sort of shaped growbeds that allow a meandering walk through.

Good idea on the food timer and sump float. - would you just put the float in the fish tank? How would this part work.

Both uniseals and bulkheads work. However, if using a uniseal, have two pieces of wood it's going into. So don't put the uniseal against the thicker base, make the hole in the thicker base larger, and have a thinner piece of plywood over the top of it, thin enough for the uniseal to completely get through it. Otherwise they have a habit of popping out.

Bulkhead is easier, but more expensive.

And make sure the pond liner is pulling through the uniseal to make a waterproof seal.

You still use a sump, so the water level in the tank stays even. Just add the float to the sump.

110mm return should be fine, but I don't know how many beds you're planning on, I think it depends on how big you're going.

I'm a little confused.

Do you reverse the uniseal so lip is on the inside of the tank?



Not sure how to do this... Do you mean that the sump is at the same level and connected to the fish tank?

Sorry, I was probably confusing last night. Was tired

I knocked up a quick diagram (Bad paint skills I know):


If you try to put the uniseal directly into a thicker base material, it'll pop out, at annoying times. It needs something to grip onto. So we use a thinner piece of plywood (or whatever strong material you want), and place that over the top. Install your uniseal into the thinner material, so it'll get a stronger grip.

With the pond liner, cut an x into it (triple check it's in the correct location, with water in the bed), and stretch it into the uniseal, so it wedges all sides of the plastic into the uniseal.

And the sump is at the same height at the FT. It'll stop you draining out the whole FT if something goes wrong, stop you sucking fish into the pump, and give you an easier way to see how much water the system is going through.

If your FT is large enough, you can get away without it, but I like the safety to just have a sump tank that runs dry if a pipe breaks or something.

Edit..

Not reversed uniseal.

Meeting tonight - any last thoughts anyone?

Push is as part of the community garden, not a seperate part. Talk about how it can blend into the current garden, and compliment the wicking beds growing carrots & potatoes, while the AP beds can grow everything above ground in record time.

And talk about how easy it is to grow anything in there, just sprinkle seeds and walk away, weeding the beds takes all of a few seconds.

Talk it up basically

They are keen.

Suggested the system and there was some interest in either a big system or a smaller one in their greenhouse.

I suggested the bigger one.

I'm leaning towards CHIFT PIST with fish in a large rain water tank at the top of the hill. Only because this is the systems I've build so far.

Is there any diagrams of the setup where you have a sump and a fishtank at the same height?

I stretched my paint skills and whipped you up a diagram.

It's a little tricky in 2d, but basically, the thicker blue pipe is the return line, and it feeds into the fish tank.