Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I’m in the process of planning a fairly large system, part of which will be located in a greenhouse, eventually. (See the attached overview pic)

The gist of the system is below:

A 330 gallon IBC tote will serve as a fish tank, and will contain tilapia fingerlings. The fish tank will be drilled to accommodate a 2” bulkhead at the 300 gallon mark on the tote for overflow.

The 2” overflow will flow from the fish tank into a swirl filter, consisting of a 5, 6 or 7 gallon bucket, with a funnel in the bottom for draining of the accumulated fish waste solids.

A 2” overflow will flow from the swirl filter into the sump, which is another 330 gallon IBC tote.

A submersible return pump will flow back from the sump to the fish tank. I might use a spray bar (pvc pipe with a number of small holes drilled in it) for increased oxygenation.

A second submersible pump will flow into 6 grow beds, which will be made from blue 55 gallon plastic barrels, cut in half. I will use 1” loop siphons, connected by reducers to the 2” bungs already in the tops of the barrels.

A third, smaller submersible pump will use a low-flow into another ½ barrel containing duckweed. This tank will use a flow-through design with a small underflow/overflow to prevent the duckweed from blocking the overflow pipe, and to help minimize waves and turbulence in the tank, since duckweed doesn't like that very much. (see the attached duckweedtank pic)


So, does anyone have any suggestions for improvement on my proposed system? My plans for the system are to grow blue or Nile tilapia for food. I might also put in some freshwater prawns as well, but that will depend on a number of factors to be determined in the spring.

Thanks!

By the way, I'll be putting together a full system design this evening, if possible, using sketchup.

Sorry I haven't posted the Sketchup drawings. I didn't realize how difficult the software is to use. I've never used it before, so I'll spend some time learning it before I try to post something.

Hows the sketchup going Scott?

If you search for aquaponics in Components within setchup, there are a lot of designs people have already done. Easy to download these and use the bits that are relevant to your system. Copy, paste, resize.

Cheers

I tried that and still ended up banging my head against the wall and giving up on sketch up.
Damned new fangled contraptions!

You could do all that with one pump. Are you are aiming to utilize the redundancy of multiple pumps as a safety net?