Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello everybody. I live in Phoenix and I very recently picked up this hobby.

I recently acquired a used aquaponics system including about ~30 Tilapia fish. The system consists of (2) 350 gallon tanks, a (reservoir?) tank, a bio-filter tank, and a sump tank with a sump pump.

http://imgur.com/7vnL8za,Dl0sstD#0

It also came with a grow bed and other accessories but I haven't a clue how to go about installing them. The kit was all set up in a very crude manner and I have no previous experience in any of this. I've read several guides and watched many videos, but I was hoping that one of you could tell me how to make the most out of what I have.

I'd like to get this system fully functional, atm it's just a huge fish tank with turbid water.

Thanks in advance!

I'd start by looking at the IBC's of Aquaponics to see how some other IBC systems are setup. The link is at the top right corner of the page.

It looks like you have two fish tanks and a grow bed. In addition you probably have a couple of filters the small round tanks but I can't be sure just from the pictures.

I don't know whether you're primarily interested in the fish or the plants but I'll explain this mostly in terms of fish stocking because that's what we generally do here. The amount of filtration, provided by the grow beds and bio-filters, or removal of solids and/or water from the system determines how many fish you can grow. One of those filters was probably a swirl filter and the other was probably a bio-filter and then the grow bed removes solids (like the swirl filter) and bio-filters the waste as well. The swirl filter (if that's what it is) can be used to remove solids from the system and requires regular maintenance but allows you to carry higher fish loads by doing this. Since the solids are removed from the system they don't break down into Ammonia and you won't need as much bio-filtration because of this. The bio-filters break down the Ammonia into Nitrite and then Nitrate among other things. This makes it less toxic to the fish and provides plants that you'll be putting in the grow bed with some food.

That in a nutshell is how it works. How you do the pipes is going to depend on the location you put the system in, if you want to add more grow beds and things like that. Anyway, take a look at the IBC's of aquaponics to see how others have done their systems. I don't recall whether many have filtration other than grow beds but those filters would normally be placed after the fish tanks but before the water reaches the grow bed.

Fish Tanks > Swirl Filter > Bio-filter > Growbed and then back to fish tank.

You want to arrange the system so you only need one pump and everything flows back to the tank with the pump.

Hope this helps.

PS - A lot of this is guess work, I could be wrong about the purpose of the small tanks. Might be a sump and a swirl filter something like that. Some pics of the inside pipes might tell us more.

Thanks a lot scotty.

I did some investigating and it turns out it is a swirl filter. There's always a lot of solid waste sitting inside and I have been draining it regularly.

And yes the other tank is a bio-filter. The last one is simply a sump tank that fills to place water back with the fish.

I'm going to re-install the entire thing this weekend. I'll post more if I run into any issues. Thanks a lot for the response!

Hi Slimlenny,

You should post some pictures of your system.

I live in the phoenix area and would like to see how your system is doing.

-Matt