Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Intro
I received an aquaponics book for Christmas and am very interested. I am married with five kids and really look forward to the self-reliance and clean food of the system.

All input is welcome. If I question your reasoning don't be offended I am just organizing info in my head which is sometimes very dense, so please explain things in five different ways if necessary. This will be greatly appreciated!

I will try to take pictures and build notes and hopefully help others in Utah who are interested in starting.

I am currently a student of engineering and hope to be successful in a degree in mechanical, so may over analyze things. Hopefully that will help with info.

Thoughts
I am thinking of starting a flood and drain with:

40 fish/200 Gal water in 300 Gal tank (PE) - some room to expand for feeding fish until larger than usual (larger fillets)
(x)Gal Sump tank (PE) - also for replacement fingerlings...need info
32 ft^3 grow bed area (PE) expandable to 64 ft^3 (4-8 beds 48x24x12ish/ or 2-4 beds 48x48x12)
1000gph pump +/- with 2 indexing valves - need info
Expanded clay media
Drain tubes, no siphons in grown beds - need info
Pex for plumbing (PE)
Brook Trout need info
LED Grow lights
Setup in basement - air temp ranges from 65-68 F
Possible water cooler if needed.

I know this is not complete. There will be holes as I have only been 1 week into thinking about aquaponics.

Hey Scatfast....

A little bit high in the stocking levels perhaps, closer to half that amount till you expand your beds. I wouldn't bother with the indexing valve either, not really needed..

Agree with Joel on the indexing valves - have a search on this site from a few years ago and you can find problems with them - mainly through not indexing correctly with the low pressures we are using. although a few people got them running by changing spring pressures and such.
If you do need to divert flow have a look at motor driven valves they have been getting a lot cheaper lately
and maybe an option. I won't give any links because I haven't played with them for years

Scatfast, I am new and I am attempting to use the indexing valve. I hope you weren't reading my thread, I have no idea what I'm doing.

I know a lot of my questions and communication have become additionally complicated because of the indexing valve. I believe in hind sight it would have been a better idea for me to use normal siphons and GB/FT ratios and then "upgrade" or test a less common method later on down the road. Remember simplicity is a beautiful thing in life when it means it simply works and in this case tested by the masses.

The biggest long term issues I've read about are related to impeller wear from power cycling. It might be normal to replace your impeller once a year. There is a member here who I read a lot of writing from about the subject who attempted to use a timed actuator to divert a single, always on pump, between two indexing valves to avoid power cycling her pump.

I insisted on using an indexing valve mostly because I love gadgets and as a computer nerd the indexing valve seemed to offer additional control, but really I've added more points of failure to a system that is already loaded with variables and needs some age, tweaking and maturity to develop fully.

Also about clay media, I thought I was buying the best of the best at first. I realize now the first brand I chose "Plant!T" floated. And the second brand I bought "mother earth" has some PH issues. So really I paid heavily for a product that offers little more value to me then cheap or free river rocks. My media has been by far the highest cost (embarrassed to admit how much) in my system, especially because the indexing valve means I'm using 6 times as much media as everyone else.

At least I can say everyone warned me and I went into my purchase and design with proper warning and understanding of the additional challenges I was creating for myself.

PM me the title of the book you're looking at, I'm curious, especially if it has stuff about indexing.

Welcome Scatfast! Like EB said, lower stocking rates a bit initially. I'd use PVC opposed to PEX, cheaper, easier to work with. No nothing about trout, other then it's way too hot hear to raise them. LED grow lights seem to be a good option in terms of long term use, but pricey up front. Pond Sucker, I would never say "I told you so." lol

Stocking Level:
I was going to start the system with goldfish (low lbs./kgs), introduce fingerlings, then let them eat the goldfish as they grow. I would expand the grow beds as they increase in size. I think 40 lbs. was my max intended weight.

What are the min/max stocking densities recommended per gal/liter or volume?

Does it help that the tank has room for more water for flexibility?

I also intend to try and grow some monsters and will be removing fish as they become an edible size to make room for the increased size. The system will be in a controlled environment year round with temps between 65-68 F.

Indexing valve:
I liked the idea of the indexing valve for better control. Now that I think of it I have a 12 zone sprinkler control box sitting around and can use sprinkler solenoids if they work on low pressure. I think I will just have to figure out the pump operation so it isn't pumping while the valves are closed. I think it has pump control contacts in the box as well. Maybe that will work.

PVC:
What primer and glue would keep the chemicals in the system as low as possible?

Also, feel free to jump into my thoughts even if I don't ask a specific question.

Correction "automated pool diversion valve"
http://www.poolplaza.com/pools/valves/valve-actuators.html