Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Cleaning out the pump when it is deeper is pretty easy. My pump is about 1.8m (I think that's 6"?) below ground, and all I do it leave it on, pop it out of the elbow sending it to the beds, and lift it up by the pipe, and pull the leaves and stuff off the side. Not really an issue, and I've never needed to go for a swim. Have a look through my thread, and you'll see it.

And 3 feet above ground sounds like a good height for the GB's, no need to bend down and hurt your back.

But I'd seriously recommend doing something with the tank before getting too far with the cycling. I'm sure there will be some sort of local potable (drinking water safe) bitimum paint, empty the tank, give it a good paint, let if dry for a week and good to go. Will save you lots of tears down the line.

Another recommendation would be to build yourself a sump tank next to the existing tank, and the same way, make it half the lenght, but same debth/width, and pump from that, then you'll have a sump big enough for all the GB's you'd want.

thank you colum. sure let me find out the drinking water safe paint first in my to do list. ya sure will think about the sump, definetly a good idea, will consider it in future, first is painting the tank

Column, i have a quick question. I have overhead water tank(Cement Tank), which supplies water for my entire home built 10 years back. I pump water daily from borewell to the water tank. When i ever test the water from that tank, its not higher than 8, never once. so will paint make difference, not sure though, any help would be appreciated.

Does weather play any role in cment tank carbonisation, Here in my place it never goes below 22 C. hits 40's easily in summer. average would be 31 or 32



Mean time huting for the Paint

The carbonates might have leeched out after ten years, but depends on what the top up water PH is, rain water is usually really low, in the 5-6's. Have a test of your bore water, see what it is.

Top work on that FT Sriprasad!

Thanks Bodgy.

Have visited your thread just now, thats a cool system you have. Keep going , unique

Hi Colum - I have tested the bore water today. surprising its PH Neutral, it read 7.0 in ph Meter, and after accimilating for 24 hours, it read 7.1. I guess its good.

Read more about concrete ponds, all articles says about the carbonate leeching out from the concrete tank, only if the tank is not cured proprely. do i miss anything ?

also, i have cured my tank for more than 10 days, my PH is stable 8.0 for weeks,

What you think ? i really respect your suggestions, all i am doing is trying to understand more on this. Really appreciate your contribution. Thanks a ton mate in advance

It's your call with sealing the tanks, it's your system, so take everything as a suggestion.

But it's the limestone in cement/concrete that causes the issues. Concrete is also pourous, so it'll continue to suck in and out water (not huge amounts though), so it'll continue to leech lime from the concrete. How much and for how long, I don't know for sure.

All my research came from building ferrocrete tanks, and they all recommended lining it with paint, for the PH issues.

It's not as much for the fish (most are happy in a higher PH), but more for the plants, I've discovered when I dropped down my PH, I'd get better plant growth.

I agree with pump in FT.

(a) AP Pump does not have to be in the bottom of the tank, could put it any reasonable depth on a pillar/ledge.
(albeit you may need to address circulation/cleaning of FT bottom separately)

(b) It is normal to have GB's at around 1-1.5m above ground anyway.

Dont worry about siphons etc, and that way you can just go Constant Flood or F&D.
If you seal the pipes then you will be able to deliver back to the FT without a sump,
provided the GB water level is higher than the discharge.

Pretty easy to make a small broadwalk around them with some planks or similar decking.
Your site would appear to suit that.

(c) If you really need to filter then go PIFT-filter-GB's. Just make filter higher than GB's.

ya got it colum. i am searching pond safe paints locally available, whatever is available now is much costlier , hunting for cheaper one. Cost is main concern in painting the tank, its heavy for me , unfortunately i have not planned painting expense beforehand.

for time being i am gonna take a risk of not painting it. planning for sump tank as you suggeted, once i get that ready, will paint both the tanks at that time, thats the idea as of now(should have some money saved at that time).

Completed the GB's and plumbing throwed in some sacrifing tomato plants in tot GB's. moved pump to fish tank to see how its doing. checking out all the possiblities

Pics soon



PS:

"Dont worry about siphons etc, and that way you can just go Constant Flood or F&D."

not anti-siphons here, just suggesting that with a simple constant flow you can have simple elbow right below GB and dont have to worry about suction length or below GB infrastructure to trigger and keep siphon running etc.

thanks dlf_perth. ya i have moved the pump inside the tank to check how well it does.(i am running under power now 1000 L/H)

have set up the GB's and did test plumbing, yes, let me see how well it does. doing lot of different setup heights, since its a new system

PIFT-filter-GB's - any filter will be okay in this setup ? i am planning for RFF or Swirl filter

Yep, got the elbow idea, have seen in other systems as well. will do that and post pictures of it

method/type not one for me as I do not use filters in my system.
(but can see why you may with high fish stocking levels)

From an engineering perspective PUMP-Filter and then overflow to GB is pretty straight forward once you have your heights and plumbing worked out.

Yes make sense. thanks a lot.