Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Sorry if you stumbled across this thinking it was made of Ti, but my name is Michael Tita, and because of my and my brother's sense of engineering and design, we sometimes name things we make after the element, lol.

This is where I will be documenting the build I am doing. It is my second system. My first was a 30ish gallon grow bed with a 60 gallon tank a while back, and I ultimately dismantled it after getting fed up with bugs eating my strawberries. I was too stubborn to treat the issue, and I regret that now greatly. i am moving into my fiance's house in the next two months after we get married, and I was asked not to bring my 40 gallon freshwater aquarium, lol, so as a compromise I will be starting a new aquaponics system that she and I can use to hopefully grow the fruits and veggies we love...strawberries, spinach, lettuce, etc.

The design so far will be as follows: An IBC (i bought from a friend who previously used it for AP, yet he has since lost the top, so i have the bottom (aprox 175 to 200 gallons)), a 4x8 growbed lined with Dura Skrim (made form wood), and possibly some additional smaller growbeds for decorative flowers and such.

I've been gathering materials slowly, and have the dura skrim and IBC, along with all the things to make the fish happy (from the existing aquarium). I am purchasing the wood this week, and I believe I will be getting all the PVC i could need from a good family friend of hers (although I have heard the PVC needs to be schedule 40, if someone could confirm that).

Like I said, I have built one before and know how to make all the siphon tech and piping and such, but if there is any other helpful info you have for me that I need to know, please feel free to comment, and I would love to hear the suggestions. I will be documenting the process with pics and such, and it should take a small while as I want to bury the IBC almost all the way so that the growbed at it's highest will be at 3 feet above ground.

Thanks for the interest, and hopefully I will be showing for all the research soon!

Mike

So, here is the first update, and things are going almost as smoothly as I would like. I will have some pics below of the progress (which isn't much, but that is because finding room in the budget for an aquaponics system whilst attempting to get married in 27 days (whoop) is always tough). I have purchased the lumber and pump, and I am currently trying to figure out what to do with the piping, which will come in just a sec. As for the progress, I have dug out the hole for the IBC, and it is officially in the ground, although I MAY be taking it out soon to put some paver stones in the bottom and sides of the hole to prevent erosion. My dad will be helping me do some cutting on Tuesday, and I will get his opinion on the situation then.

Now, I do have a question that I can't seem to find an answer to directly. The GB is 32 ft^3, which is quite a bit of water, and online a lot of people suggest using a 2" standpipe and 4" siphon. Like I stated above, I am on the cheap with this build, so I was wondering, is there a way to use a 1" standpipe and still get decent timing on fill and drain, or am I going to have to use a 2" in order to get a timing under 20 minutes. A friend of mine is using an almost 1" standpipe (meaning it is 1" and the piping is restricted to 3/4" at the bulkhead) for a 4'x4' growbed and she says it drains in about 3 minutes. I would assume the volume relationship to time of drain would be linear, and that would mean a 6ish minute drain time for me, which is way too slow if I want a 15 minute cycle.

So, my question is, has anyone else used a full on 1" system for their growbed of similar size? Would I need to move up to the 2", or could i do 1.5" piping and get a 15 minute cycle going? Any and all help would be appreciated! Pics to come soon, apparently I have to downgrade on the size of the files, lol.

Mike

Here are those pics I promised. Should have more on Tuesday once the bed gets built:)

Here is update number two in video form. Looking to maybe finish plumbing Saturday or Sunday but we shall see! But thanks for checking it out and hopefully more good news to come!

Mike

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=blwhxBNpasw

Your GB looks very nice.

Just out of curosity, whats the base of your bed made from? It looks like a wide gap between the support beams underneath, but if your base is strong enough, it should be enough.

I learnt this the hard way by having the bottom fall out of my first bed.

Oh man, well I really hope that doesn't happen to mine. The base is made of 23/32 pressure treated plywood, and the supports are at the thirds with little 45's to help maintain their shape. I'm thinking with 6 inches of lava rock and 6 inches of river pebbles, it shouldn't be as heavy as it could have been, and maybe it will be strong enough, especially with the middle supports which should prevent any bowing possible.

What did your system look like that had the base fall out? Just curious so that I can fix the issue before rocks go in, haha:)

Mike

Here's a long awaited update (by myself). The system is up and running and seeds were planted about 2 weeks ago maybe. I also plugged quite a few plants this past week, and I will have photos up soon. I am currently dealing with some issues though that if anyone wants to chime in on, please do.

My lettuce plants have some red splotchiness on them, and I read that is caused by low phosphorous levels. I also read that algae rapidly consumes phosphorous. I had quite a bit of algae in the water, and thus i used a rag and wiped off a bunch of it, and then collected as much as I could with a net. I will be cleaning out the filter tomorrow and then on Friday to reduce the amount of decomposing algae in the tank (which I hear consumes a lot of O2). I also added a tarp on top of the screening I have above the tank (which were both added way too late, and thus I had the algae bloom and the leaves and such that are at the bottom of the tank).

I had a 9inch Pleco in my aquarium in the old days and gave it to the neighbor for his coi pond last year. I am currently trying to get that back now to add to my aqua tank to pick up any remaining algae and leftover food.

I am taking the algae bloom as a good sign saying as it means the water is nutrient rich, and I think I will buying some more goldfish next week to add (i think currently I am at around 30 small ones in a 175 gallon tank lol).

Pics will be coming soon and let me know if you have any suggestions for the phosphorous/algae problem!

Also, if it helps, my levels are .25 ppm Ammonia, 0 ppm nitrite, and 5 ppm nitrate. It seems to me a lot of that is because of the Algae bloom and the addition of plants and fish last week. Too many variables right now, but hopefully by the end ofthe week things will start leveling out.

Hi, was really hoping to see a Titanium system ;(

Do you have any more photos please?

I got to admit I never heard of that size.

I saw that same plywood in home depot a few weeks back. Very weird size. Why not just make it 3/4?

Sorry for the big pics, but I don't believe in small pictures.

I am picking up my old Pleco tomorrow morning and hopefully that will help in the algae reduction. I will be taking another sample of my levels on Thursday and cleaning out the pump filter on Friday on my day off. We will see what everything reveals.

neither do I. very nice setup.

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Good work.. all coming along well...

So you have no sump... just fish tank and grow bed.. simple is good... :-)

You have a good size GB... and I think an auto siphon...

With such a large bed, did you think about a more silent system, with a timed flood and slow drain... and an air supply...

I just wonder how much the noise of all that splashing would be so close to the house..
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