Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Checked on fishies -- no floaties and almost no brown floating stuff left on top of water. They've started cleaning the walls at the top of the water. Then took a water test. I'm still not really sure what all the readings are supposed to be; but the ph did go down. I've got a little more time before I'll be ready to put plants in grow beds anyways. So I have time to figure it out.

What you are describing with the wicking beds *can* be done. People have been successful, but it does take a but of work to get the water levels so that the soil does not stain the water. Personally I would be concerned about salts building up in the soil. Most of the successful wicking beds use regular water. The soil has all the nutrients the plants need. That being said, everything I currently know about wicking beds I read here. You already have far more experience tyan me with them. BTW, what is a lasagna bed?

Basically layers of newspaper, cardboard, horse manure, leaves, garden debris, straw, hay, compost layered (like lasagna). Just on top of the ground. It helps retain the moisture and stays loose. No digging or leveling involved. But I did mine inside of raised beds instead of just on the ground. They call it Lasagna gardening you can do a search for that--I say lasagna bed because I put it in a bed. It actually works really well. After that I learned about wicking beds and decided to do a combination and that really worked extremely well. Floridafishin brought up the wicking beds for AP. I'm going to start my AP system with the CF media beds but will add more as I gain more knowledge--but I want to get the basics down first. I don't want to chance messing up 15,000 gallons of water.

In a wicking bed the water going in doesn't touch the soil it goes down a pipe and under the soil and into the bottom of the bed where there is constant water (kind of like AP CF bed but without the F)--wicking beds utilize evaporation to keep the soil moist -- the only problem may be rain that would seep through the layers of soil, etc and get down under them and overflow into the sump.

Since I cannot figure out how to use google sketch up-- I just drew it out. Sorry not an artist. This is the basis for system startup. Yesterday I ordered some submerged plants to go inside the perimeter of the pool/FT for oxygen and for fishies to lay eggs/hide in.

me either, I totally understand your sketch. Where are you getting plants from?

I ordered them online from Pond Plants R Us. I shopped around and they had the most reasonable prices. I'm getting 20 plants and the plant weights delivered for $60. Oh and thanks for your response definitely made me feel better

Hi. I started building an above ground pool setup a month ago as well. I wasn't sure in your drawing which way the water is going to flow, (sump first or last) but one thing that you will need to figure out and plan for is what happens when the pumps stop, such as power outages, failure, etc.

Most people have designs where the fish tanks are below the grow beds. No power, the water just returns to tanks. With above ground pools, we are reversed, and have to work against gravity to avoid draining our pools. Determining the proper water exit height can limit the maximum exposure, as well as figuring how much water all the beds and sump will hold. This challenge beat me!

I ended up raising my beds above my waterline to avoid having a large sump to hold all the extra water, and I have no where close to the amount of water you will have in all those barrels.

I have pictures in my build signature link. Also, I am VERY new to this hobby, so I may have missed some technique to avoid what I mentioned above. Good luck!

[quote="steveholtam"]Hi. I started building an above ground pool setup a month ago as well. I wasn't sure in your drawing which way the water is going to flow, (sump first or last) but one thing that you will need to figure out and plan for is what happens when the pumps stop, such as power outages, failure, etc. quote]

Hi steveholtam,

I have the pool pump (far left) that will take the water out and then route to all GB's then drain into sump tank at end (far right). As far as electric outages--very rarely happens here and if it does its usually very brief (less than and hour). So I'm not too concerned with outages. The pool is high enough above my GB's that I could let it drain into my beds via gravity. I am choosing to use the pool pump because I do have a lot of water and want to keep it circulating at a much faster rate. Used to paying electric for running it for the very rare use of swimming so I don't mind paying to run it for food production purposes.

Glad to meet you and will definitely be checking in on your progresses.

Shelly,

If you use your pool pump to pull water out of your ST, and return it to your FT. Then gravity feed everything else. You would only need 1 pump. Plus that would allow you to place a SLO in the middle of your pool to do 2 things. 1 it helps keep the pool cleaner automatically. Since soft sided pools rarely have floor drains. 2 If you have a pump burn out. Say the one in your ST. You don't drain your FT onto the ground.

"The pool is high enough above my GB's that I could let it drain into my beds via gravity." That is the problem. Gravity will pull all the water out if you don't plan properly. Or at least to the top of the pool pump outlet. I only speak from experience, since my original plan was just like yours. I kept underestimating physics. lol..

My only concern with the gravity feed feed is that there would be nothing to stop the water from coming out of the FT if the power did happen to go out (and Murphy as well as his relatives love visiting) and since my ST is only the 3/4 of a 275 gallon IBC -- that's a lot of water (approx. 1500 gallons that would drain out of the FT.

The SLO thing makes me fell clueless---I went back and read posts about it and am lost.

Ok so my idea of using my pool pump to pull the water from the pool/FT to water the GB's and then drain into the sump tank which is pumped back into the pool via a sump pump is a better idea than utilizing gravity??? I'm sorry so much information intake.

So hubby and I went last night and got some plumbing material for the GB drains and also some 2x4's to make the frame, as well as the zip ties that floridafishin suggested. We got the zip-ties in last night and our son and I framed it up today, and he started the plumbing the drains for the GB's. He's such a good son (17). Anyways here's the updates via pics

Looking good. How easy is it going to be to reach to the back of your fully planted beds in a couple of months? A SLO is basically a standpipe in reverse. The intake is at the bottom of the pool It goes up to a tee piece with the top left open to break the flow of water at the height of the tee if anything ever goes wrong. Thus protecting your fish by not letting the pool drain. I am not a fan of using two pumps that have to be in unison to keep the flow correct. Too many things can go wrong. If the pump in your ST died, for any reason. Your other pump pumping out the pool will keep running and overflowing your ST. Until you either empty you FT or burn your pool pump up from running it with no water in it to keep it cool.

Thanks floridafishin as always Reaching the back of the beds is not a problem, we have installed valves at the back of each bed to adjust water pressure going in as well as to be able to shut down each individual bed should we ever need to. We can reach the valves so the plants should be no problem--thanks for your concern it is greatly appreciated. Thanks for explaining the SLO but I am still at a loss. Our design (hubby's idea) changed a bit because we were worried about too much being pumped out and about overflow, etc.... He came up with the idea to extend the pipe that pumps the water out of the pool/FT and take it back into the pool at the end of the line and also installed a valve on that. Anyways he's the plumber in the family and I explain what it needs to do and he ponders a solution utilizing the suggestions from members of BYAP.