Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

It just might be taking a bit of time for the media to colonise with the bacteria. Shouldn't take too long.

I did the maths too, but I wasn't sure how much the fish weighed.

Thanks Colum, years of building and re building, and its never quite finished lol.

Cant tell from the photos, but both ponds have an EPDM liner, no concrete in touch with the water, just granite stone. I have a digital pH meter inbound in the next few days so I can get a better reading soon.

I'm always thinking bigger, but before I do much more I want to make sure I understand the system. I would like to add a small NFT system to this along one side of the FT with a small solids filter before the inlet.

And if you're worried about the ground pond used as a sump tank might look ugly, you could always build a deck over it.

If the pond is lined, then it makes bringing the Ph down easier, just treat your top up water with hydrochloric acid, let it sit for a few days, then add it.

If it's been continually high, then you've probably got high carbonates in your tap water, adding the treated water will bring it down quickly enough.

Only other thing I'd recommend is keeping the theme in the backyard, keep it all the the same standard, and looking pretty. NFT aren't the most attractive things I've seen, and a long DWC bed will have far more room for planting, with less issues.

Ok, I have an idea on how to expand the system, and get it down to a single pump.

If I set my filter barrels so the outlet is 6" below the water level of the fish tank, do you think it would have enough force to move the solids all the way to the filters approximately 20' away ?

If you went constant flood with your grow beds it would make the fluctuation in your sump tank a non issue. Plus the constant amount of water in your GBs would help keep your plant roots cooler.

Thanks Florida. Interesting you mentioned keeping the roots cooler, Im expecting that to become an issue here in another month or so. The beds I have going now have a pretty fast flood and drain cycle that I was hoping would combat the heat, but now Im worried they are not getting enough time to absorb the oxygen they need. I have been looking into the constant flood and will be going that route with the new larger beds. I got suckered into the flood and drain because as a plumber, I found the bell siphon magical

You must be mesmerized by a toilet then

No I'm pretty much over toilets at this point ..... Unless I get to Australia one of these days, theirs swirl the opposite direction !

I think as long as your pipe diameter is large enough the water should move through the entire system without a problem. One very important thing to watch while plumbing the system is to make sure maintain a constant drop on your lines which can sometimes be tricking over longer runs but you know that already.

Yea, I'm not sure I can get enough fall back to the sump to keep the drain underground. Might have to get crafty. My biggest worry is solids building up between the FT and the filters because of low flow from gravity. I think it will work tho with the volume of the FT trying to equalize the water level constantly.

So we have had a couple of warm days in the low 90s, and my HDPE grow beds have flexed a bit lol. I'm concerned they will end up splitting under the weight of the gravel before the end of summer.

I am going to convert my 2 existing dirt raised beds, and add 2 more. This will give me about 1855L of grow bed vs my 3300L of FT. Per the 2:1 ratio of GB to FT I keep seeing, I am still severely undersized on GB.

Before I caught the aquaponics bug, I had both of my ponds ( Aprox 7100L ) being filtered with my bio filter set up and the water was crystal clear year round with zero plants because the fish ate them all.

If I alter the design to go from the 1854L FT > RFF/Bio Filters > 1855L GBs > 3800L ST, rinse and repeat, am I going to cripple my system with over filtration and reduce the amount of nutrients too far ?

I will more than likely run all the beds on constant flood so my wife's Koi can go back into the ST, and I can add eating fish to the FT. I'm sure I could thin the Koi a bit, but she will never let me get rid of them completely.

More info on the bio filters. I have 5 of these barrels in the system. The water is pumped down to the bottom and swirls upward to the outlet.


Each one has a roll of Savio Springflo media in it, the manufacturer claims each roll has 180 Sq Ft of surface area.

That will definitely help. Instead of figuring how many liters of fish tank vs how many liters of grow bed... a more accurate figure would be to determine how much surface area of biofiltration vs the total weight of fish. You could keep a total of one gold fish in the entire system and your water would be crystal clear. It all depends on the filtration offered by your beds and whatever mechanical options you've included. It looks like you're on the right track though.

Thanks Squatch, I appreciate the feedback. I knew if I spent enough hours pouring through the forums I would find what I was looking for. I'm pretty pumped up now, I think this new design will work out great. After a comment I saw by Ron, I'm thinking bluegill might be the way to go for my location, should do well year round.