Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

The work list:
 Draft up a new/larger aquaponics schematic while waiting for rain to stop
 Remove everything in the center hall of the barn not related to our project (horsey stuff gets a new home)
 Use the tractor bucket to muck (horse poop, goat poop, and hay all in early compost stage)
 Check electrical lines and water lines for any issues
 Horse stall setup relocation (new horsey home)
 Some PT exterior plywood side walls added
 Create chicken duplex in the shed and a chicken yard just off those - keeping the two breeds separate. Will add a small brooding area for the Silkie hens we will be adding soon.
 Build short portable tunnels to allow the chickens bug eating privileges in the planned kitchen garden (just Southwest of the West barn door)
 Build and hang doors on both ends of barn (East, West)
 Build and hang interior doors (2 for chicken pens, maybe one or two for other purposes)
 Begin rough layout for AP setup
 Start....

I am terrible at the drafting system, so this is the best drawing I could figure out how to upload. My initial question is whether I should be considering a two pump system (flood and drain - as simple as we can keep it) with this setup? The floor plan allows for 30' x 49'6", but I drew this out as 30' x 40' to allow for room for the tractor to bring in GB material and pond water in a spare IBC. We don't have close access to tilapia, but do have bluegill locally and a variety of catfish. Will be using crayfish in the sump tank and hope to avoid a swirl tank or additional filtering if possible.

Please comment/make suggestions on any of this, but particularly the following:

We plan to plumb and add media to all the grow beds, but am planning to use check ball valves for each GB so I can take any offline as needed.
Is 2" pipe this adequate for this size system?
No swirl tank.
Crayfish in the sump tank. Maybe a sucker fish or two in the other tanks with the bluegill and catfish?
We all like tilapia, but I want to get up and running with the blues before adding other varieties. Should we start with goldfish and then switch over?
Not shown on the drawing is the outdoor soil garden that will receive water from the system when it is changed out. How often/how much should be changed?


No doubt there will be lots more questions! Thank you all for being so willing to share/teach us newbies.

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No early observations as we have no appreciation of plumbing.. .. but...

I have come to agree that round fish tanks ARE far better, and I don't see any filtering for solids... ie swirl filters..

Could you get larger round tanks and place them in the middle and the square/regular stuff at the sides.. and you plan to artificially light the whole show , I assume ..
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Unfortunately, will have to artificially light. We have to add walls to 2 1/2 sides of the barn, so could use greenhouse roofing material on some parts. Have considered putting GHRP every 3-4 panels on roof, but that would mean dismantling some of the current roof and I am no builder. Will know more as we go.

Although I love the thought of a large round fish tank, I haven't located a source within driving distance or one to have shipped at a cost within my budget. There are metal stock watering tanks - found this one: http://www.tractorsupply.com/en/store/galvanized-round-stock-tank-8-ft-x-2-ft.



I haven't read enough to know whether a galvanized tank will work or mess with the levels (pH, nitrite, nitrate, etc.). Will be looking for that info here and further online.


Just located this 1100 gallon tank with a screw-in drain. There were no specs other than the description:

Heavy polyethylene tanks won't rust or corrode. They are resistant to feed lot acids. They are compounded to resist UV damage from the sun. All tanks have screw-in drain plugs. Deep round end tanks are available with poly drinkers. All tanks are grey in color.
Manufacturer's Part Number: #HP210 - See more at: http://www.atwoods.com/livestock-feedin ... eboL1.dpuf

The Galv stck tanks aren't something you want to use. The coating they use, and fish won't mix well, the poly tanks are better.

Solids filtration are up to you, many, many systems on here run very happily without it, some going for 7+ years without needing to be cleaned out. Just keep it within the stocking rates, and it'll be fine. The solids contain many macro and micro nutrients that the plants need, you'll need to extract them through mineralisation tanks, and... It's easier to let it happen in the grow beds.

Square tanks work, just need to give them a brush every now and again, but fish like trout will get all the crud off the bottom when they move around.

What are you like with building things? There are a few easy designs with pond liner and wood or steel that are easy enough to construct, and you'll find they are cheaper than buying many tanks to use as grow beds. Plus three large beds will be easier to plant, set up, and control over 12 smaller beds. Fine fining a siphon on 12 beds would be a nightmare, the one at the beginning will stop working when the one at the end is working properly. Plus pipes and fittings add up quickly.

Colum, thank you for checking out my thread. I was concerned about galvanized, but wanted to check before dismissing the option. I am not a good builder, so rely on help for the construction side of things. As far as the IBC tanks, I kept searching until I found some food-grade 275 tanks for $20 each. Ridiculous, I know, but it was worth the time and effort to keep searching and to make the round trip to get a load. We came home with 29. One is a damaged 330 tank we will use for other purposes. Two of the tanks were given for the hauling fee, so 26 available to use in AP and/or other purposes.

Because of the comments about round tanks being preferred for fish, I have located an 1100 gallon poly tank within my budget, so am strongly considering that. I have been given a 10 ft. trough liner that I can use as a grow bed, so will try my building skills with that and see what happens. I think it is more shallow than the 12" I was planning for my GBs, so will use shallow-rooted plants there.

One question I have with the large constructed beds - the videos and photos of the ones I have seen have multiple water inlets, which doesn't appear to cut down on the number of connections. Am I missing something?

There are thousand and thousands of IBC's being used as fish tanks, don't dismiss them because of a few comments. If you've got them for $20 each, use them.

With the inlets, if depends on how it's set up. If you've got a flood and drain system (either timed or siphon), then it doesn't matter where the water goes in, it'll flood to each part of the bed easily enough.

With a constant flood bed, you need to try and have multiple inlets (or distributor pipes) to avoid channelling.

+1 Colum
Just fed my trout a few minutes ago, and is no crud in any of the corners of the IBC fish tank now that the trout are big enough to stir up the corners. While they were small I would sometimes net out the crud gathering in the corners, but I don't have to do it now.

Wow, what a fantastic AP set up you will have with all that space and so many IBCs and $20 each is a bargain.

A random piece of advice - make your pipework & SLOs bigger than you think you need. A little bit of water can flow through a big pipe, but its really difficult to get a lot of water to gravity flow through a too small pipe unless you have a lot of head height &/or pressure (learned the hard way )

I'm looking forward to following your progress

And don't buy a ball valve for each bed, you'll spend a fortune. Jayendra used elbows, and t-pipes, then changes their heights, so one is slightly higher than the other, and it controls the gravity fed flow into the beds.

Finally took photos today during and after moving dirt from the North side of the barn from years of accumulation so rain will drain away from the barn. One stall is currently standing 2-3 inches deep in water. Another two are wet, but not standing. The center hall of the barn has a couple inches of dry matter on top, but is wet from there down about 6 inches.

Hubby is calculating the psi needed to support the tanks, whether the 275g IBCs with 250 gallons of water or GBs, RBs, or the possible 1100 gallon 10' diameter tank full of water and fish. This will determine whether we use cinderblock filled with quickrete under the fish or come up with some other option.

Thank you all for the comments!!!! These are very helpful and keep me thinking and motivated when it is mid-90s and very humid outside.

The flood and drain system with siphon seems the easiest to begin with. I really need a drama-free system to begin with and one other family members can assist with when needed.

I am hoping to keep enough GBs working to keep the water clear and don't mind adding sucker fish, goldfish, or whatever to make it work. We will be starting with pond water, which we have in abundance.

Since we have to wrap the building at some point to keep out chickens, dogs, raccoon, possums, goats, birds, and other critters, we are considering greenhouse roofing panels. The cost works out about the same as the other materials we are considering. That would cut down on the amount of lighting needed, but not eliminate the need for some.

I would like to avoid a separate filtration system by being careful with the stocking rates. Hubby is a nerdy science guy so is in charge of that. Although the check ball valves are pricey, the thought of being able to isolate problems per grow bed seems very attractive.

An idea I saw (and sorry this will have metric ) feed into grow beds with 90mm storm water pipe, where you want it to feed into grow bed instead of ball valves, drill a decent size hole.
Now get some off cuts of same diameter pipe and cut rings about 2-3" inches wide then cut pipe so it can be spread. These slip over the main pipe and slid along over drilled holes to adjust amount of water coming through.
Gawd I hope that makes sense,

My head is banging away with the flu and I dont think I'am thinking straight.

But the general idea is to use the slices of pipe and slide them over drilled holes in main gravity pipe to adjust water flow. I think Ive just repeated repeated repeated myself