Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

HI, i have decided to try aquaponica out after reading all the magazines for aquaponics, watching countless videos on youtube and have read other pdfs on the subject. I have been trying to figure some stuff out. Hopefully i could get some advice?

i have 2 x 65L tanks, one is a sump, the other is for livestock.
i read on one of the magazine or pdf, i forgot as i read so much, as a rule grow bed to water volume should be 2 to 1. this means my volume is 130L to 65L
i will use 3 x 45L containers for my grow bed to get the ratio 130L:65L.
i am at a loss as filling and draining 3 grow beds at the same time will require 135 L of water, more than my 2 65L tanks combined.
i am also trying to figure out the required flow rate into the grow bed based on the ebb and flow design. i read flood and drain cycle should be 20 minutes or the entire tank volume in one hour. the flowrate will allow me to determine the pipe sizes to use for the grow bed input and bell siphon.

how do i go about determining:
-the flow rate
-the pipes sizes
-the volume of my livestock tank
-the volume of my grow bed

Thank you

so to correct myself, and after much research,
i have found certain things, correct me if i am wrong.

1 65L tank for fish

2 x 45L tanks changed to 3 x 22L tanks

Ratio of empty tank (65L) to empty growbed (22L) is about 1:1

for the flow rate,

*1/3 of the volume of the growbed is water, 2/3 is grow media
therefore 21 X 3(growbed) / 3 = 21L

ebb and flow design says cycled 4 times per hour
therefore 21 x 4 = 84L/hr
would this be the flowrate for my pump?

after this, how do i determine the pipe sizing in terms of grow bed pipe inlet and in turn bell siphon drainage for this flowrate? (using ratio inlet to drain 1:2)
is there a say empty tank(growbed) volume to drain pipe diameter proportion or flowrate to drain pipe proportion?

Hi Leo, check out some of the smaller systems in here.. viewtopic.php?f=18&t=1617

The problem is that 10 different people will give you 10 different ways to set your system up, there is no "right" way as such.. Personally I wouldn't bother with a siphon, the systems are just so small... Don't get hung up on ratio's, in fact have a look at the barrel system we built a while back http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/syste ... -system-1/

it has a growbed of about 30L for memory, with a fish tank of around 120L no sump tank and no siphon. You can see the size of the pipework we used there as well..