Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

BuiDoi - the TOTAL volume of the grow beds is 280L of water - once we add gravel 40% of 280 is 112litres...

How are you achieving your figures? Or have I got my maths wrong?

Also sent you a PM!

Running around like a headless Chook with the baby and kids on school holidays... But here is a quick sketch of what I envisage the setup layout looking like. The land it will sit on is sloping and lower than the shed so gravity feed should not be an issue



Would appreciate wise ones feedback!

It looks like you have all your growbeds plumbed in series? The first one will clog, and the end one wont do much. Much better to run them all in parallel, to even out the solids distribution.

Gunagulla: I'm confused now... I envisaged the dirty water running through Growbed A then flowing to Growbed B and so on... Are you saying I should raise Growbeds B through to C so they're on the same level as Growbed A and just run a big pipe distributing the dirty water to all the beds at the same time?

Run them at the same height and have the water running into all of them at the same time, it will mean more distribution pipe but less problems long term.

I would make your GB's deeper than 20cm, 30cm minimum, but personally I'd go 45cm minimum. You can always just cut the IBC in half vertically and plumb them in, but you don't have to fill right to the top if you don't want to. It does give you the option to fill more if you need more filtration though.

Just saw the plastic pallet things, they would come in handy for all sorts of things! I think cladding the GB's and sumps with them and filling them with dirt or sand isn't too bad an idea. In theory you could wet the dirt over summer and the evaporation might keep the water in the GB's cooler...in theory, lol. But you could probably turn them into a grow wall too, I could see it working.

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Simple answer.. most IBCs are rectangular.... cut the two sides out, just either side of the screw cap and you have to larger beds with no holes to leak and seal
Two beds. 370mm deep.. = less waste

Learn from usually who learned the hard ways ..

Lay a cage on it's side to support the bed, and you have a natural means to support plants...
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Wow up to page 4 already! Not sure if I have got the gist of your diagram re the fish tank plumbing and levels. You would pump from the ST to the FT, then use a solids lift overflow (SLO) to the pipe that feeds the GBs in parallel. The SLO picks up fish waste from the bottom of the FT via a vertical pipe connecting to the horizontal overflow. This means the FT water level only needs to be ~20cm higher than the top of the GBs to give enough head height to gravity feed to the GBs. Also allow a bit of airspace in your FT to allow the water to back up a bit if need be - saves hassles down the track balancing pressurised inflows from the pump with gravity outflows.

While not necessary, you should leave some space between the FTs and GBs to plumb in a solids filter (eg. a blue barrel) in case you want to put one in down the track - I have no room to put one in without major changes.

I used old fence paillings to clad my system - lots of photos setting it up on my system thread. I part buried the ST and sat the GB on top of it supported by the IBC base sitting on the cut off cage around the ST - there is a photo that shows how I did it. GBs full of gravel and water are incredibly heavy, so make sure you support them well.

Thanks Azira! That makes sense to me and actually works better because it means all the grow beds can be higher to accommodate easier gardening.

So where would I put the drain to the first sump tank? Or would each grow bed have to have its own drain?

(I'm reading the IBC of Aquaponics but so far haven't yet found a diagram that explains this...)

If I make the grow beds deeper don't I run the risk of having anaerobic activity happening at the bottom of the bed???



Thanks Joc! I was thinking I'd have to raise the fish tanks on pallets to give enough of a height difference (which would mean using a stepladder to feed the fish lol) but if the top level of the water only needs to be 20cm above the top of the grow beds I needn't worry. If I sit the fish tank IBCs on the floor of my shed the horizontal overflow should easily be about 70-80cm above the top of the grow beds.

Ok - so I just read this article which makes a pretty compelling case for making grow beds 12" deep (60cm)

http://theaquaponicsource.com/grow-bed-depth/

I'm lazy... So I would do it just for the fact that supposedly you don't ever have to clean the grow beds!

I was planning on using IBC cages clad with the black plastic pallets as my main support for the grow beds...

Do you think they would support the deeper 60cm deep grow beds filled with gravel and water??

I like deeper growbeds and just cut the IBC horizontally thru the middle, making two deep growbeds, advantages being the more media the more fish, doesn't hurt to have some "freeboard" and as the weather warms up you can lower the water level a bit by using shorter standpipes, reduces heat transfer.

No.. indeed MY maths was wrong.. but. Each bed ...20cm deep, would be about 200L I should have guessed ..
All very rubbery, but I can confirm that clay balls ends with only 30% water volume...

PS... 60cm grow beds is going from one.extreem to the silly other IMHO..

THE ONLY thing 60cm will do is give you way more "biological material" which I would speculate is better provided by more beds themselves growing more produce

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As already mentioned. The BEST WAY is to cut the sides out and have a 37cm deep bed and perhaps 30cm of media..
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And pm sent

Each GB will have it's own standpipe, with a media guard around that (generally larger diameter PVC pipe with lots of holes or slots cut into it), and from that each bed will have a drain.

This diagram shows the basic setup fairly well (not my image, credit to creator in image)



You see the SLO in the FT, connected to distribution pipes for each GB. From there the water drains via the standpipes into a pipe going to the sump. It looks like he has drawn in a float switch into his design, the need for that I'm not entirely sure of as I don't use one. However from that, you see the pump which goes to the FT, and around it goes again.

There is a chance of anaerobic areas in any size GB, but personally I think in an active system with a good flow of water in and out of the GB's, with lots of worms in the beds, and where you are changing plants with seasons, then the chances of stagnant areas are reduced. I think the benefits of deeper beds outweigh the negatives, you provide your system with more filtration, thus reducing the load on your bacterial colony, and you are more likely to have less fluctuation with water temperatures and evaporation.

I'd cut the IBCs around the 45cm mark, and aim to have at least 30cm of gravel, if not a bit more. With the water level a few cm below the gravel surface you have a good balance between a good volume of filtration and workable media space, with less chance of anything untoward going on at the bottom of the GB.

12" is 30cm, I assume that you know that and it was just a brainfart though.

IBC frames can support a fair bit of weight, you just have to make sure you support the base and sides of the IBC bladder as they can sag under weight. If you cut the frame as well as the bladders and use it to support them, and integrate the pallets where needed (supporting the base or similar) then it should be fine.

Ok so if I change the GB depth to 45 and fill it to the 30cm mark the water volume in the Growbeds changes to 238litres X 4 = 952 liters. Let's round it up to 955 liters of total grow bed water volume.

if I have two IBC sump tanks of 52cm high and 42cm high respectively, their combined volume capacity (when filled to within 10cm from the top will be around 1,195 liters.... More than enough.

The two Growbeds on top of the sumps will be higher than the other two grow beds but still more than 20cm below the horizontal overflow from the fish tanks.

I assume GBs at different heights are not an issue, as long as the STs are still lower than the top of the GBs and the top of the GBs is at least 20cm below the horizontal overflow from the FTs?

Or do I have to raise the other two grow beds as well so that their bottoms can be higher than the top of the STs???

I'm basically doing everything I can to avoid digging in the STs

As I read somewhere in the IBC of Aquaponics- it's easier to build a step than to dig in an IBC!

Haha lol - Yes! Brainfart! Dunno where I got 60cm from!