Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

ok i have a
5000lt round tank
8 x 350 high grow beds 1mtr x 1mtr (tote tanks cut )
4 x 1000lt tote tanks (complete)
1 x 4500lt block pump
1 x 2500lt block pump
air pump
need to get backup power switch and bilge pump

ok questions are

1) will the 4500lt pump be enough
2) how big should my sump tank be
3) will i need a swirl filter
4) what would you guys suggest for the piping size 25mm, 40mm , or 50mm or bigger
5) and i would like to add a floating raft system and any idea would be great

thanks

wow, one hell of a list for a first system.

I will have a crack at trying to answer with my limited knowledge. A lot of the answers will depend on how you configure the tanks and water flow.

1. probably yes, depends on head height and the relevant pump flow at that head height.

2. depends on system config.

3. depends on system config. low stocking rates with those 8 beds, probably not

4. you will use all those pipe sizes and probably larger ones too :-) and again depends on how you layout the system

5. no idea on this one.

A rough sketch of the layout and operation will help you get more concise and relevant answers.

Look forward to seeing the end result.

i was thinking today 4 grow beds each back into each sump tank and have both sumps connected and they feed back to the grow beds and the fish tank which is only .900 mtr high was going to let the water gravity feed to the sumps that way the sumps will be around 3 or 4 mtrs away from the tank

You need to work out the vertical distance from the average water height in your sump to the pipe that feeds from sump to fish tank. Assuming you will gravity feed from FT to grow beds and finally into sump. This will be your head height and your pump will move less water as head height increases. My guess is that you'll have around 1.5m head height and at least 50% larger pump needed.

Have a look at my system, it's similar to yours except slightly larger fish tank and 10 grow beds.

Id have 4 GBs each side fed from a pair of large SLOs gravity feeding to two connected buried IBC sumps with the 4500 pump in one and 2500 in the other. Neat, balanced, plenty of pump flow.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

Could easily cut one of the full IBCs in half for a pair of floating raft beds. Pretty sure I've seen that done a couple times. Id be thinking minimum 90mm SLOs, maybe bigger, not 100% at those flow rates.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk