Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

At one foot of depth you'd have around 2,800 to 2,900 gallons in all your DWC troughs combined.

You may have more up to date info than this but here's a short thread with a link to UVI info that might help if you don't already have it - http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=22452

I have in my notes that Ryan recommended Andreas use 26 Lpm in a 1200 L trough and that's actually more than one turnover per hour. I've also seen 60 to 90 minutes from Ebeling, Timmons and Hightower. At that time the recommendation was 60 to 100 gms of fish feed / square meter of raft area (at 1 ft depth - (https://www.was.org/documents/MeetingPresentations/AA2012/AA2012_0286.pdf). Based on these guys, I'd shoot for the more rapid turnover times.

This is a 218 page FAO document that seems pretty well researched (on small scale aquaponic production) that you might already have - http://www.aquacultuurvlaanderen.be/sites/aquacultuurvlaanderen.be/files/public/aquaponics_fao.pdf

That should keep you busy while you recuperate

Here's another FAO document I just found that's step by step building a DWC system -

http://teca.fao.org/read/8397

Thanks much!!

Good morning everyone! I bought this elemental O2 1744 gph pump a few months ago, thinking of using it in my existing setup for extra aeration. I wonder, will it be enough to put air into the (4) 4'x24' DWC's? Here's the link: http://alliedaqua.com/elemental-o2-comm ... 4-gph.html

Good morning! Ok so after the boss-wife tells me "This Sh*t is costing more than I thought, you'd better make it work on the first try.", I spent most of my Saturday staring at the yard. I've made some mods that I feel will make my life easier, especially at cleaning times. How it works:

Sump to Bakki, Bakki to FT.

From the FT, flow is split between (2) IBC RFF's.

From each RFF the flow splits into (2) 55G drums filled with bottle caps or bird netting. I may experiment putting a wad of bird netting into a laundry bag, so I can just pull it out and keeping the fish-poo-in-face at a minimum.

From the (4) 55G drums water goes to a larger pipe, and then split into the DWCs. At the end of this line, there will be a flush valve.

Each DWC will have its own valve, so I can shut it off independently.

I plan to use the same pump I have in my other system, a 3500 GPH waterfall pump. I will put an elbow and valve to divert water back to the sump, in the event the flow was too much for the RFF's to handle.

As far as air goes, I plan to put a Elemental 02 1744 GPH pump into each DWC.

I don't know which pump to use for the MT yet.

The green line represents a valve at a point in the RFF, which will allow me to drain most of the clean water out of it, into the sump, so I can then flush the gunk into the MT.

The MT will be buried into the ground about 1/3 of the way.

The day before maintenance I will shut down the MT & one RFF, so everything settles. On cleaning day I drain the clean water of the MT & RFF to the sump, then flush the gunk from the RFF & 55G drums to the MT. (at least in theory).

Question? Comments?

While I like the layout and the arrangement there are a few things I'm not certain about. I think you need to play it safe a bit.

Can you can supply enough nutrients with just the one fish tank? I'm not sure, that's just my gut instinct . With the layout you have, if one tank isn't enough, putting another in messes up the layout. You might want another tank just for sorting the fish by size as well (you'll notice that UVI and Dasboot both have multiple tanks).

I would make it sort of modular - build the first fish tank, sump, bakki shower and the 3 DWC beds furthest from the Fish tank. I would move the filters over near those 3 DWC beds and run the system that way for a while. This way you can add another fish tank or multiple fish tanks and run them through the same filtration or add more filtration if needed. If you decide you don't want the extra fish tank/s you can build a shorter DWC in what's left of the open space where the first full length DWC would have gone. The empty space nearest the fish tank could be used for storage, wicking beds, whatever...

Sort of along the same lines - It sometimes benefits the fish to have a different flow rate for different size fish. Having more than one tank lets you even out that flow. When you've got lots of little guy in the tank they can't handle as much current as the bigger fish.

I haven't used IBC's for RFFs so I'm not sure how well they work. They don't seem like an efficient shape for this but they work for fish tanks so I don't know

Hope this all makes sense, I've edited it a few times but it doesn't seem any more straight forward.

Thanks Scotty!

Hi again Scotty. What do you think about (4) IBC fish tanks instead of (1) 600G tank?

I like it better than a single 600 gallon tank although they won't self clean quite as well and the initial plumbing parts will cost more since you'll need to do them all at once. You do gain some volume in fish tank and fish but will it give you enough food to supply the DWC - that I'm not certain of, especially since I'm not sure how much the mineralizer will supply. It's a bit of a guessing game. Are you hoping to keep the 4th full length DWC this way or just trying to gain the ability to sort the fish?

Just trying to keep the 4th dwc, and the yard looking neat. The proposed layout allows me to hide everything behind the bananas & lemon tree. Remember this isnt a commercial setup. I dont mind waiting a little longer for my plants to mature!

Felix,

Also consider that fish tanks don't need light like growbeds. If you needed to, perhaps you could stack the fishtanks one on top of the other to double or triple your fish tank volume. You might need taller bananas to hide them all, but imagine something like this (or your round tanks) stacked up with fish inside!



Maybe it really wouldn't be so bad to have one of your 600 gallon tanks buried a bit and another on a stand above? If you needed a 3rd one, you might be able to stack it above like a set of bunk beds. When real estate is at a premium, build up and/or build down. I think 600 gallons of fishtank only weighs about 5000 lbs. Only.
Just brainstorming here... but with a smile instead of frown...

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Sam

OK

I'm cautiously optimistic. It's all going to boil down to whether you have enough nutrients going through to grow the plants. I don't recall that you've mentioned the DWC bed surface area or volume but On page 123 and beyond of the FAO (Small Scale Aquaponic Food Production - http://www.fao.org/3/362f364a-b0d1-4b3b-8aa6-a725dac6515e/i4021e.pdf) they do some sample calculations as a guideline. Further down Table 8.1 (p 126) and the footnotes beneath this give you a bit as well. The mineralizer may already be factored in to a certain extent if this is based on UVI's model. If I got this right, from what they calculated for each IBC with 20 kg of fish, you'd be able to do 4 sq meters of DWC lettuce and a bit less of plants with higher nutrient requirements.

Okay, this is doable...

So I'm pretty sure from earlier in the thread and comparing the width of the IBCs, that are known to be 1m x 1.2m, to the widths and lengths of DWC beds in the diagram, they are 4' x 24', or a little more than 8m² each -- let's just call them 8m² because we're all friends here... So according to Scotty's FAO numbers, you should have 1000L FT x 2 for each of the 4' x 24' DWC beds. That's 4 x 2000L (8000L) of FT with 8 x 20kg (160kg) of fish, to power 32m² of DWC lettuce.

Numbers sound good so far?

8000L FT w/160kg of fish to produce 32m² of DWC lettuce. That could be done in the given area with 4 IBCs on top of 4 IBCs -- a cube of cubes, or a single 8000L (2100 gallon) tank. A 2100 gallon tank could be 87"D x 90"H or 85"D x 100"H or 102"D x 71"H, etc.


Or, for example:
http://www.tank-depot.com/product.aspx?id=123&c=2000
2100 GALLON VERTICAL TANK

Looks to me like that 600 gallon tank is about ⌀1.8m (around ⌀70") so an ⌀85" tank could be squeezed into that spot, right? Problem solved!

And as Felix said, he's not trying to do take-it-to-the-edge, high-powered AP. If a bit smaller tank fits and he's got a few fewer fish powering the system, no harm, no foul. Wifey is happy, yard is neat, and Felix still has one of the best looking systems around!

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Sam

OK Sam, thanks for finding the numbers and finishing out the calculations . Basically it sounds like you're right and he'll either need a really big tank, eight IBC's or the equivalent. There have been a few people use those tanks and they work well but usually they partially bury them to make access easier.

If you don't want the large tank or extra IBC's. You could supplement with another nutrient source instead of having the extra fish and tank space. Whatever your preference is Felix, as long as you have the filtration to break it all down without killing the fish off, it's golden.

- I just noticed your neighbor down the hill probably has the tank you need . It's that big blue one on the left on his rooftop.