Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

G'day everyone,

not too long ago I stumbled upon Aquaponics, since then I have been researching as much as possible!!
Towards the end of March my partner and I are moving into out new first home, and my first project there (aside from moving in) will be setting up an AP system.

So I have spent the last few hours cursing at my ineptitude when it comes to Sketch up . The design below was the final result!!

I am hoping to make the FT a half dug/half raised timber pond lined with pond liner, roughly 4.5X1.2X1M.
Then add two GB (again timber with lining) filled with Scoria, roughly 1.2X1X 0.2M.
The water will hopefully travel via a submersible pump in the FT (pumping with a rough 1-1.5M head), into a large square swirl filter. Now I am hoping to have the swirl filter set up so that it has 2 exit points. One, which will be a gravity fed spill over fountain back to the FT (for aesthetics as well as providing extra aeration of the water). Two, will be a stand pipe the same level as the fountain which will run into the two GB. The GB will be fed continuously and work with a bell siphon right back into the tank (providing more aeration to the FT)

Hopefully the Filter/fountain box could also act as nursery for young or injured fish if it came down to it?

Anyway cheers for reading and throw all your ideas at me!!

Hi Damo24! (I didn't realize we had so many Damos! )

Don't cut yourself short on the SketchUp skills... your model looks great!

That looks like it will become a very nice system. I like the fountain idea, not only for the aesthetics, but also aeration. However, i wonder about the square swirl filter idea... I don't think I've ever heard of anything but round swirl filters. Googling for "square swirl filter" gets all of 2 hits -- 1 of which is your post! And the other one seemed to really be talking about a settling tank. I suppose the world's supply of "square swirl filter" hits is about to increase by 50% with this post... I think you'll find the common wisdom these days is that a Radial Flow Filter is a bit better than a Swirl Filter, but experiment a bit and see what works best for you.
Congratulations on the new home and good luck on your move and keep us posted on your progress.

Thanks,

--
Sam

Hey sam cheers for the feedback.
The idea of the filter is still a work in progress, I have been toying with the idea of perhaps having a small radial flow filter inside the fountain box which would then spill into the box itself. However I'm just a bit unsure of how practical it will be. I guess it will just have to be something I play around with..
Cheers again
Damian