Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Here is where we are so far! Almost done with putting the media in the grow beds. Hoping to work on getting a pump going this weekend. We know nothing about pumps or flow or what we are doing so this is the most frazzling part so far. I don't even know where to begin. . . .Anyway, here's our system and greenhouse my husband built. Probably should have went smaller being newbies to aquaponics.

LoriLem,
That is FANTASTIC looking!
Congratulations! I can't wait to see pictures of the massive green growth coming out of those white barrels. Gorgeous!

Tell us more about the "plan"... What kind of fish, veggies, etc.

--
Sam

Go big or go home. Looks good you will be able to grow a lot in there.

Thanks guys! The plan is to have Talapia in the pool and garden veggies and fruit in the barrels like tomatoes, peppers, watermelon, strawberries etc and going to experiment with stuff like blueberries, banana, coffee bush, stuff that will prob never work. lol.

This is definitely going to be an experiment! Hopefully, we can figure out the plumbing and get this bad boy going. I already started a worm farm to feed the fish and to put in my grow beds and I some how killed all 2000 of them so hopefully the rest of our plan goes more smoothly

Lori

Good night that's a huge system for starting out! Looks amazing! is there by chance a way to convince you to post up pics of the build process?

With regard to the pump, you want to figure out how far the water will need to travel to get to the grow beds. I'm sure there is some kind math equation to figure out all that stuff, but I don't know what it is.

Either way, I look forward to seeing progress pics!!


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We didn't take pics along the way. Normally I do take lots of pics, but for most of it I was prego and now the baby is 9 months old so I don't go out there as much as I would like I will take more here on out though. There really wasn't much to it. He built the supports, put on the barrels, cut holes and put in the bell syphons and then has the faucets connected for each barrel. I could take a better pic of any part of the system you want to see better.

Awesome build and prego too boot! Incredible. Pumps and flows aren't terribly tough to figure. The pump needs to circulate the fish pond volume at least once an hour. If the water goes up very high it'll slow the flow. Also reducing pipe size below what comes out of the pump slows flow. I removed the fitting off our Laguna pump and installed an enlarged fitting and then did one inch pipes (in hind sight we should have used inch and a half pipe) pipes to all the beds. Oh, also look at manifolds from the pump, they give better flows too. Water like electricity follows the path of least resistance. This means from the pump use larger pipe and the pipe size after the manifold can be slightly smaller. I see a lot of builds here with oversize pipe to begin with. If you are unsure about flows go with bigger piped all around. Hope this helps.
Here is one of my early drawing of flows

The distance from the top of the water the pump is in to the highest height the water is being pumped to is called the "head height". Most pumps have a chart or table telling how much water they can pump at a given head height. Friction and elbows can reduce the head height but the tables will at least get you close to where you need to be and then buy some extra capacity over that because manufacturers like to look good and also for all those elbows

Look for pumps that can handle solids. Pond pumps work well and there is a thread on best pumps.

It's best to have the pump on a GFI circuit as a safety measure.

Last of all, try to find an efficient pump that's cheap to run. Electricity costs can pay for a better pump in a couple of years and most good pumps will last that long.

Wow.... makes me feel ashamed that my unit caved to the snow in 2013 and I haven't managed to get off my butt and rebuild. Very nice. I am looking forward to hear your adventures with the tropicals. I managed to have a citrus overwinter though it did suffer major dieback. and I think that was prior to the addition of the tanks... so I think you should have very little problem... well... the bananas will be pushing it but who knows. there are hardy varieties (unfortunately non-flowering) that will survive winters if mulched and sheltered so maybe you'll find something.

Good luck!

Lori, Nice system, and congrats on the baby. Judging by the size of the pool and 2 ibc's as sumps looks like you have about 1900 gallons total and very little head height. I would look for a pump minimum 2000 gph and something closer to 2200-2400 would be better. Perfect time of year in TN to get some plants in and start cycling. Good luck.

Thank you everyone for your help and the congratulations! I am super excited to get this going! I am so glad I found this forum and all of its useful threads and awesome members. Although, some of the threads scare me a little with some of the problems people have come across. lol. And if course, a lot of it is way over my head, but hopefully a few years from now I will be an expert and can help other newbies with all my wisdom and experience. Or it will be a big, expensive flop and we will invite everyone over for a huge aquaponics bonfire!

Wow! I am certainly jealous! That is a very nice set up. How has things progressed? On a side note, it is a small world indeed. I went to MTSU for my undergrad work, and I lived in the Boro for 4 years while I was stationed at Ft Campbell. I live outside of knoxville now. I have a meager two 330 gal IBC tote system. Im nearly ready to plumb in my third. What fish are you planning on using? If you have not purchased them already, I know of a great company I can recommend that will deliver via truck, instead of shipping via freight.

Not sure how I missed this one!
Great set up, well done.
Where is it at now?
Where does your town name come from also???