Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I've spent most of the day on google sketch up, and man, the more I use it, the more I like it, it's so intuitive.. Anyway, once I got the basic components drawn up I started to play with some designs.

Trying to get maximum space usage by putting growbeds under the real growbeds for yabbie and duck weed production, only now I just have to figure out how to go about the piping for the yabby system..

The plan is that the the top section will run as a simple flood and drain using standpipes and a timer. The 3000L fish tank will be buried at the end, and all water will drain back from the growbeds under gravity.

Then the fingerling/yabby/duckweed secion will work independently using a very small pond pump. The pump will go in the end yabby bed, the one at right angles to the other two. It will pump from here back to the small round growbed, probably also on a timer and with a standpipe, this will then drain into the 500L fingerling tank below the growbed. As the water level in the 500L tank rises, the water will then flow into the first yabby/duckweed bed, then through to the second, then the third one, where the pump is... (I hope this makes sence)

Now the thing is, I haven;t worked out how to get the water to flow from bed to bed.. They will all be at the same height... I thought about a fitting in the side of the bed, then a couple of elbows and bit of pipe into the next bed, but this is creating something that will get knocked or kicked, and could cause major issues..

There's not much space between the ends of the beds to get fitting in and join them together.....

ANyone have any suggestions???????

I see that space is tight - but I think you could get a suitable skin fitting that could be put towards the bottom of each bed to join to the next. There is always the cahnce of blockage (which would result in overflow) but if you go a big enough fitting then you should be okay.

mmm, theres about 100-200mm gap between them, maybe... Blockages is something I'm definately worried about....

I wondered about a pipe over the top between them, like a permanent siphon, but I feel a bit iffy about them too...

Use these 50mm tank fittings. Fit one bed with the thread on the inside and the next with the thread on the outside. That way - depending on the gap between beds, the male could probably be screwed itno the female bit on the next bed.

Oops - 100 to 200mm gap would be too big for this fitting. would have to have one of these on each bed and then a threaded pipe joining them. Alternatively - use ones with barbed ends and fit a pipe to then (I'd go the first option before that though). I would worry too much about those siphons Joel - too much can go wrong.

mmmm... I'm concerned about the stress and weight on it all when fittings are like that, and it's screwed in solidly from one to the other. If one moves at all???.....

Though, you may be onto something there... Screw on on solidly, short end out between two beds... Screw the long end with lots of thread tape into the first one till they are about right, then tighten the locking nut hard onto that second one...... By jove, you may have it.....

The thread may be long enough VB, I'm gunna go to bunnings tomorrow and have a look....

Make sure you only look - B is a ripoff for this sort of thing. As a guide, they are $15 at Wetearth. I betya that if B has them at all, they will be at least $30.

Bugger, not gunna work because the sides are tapered so they won't just join up with fittings end to end unless there's a flexi bit in the middle...

This might end up being harder than i thought, out the sides around the legs of the stand might be the only way...

Use this type of fitting then Joel, with a good quality flexible hose over the barbs (and a metal band thingy to secure them in place).

BTW - love your work on Sketchup.

Could you use a slip-fit bulk head fitting on each growbed with a short length of flexible pipe/tubing between the two fittings?

Man! Not fast enough again!!

That might do it... Hopefully they have a female thread on the end, I was thinking about putting a piece of polly pipe, maybe 2 feet long on the intake with lots of holes to avoid blockages..

You wouldn't beleive the swearing and cursing going on here today drawing that up... But they are all made up as components now, so it's really simple to play with different designs and layouts..