Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi BA Crew,

I am planning a proof on concept Aquaponic farm in Manila, Philippines for a larger Social Entrepreneurial site we have in the North of the Philippines to help the indigenous population whose waterways have been heavily polluted by mining.

That being said, please excuse my crappy Sketchup skills with the attached plans, it is missing plumbing and valves of any sort, but hopefully you can get the idea.

We have secured two large 4,000 liter stainless steel water tanks which we plan to cut in half for the four tanks. The left bank and the right bank we hope to run independently as required and the whole fish farm to be self sustaining if needed. The round filters and bio and blue plastics drums and the sumps Ibc totes.

The plan is to grow the local talapia which are hardy and like the warm weather, the beds will be in four sections to really test what works here with floats, media grow beds, bell siphon beds and a seedling area.

I'd love some feedback on the initial plans, they are really a copy of a system I found on the internet and looked to suit our needs and available resources.

Is it feasible for this much water volume to consider solar? We get sun virtually all year round and it would be nice to suppliment the silly cost of electricity here.

Thanks for your time and advice,

Double.

Welcome to the forum Double

You probably will need some additional filtration before the floating raft beds to remove suspended solids which can coat the plant roots and cause problems in a raft system.

Hi Scotty,

Thanks for the feedback, would another swirl filter suffice before the bed?

I've seen a plan online that has both a swirl filter and a bio before the beds, in addition to the Fish Farm set-up, is it worth looking into?

One last question - what is the best way to plumb the water out from the tanks to the filter to get all the solids and not suck up fishies!!

Cheers,

J

It's possible another swirl filter would work for this but a static upflow filter might be a better choice.

I'd have to see the plan.



Not sure on this one - it's tough especially when they are small. Screening of some type (plastic mesh or stainless steel) is probably the best option but you'll need to clean it . For larger fish I've been using Atrium grates on the end of the SLO pipe with a mesh basket around that but I'm not sure what's available to you. This is what the atrium grates look like - http://www.homedepot.com/p/4-in-Plastic-Green-Polyolefin-Atrium-Grate-75/100377401. There are probably better solutions that can be purchased and someone else might be able to point you to something better.