hey there guys gals, i hope your days are well. i have been coming to this forum for quite a while for references to my aqua-questions. most of which helped so thank you in advance.
i figured since i have been here so man times, maybe another set up and story could spark some interest.
we started a few years ago with a 55 gallon barrel tank and 25 gallon barrel raft tank which was plumbed for constant flow. we did alright, but because of many reasons, dealing with the setup (getting our feet wet), it became obvious that our system needed to be bigger. Using the lessons from our failures, and also not wanting to deal with weeds in our main garden, a bigger, better more productive system could be accomplished.
With the knowledge learned the hard way, we setoff to put in a 12' x 25' greenhouse and install an ibc tote 24" in the ground and cutoff the top 12" and flipped it over installed washed pea gravel in the bed, cycled it with about 100 fish. Put the new plants in the bed and it took off.
second was a 6' x3' dwc raft bed. IT was built with 3/4" input and 3/4" bottom drain was installed through the bottom, and 14.5 mil pond liner. (Have not filled it up yet). Then came the 2, half barrel media beds with external bell siphons. The raft bed and the 2 media beds all drain into 1-1/2" drain straight into the sump tank. im waiting on my 2" uniseals so i can setup the gravity feed from the main 275 f.t. to the 3 beds.
i have a 640gph pump to go into the sump tank to obtain the split-flow setup. The sump tank sitting directly below its own plant bed, drains back into the sump, and is fed via the current smaller pump. so it will interesting to work out the new plumbing. Most of the new pump plumbing will be 1" sch.40pvc. Because i am going to split the flow to the main f.t. and the media bed just above both at the same time. (This wasnt the original idea but, thats learning for ya.) this way has many optional ways to expend, and help feed our community year round. I have a passion for this stuff.
if you guys have any questions or comments that can help me in all this, i am open to suggestions and questions, heck all the good stuff, lol!
i hope u all are having a great day! Thanks for reading all this!!!!
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Backyard Aquaponics
