Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello all,

after what felt like enough research and planning,
I intend to create an aquaponic system that uses 2 1000l IBC'S or fish tanks with 8 blue barrels halved lengthwise as grow beds.

The IBC'S will be set low enough below the grow beds to gravity feed water back.

Although it's an ambitious start, i'd like to have 25 silver perch in each IBC pretty soon.
They're currently filled, aging the water before cycling with an old aquarium pump.


What size plumbing do you recommend?

I have a bunch of garden irrigation piping and joins that I hope to use in the growbeds..

What size pump will be good to handle all this?

Should I aim to have water constantly flowing, or at intervals?

I'm not sure that I understand the need for a sump tank.
Do I need one? OR any other snazzy bits?

Anything else seem obvious that I don;t know or might need help with?

So many thanks

Hi and welcome to the forum

With a system like you describe you would need a pump big enough to "Turn over" the total volume of water in your system at least every hour , more turnover is better , so 2 x IBCs and either full growbeds (constant Flood) , or 2 x IBCs and some residual water in the bottom of growbeds.

If your pumping up to growbeds and draining back to fish tanks a general guide is double the "Rated " flow of pump in litres . These pumps are rated at the outlet in LPH with no restriction or pumping height.

Every bit of pumping height , bend in a pipe , join in a pipe , tap in a pipe ect ect eats into the LPH fast , small diameter pipe is very restrictive .

I would strongly advise that you start with half those fish numbers there is a lot of learning in the first season , both with fish and plants and a whole host of possible situations to deal with .

A heavily stocked system can go sideways real fast and the end result of that is no fun

A sump tank takes away fluctuations in the fish tank when you have siphon beds , its usually buried so helps with temperature stability .

A sump tank means your pump doesn't have to deal with fish waste solids , your only pumping clean water and your fish tanks overflow onto your grow beds via a "Solid Lift Overflow"

If you go with pumping to 16 growbeds you will need either 40mm or 50mm supply pipe (less restriction) and tee off to each growbed.

Have fun

Thanks Terra

So,
a sump tank doesnt have to be the same size as the fishtanks? It just allows for the difference in water being pumped into the growbeds?
And as the ibc of aquaponics suggests, I should stock 20-25 fish per 500l of grow media?

Then I may only cut 3 of the barrels for now.
Have a 1000l fish tank, and up to 600l of growbeds at 45-50cm deep.

Does that sound good? Or means I still need a 600l sump, if im gonna keep the water level ok.
And the SLO is definitely recommended?

And maybe its already been a disproven hope, but id like to have snails in the system too. All my other fish tanks have breeding colonies of little freshwater snails which never give up and provide extra food on hand. How can I make that a success, too?

Many thanks

Your sump tank needs to be big enough for your growbeds if you decide to add a few more later on , easier to have a bit bigger sump now, you don't want the hassle of continually having to top up your system water daily.

I have a 2000L fish tank / 5 x 300L growbeds / and a full IBC buried as a sump , this time of the year I am topping up my water once a week , summer time usually twice a week , in heat waves it can be 3 times a week .

Ive had snails before with no trouble they can block your pipes and of course restrict flow rates