Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello all,

I live in South Florida and am acquiring all the components needed to build my first system. I was looking into building a chop system and I have a 300 gallon stock tank, I have a 100 gallon fiberglass tote, and I have 2 8" deep shower pans.

I am trying to figure out how to set these items up to work together. I was thinking the 300 gallons for the fish tank, the 100 for the sump. Problem I'm running into is the stock tank is not very tall. I could put it on a stand of some kind so it was at the proper height to allow the overflow into the beds if needed. I was hoping for some direction, and possibly some pictures of other systems using a stock tank.

Thanks in advance, and I look forward to everyone's thoughts

Denver

Hi Denver

Welcome back

Tanks on / buried in the ground help with stabilizing temperature swings

If you can bury your sump enough system like the "Crafts" below pic might work for you

Fish tank SLO into sump and from sump pump up to growbeds (fish tank level stays full)

Ibc cages make cheap , strong , moveable bases for growbeds , put two or three together for big long growbeds .

Thanks you, I purchased a house and actually have a yard I can make a full system in. My previous post was for my shelfponics and the lack of sunlight didn't make very strong plants.

I like your suggestion about burying the sump tank to help control the temperature, and it will also help support the tank itself. My grow beds will need about 45 gallons of water each,. I was wondering If I should get a second sump tank and pipe the 2 together or try and find a larger one. This will also allow for expansion later on and also increase the amount of water in the system to keep it cooler

Also, I have a local supplier I can get tilapia from or I could go to a local freshwater pond near by and cast net some, I'm worried about parasites from the local source, unless there is a process to handle this concern.

If you want to use local fish , short term salt baths will knock off some problems , and then run your system at 3 ppt salt for awhile , that's 3 kg of salt per 1000 litres of water

Research what your fish will tolerate

I dipped a batch of young fish I had that were pretty sick in potassium permanganate with great results

Also run some water through a a UV light (ive done this for the last 6 mths ive got some pretty big valuable cod at the moment)

The UV light will knock off any parasites in the free swimming stage

Good idea to go for a bigger sump expansion is inevitable

Update:

Finally got the stock tank home and grow beds to the house. Im trying to post pictures but I'm having issues uploading. I have to fix a couple of drilled holes in this stock tank. Anyone have any suggestions on the best method to do this? I should have the sump tanks this week and hopefully start some assembly if time provides.

Anyone have layout ideas. I can pull measurements if anyone needs any.
I'm thinking the stock tank at ground height, bury the 2 stock tanks behind and put the 2 grow beds on top of the fish tank for easy drainage.

Thanks

Denver