Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Well after several years of 'other things' getting in the way of finishing my greenhouse I finally got it done. I've been collecting bins and totes over the years to build an aquaponics system. I acquired 3 white thick plastic bins that measure 45" L x 29" W x ~11" H. Thinking I'm only going to fill those to about 9" tall - that works out to around 51 gallons.

So I plan on using 2 of those for a fill & drain setup with a bell siphon and the other one I want to setup a raft system with.

The fill & drain systems will get fed from the swirl filter and drain back into the sump tank.

The raft will get fed from the sump tank via a pump and drain back into it.


I am planning on a EchoPlus 585 GPH in the sump tank to feed the fish tank. I'm thinking about a EchoPlus 396 GPH pump to feed the raft bed.

Do you think these pumps will work for what I'm planning to use them for?

My experience with pumping from a sump to a fish tank with a layout like yours (6 systems) using pumps of around 3000 Litres per hour I lost about half the rated flow of the pump .

The pump rating is straight out the pump with no lift or restriction

Every bit of lift / pipe bend / tap / length of pipe will eat into your flow rate

Use large pipe to minimise flow losses over distance

You shouldn't need two pumps
Just divert a little from your pump to the raft

Get a pump rated at least twice the size of your fish tank , more is better for expansion later on .

Generally accepted the minimum flow through a fish tank is 100% of volume every hour

The raft will only need a very slow flow rate it will need airstones have them up off the bottom a little so they don't disturb sediment , plant roots in a raft need the cleanest water they can get .

Thanks I was worried about getting a pump too big but using the same one for the raft would allow me to divert more towards the raft than the fish tank if my grow beds get too much flow.

I didn't include the air pump but I have one with stones for the raft and I will also put one line in the fish tank.

I've got all the bulkheads and uniseals ordered. I will start building bell siphons, SLO, and the swirl filter next week. I'll add the raft once i get the system cycling since I don't think it will have much to do with the cycling unless I can get some plants started.

Agree that one pump should be fine.
The amount of fish you can keep with this system will be dictated by the 2 51-gal grow beds. This would limit you to about 20 1-lb fish.

With a system of this size and real-estate limits, I suggest you consider the following:

Put a grow bed over (or partially covering) your sump. This might allow 3x51 gal grow beds.
I don't have much experience with raft beds but I would make your raft bed another grow bed to increase filtering.
Without a raft bed, I don't think you'd need a swirl filter--although it doesn't hurt.

With ~200 gal of grow beds, you'd be able to squeeze in 40 1-lb fish, which might make your overall system more productive.

Thanks for that! I'll play around with the spacing to see if I can fit the third grow bed in. I also though about playing around with vertical towers over the sump tank.. I'm not sure I want to spend the money on some zip grow towers but something like that would be cool and I could easily put them above the sump.

Made some progress this weekend. I dug the sump tank hole out and put in my 110 gallon Tractor Supply "Tuff Stuff stock tank". Digging that hole in the greenhouse was hot! It was clay mixed with a lot of rocks. My hands are blistered up from being stupid and not wearing gloves until the blisters formed.

Anyway - my uniseals and bulkheads came in from Amazon. So I'll head to a box store and buy the PVC and fittings for what I got.

Resurrecting my old post now that I'm up and running! It's been 5 weeks. I started the first 3 weeks without fish and then added fish. I added a dozen feeder fish and 3 pleco's. I did this because I had an algae bloom and thought the pleco's can help. Also I was getting destroyed by mosquitos in my greenhouse so I thought the goldfish would help - and they did.

Here is my update from the 5th of June. I'm having problems with my peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, and zucchini not producing fruit. The zucchini's just look bad.. At first I thought it was a pollination issue. But now I'm thinking its a nutrient issue. I tested today and my pH was around 7.4 and I had absolutely no traces of ammonia, nitrites, or even nitrates. On top of all that the Cali Wonder Bell Peppers I started in pots and transferred dont even look like bell peppers now. They have flowers all over them but they don't look like bell pepper plants to me. lol. you can see them in this video at 1:07 mark. What do you think?

https://youtu.be/RvaKhfmN8yI

I've been really thinking about what do I eat and want to grow in this system and green beans, snap peas, bell peppers, lettuces, greens, cabbages, and tomatoes seem to be the ones I keep writing down. I've been thinking about these 'fruiting' plants may need a dual root zone setup to be more productive?

I ordered 30 tilapia and they will be sent next Monday since I'm going out of town this weekend. I'm planning on keeping them in a 10 gallon aquarium until they get at least an 1" long.

Anyway, I'm excited to have this going. Sometimes I just go in my greenhouse and watch. I have not put a swirl filter in yet and am contemplating adding something like vertical strawberry towers over my sump. But I'll probably just ride this and learn for now.

I see this is a few months ago but for anyone reading this in the future.... You may not be producing produce because the plants are in a green house. They may not be hardening enough to support the weight of the produce. Weather/wind/rain normally helps stalks harden enough. I had the same issue with my shoebox system that was indoors. Once I added an oscillating fan, I started getting serranos.

Interested in seeing what it looks like now... post an update pic with it up and running!