Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

. The outflow from the fish tank should depend on how fast you're pumping water in and how big the pipe out is. True there may not be much of a drop but the water has to go somewhere

Media based grow beds act as filters but you haven't mentioned where the grow beds will be so I don't know if you have any? Normally the flow would go FT to grow bed to sump tank and then be pumped back to the fish tank.

What are you using the 2" hole in the sump area for? Seems like one of those compartments could be a media bed. You might also be able to make adjoining wicking beds if there is a way to re-fill them by releasing water from the AP system you're building. That could be added into the plumbing from the pump, with a T and ball valve. Usually there is a T and ball valve off the pump to adjust flow and aerate the water in the sump so you probably actually need two T's and two ball valves.

You're right. I didn't give any indication as to what I'm thinking of doing with the existing cascading fish pond. Sorry about that...

Please see my drawings below for a Chop 2 system

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Hmm, I'm looking at that area and thinking with all those windows would I want to be looking at a couple of IBCs. This setup seems ready made for a system. You could use the two sump areas as grow beds - just take a portion of the lowest one and make a small sump area where the recirculating pump would go (say inside a round sump container you can get at Home Depot - like what I used for my SUF filters). With it setup to run as a Constant Flood system the sump can be pretty small. You could add a auto top up valve and have the small sump automatically refill when it gets low. No IBC required and it will look much better but you could still add more grow beds using IBC's later on if you wanted.

The down side of this design is that you would have to weed because the beds aren't raised - definitely something to think about.

Regarding your design using the two IBC's - it will work. I'll assume that the IBC's will sit on some type of platform or you'll have difficulty trying to get at the IBC's to harvest. The inline sponge filter is probably not a good idea but I'm not exactly sure how you intend to implement it. If it's actually in the line it may cause a backup to occur and of course will require regular cleaning. The IBC's might give you more filtration that the setup I mentioned so you might be able to have more fish - tough to tell the actual size of this existing setup.

I'd be tempted to run this without drilling for the SLO or other pipes, see if directing the return water along the bottom or up the side of the wall of the Fish Tank area stirs it up enough that the waste goes over into the sump area over the wall. If it doesn't work you can always add the SLO and holes later.

This should give you some things to think about. Cheers.

Haha touché! My cousin's wife is already giving us weird looks. I think she may change her mind once lush green veggies starts popping out of this neglected fish pond.

I suppose ST size doesn't really matter in a constant flood system, provided the ST holes are large enough for water flow right?

Forgive me for the numerous questions that follow:

1. So you're suggesting constant flow CHOP1 system?

2. Would you leave the FT water to cascade down the walls into the constant flow beds and avoid any complicated designs? I'm wondering how the sinking fish matter would be lifted off the bottom? I reckon it will depend on the pump power i.e water flow in the FT that you mentioned before?

2. How does one ensure the 2inch dry area of media on top of the grow beds in a constant flow system please? There is an existing 3/4 inch overflow, and I was wondering if i should drill a connecting hole of 75mm from the higher ST into the lower one? Please see attached picture

3. Isn't there an issue with anaerobic zones in such a set up? How does one ensure adequate oxygen levels in a constant flood?

4. We are assuming only biological filtering done by media beds right? How often would you need to clean it?

Thanks and sorry again for all the questions.

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Sump tank size doesn't really matter when using Constant Flood if you have an auto top up valve. If you don't have an auto top up valve then the sump will run dry because of evaporation and transpiration if you're not there to fill it up - this means you have to plant short vacations... not so good. Anyway, that's why I think you should install an auto top up valve.

Basically when you add a grow bed you add the water to fill the grow bed and enough for the pipes but the sump volume doesn't have to change because the level doesn't fluctuate like a siphon type system would.

1. CHOP1 - I forget all these designations, we do occasionally use them but they're not what we started out with on BYAP so I never really got the hang of them - basically you'd be doing what we call CHIFT PIST or Constant Height in Fish Tank, Pump in Sump Tank. The water level always stays the same in the fish tank and there is only one pump at the low spot in the system. The Constant Flood that I mentioned is about having a constant flood level in the grow beds (usually set by a standpipe) and always having the pump running 24/7 - the water movement is what keeps the system aerated - like a river.

2a. I think the only place where overflowing would work is from the fish tank to the top grow bed. You have a choice, you can run the grow beds one after the other (in series) or you can run from the fish tank to both grow beds using separate flows (in parallel). Because the sump is part of grow bed 2 I don't think you can entirely run in parallel because part of your flow will always come from grow bed 1. Your options are basically as follows;

a) Overflow to top grow bed and then from top grow bed to bottom grow bed use a standpipe. This is the running in series option.
b) Overflow to top grow bed and then from top grow bed to bottom grow bed use a standpipe. Have a second flow from the fish tank using a SLO or airlift to overflow to grow bed 2. So part of flow is in parallel and part in series.
c) Overflow from FT using a SLO or airlift to both tanks

There's a chance you'll get too much splashing by overflowing from the fish tank - if this happens you'll probably have to use a SLO. Too much splashing gets lots of water up on the leaves and gives you troubles with plant diseases.

2b. Anyway, you'll need a standpipe or some way to set the water level in grow bed 1. Basically a pipe through the wall between grow bed 1 and grow bed 2 fairly low and then turns upward (low enough withing grow bed 1 that you can get the correct water depth by the upward length of the pipe). It needs a media guard around it.. The upward turn allows you to set the depth.

Hole size depends on the flow rate so I can't say what you need - I don't know what you're going to use for a pump. You should be able to figure it out using tables that provide gravity flow through PVC pipe based on inside diameter - just do a search on the Internet.

Your goal is to turn over the fish tank volume once per hour. Select a pump that can do this at the highest height it will be pumping to (it's good to have a bit extra capacity to aerate the sump as well). Most pumps have a head height table to help you figure this.

3. Oxygenates by water movement and some help from the pump recirculating water in the sump. Take a look at the BYAP Trials thread for a comparison of growth using three different systems over a year.

4. Frequency of cleaning has to do with fish load. I would suggest a light fish load for a system like this, you'll still get good plant growth and then it can go for years without cleaning.

Thank you. You've given me much to think about once again

Have a good one

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