Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I dont normally start projects small so here goes.

I was thinking of either using either a series of IBC halfs ( say 6 cut in half to give) for grow beds or a series of Acrylic/fibre glass baths (7 to start with) but room to expand.

What do you think would be better and why ?


Next and my main question is would i be better using 1 x 10,000 Litre poly rain water tank cut down to say capacity of 6000L roughly for my fish tank. Have to source another tank for sump.

Or would it be better to say have 3 x 2,300 litre rain water tanks which are 1365 high and 1720 wide. I could use one as a sump and the other two as dual tanks.


Thoughts and pros and cons of each

43 views and no advice ? Surely someone can advise or at least give an opinion?

I'd go with the 3 x 2,300 litre rain water tanks because then you can stock different aquatic animals, e.g. fish and yabbies, and still have 1 left for sump.

Perhaps draw up your designs as that would help people visualise and give an opinion. A picture says a thousand words.

I wouldd think if you expect competent advice, you need to describe what style system you want to operate and your goal for having a system.

IMO IBC grow beds are easy to support, fit neatly into available space, provide excellent grow media volume and consistent depth, easy to make drains, etc. Tubs may be difficult to raise above the sump tank height, are oddly shaped, etc.

I strongly suggest starting small, like one IBC fish tank with four GBs. Then the next season after you have some of the learning curve behind you, you can expand to a larger system.

For the larger system I again recommend the multiple smaller FTs rather than one large. If you need to separate species, or quarantine new fish, etc. this will give you some options. You can also make one a fry/fingerling tank and the other a grow-out tank to better manage your harvest and still support the plants.

Thankyou for your advice i truely appreciate it. I will look at drawing up a plan of sorts.

Dstjohn99. i was thinking with the baths of a support frame that would consist of rails down the sides to support the edge and a support under the baths. All the baths are exactly the same. i would join them end to end in the frame in a single line.

I agree with starting smaller but i want the bones of the system to be in place so that i can just increase the grow beds and stocking rate. I am thinking i want to use bell syphons in each grow bed. Have them drain into a sump of two where i will locate my pumps . from sump i am thinking of building a solids filter which then flows back to the fish tank and the grow beds.

I figured that three smaller tanks would be the way to go .

Again thankyou for the comments i have received from everyone so far.

I agree that ibcs will be more convenient given their shape.

Also, 2 tanks better, that way you can grade the fish and you should plumb it so you can isolate a tank in order to drain it for maintenance.

Regards the order of your components, this is the way to go :
Fish tanks - solids filter - grow beds - sump - fish tanks

Your grow beds will remove the solids, which is OK with worms etc, but they will clog up over time unless it's all perfectly balanced.

What I mean is, no point having solids filtration after the grow beds, only makes sense to have it before.

Thanks Danny . I watched another you tube video after i posted that and realised i had put it in the wrong order. I was going to ask about it but you have saved me doing so .

For simplicity take a look at iAVs/sandgardening. No additional filtration equipment needed, water ph pretty much self regulating, a much wider selection of vegs can be grown in sand than rocks or floating rafts. Take a look .....https://m.facebook.com/groups/1318946951452383/

For simplicity take a look at iAVs/sandgardening. No additional filtration equipment needed, water ph pretty much self regulating, a much wider selection of vegs can be grown in sand than rocks or floating rafts. Take a look .....https://m.facebook.com/groups/1318946951452383/

My initial plan was to use one fish tank and 6 grow beds, but I started with 3 grow beds. Once I got into it and knew more, I added an nft instead of the 3 extra grow beds. +1 for starting small and expanding from there. That way you can modify and change as you learn and experiment.

My thoughts are if i can get the tanks required for the fish and the sumps. I can start with one tank and leave the other empty for now. Same with the grow beds. i can add to them as i go . I have the opportunity to purchase the three tanks for a good price. that is why i was asking. the larger tank i already have in my rear yard. I got it with my house when i bought it and replaced it with a much larger tank for rainwater collection.

as for depth of FT. what is the maximum. Or does the depth not matter. Just thinking am i better off cutting down the tanks or if being taller is not a problem would the fish benefit from the extra volume ?

Forgive me if this sounds like nonsense.. It's early!

Lets see some pics of the tank in question. I'd personally want 2 fish tanks, 1 for older fish, 1 for small young fish (so the old ones don't eat small ones).

You will need to figure out the growbed media volume you're going with, then decide how many fish you need/want. After that, find the fish stocking density for that species of fish. I think some species are better in confined spaces (schools) some like more space. There's ratios and calculations all over this site for growbed media/fish ratio. In the end, I don't think you can go too large on the fish tank (within reason), but can go too small for the amount of fish you need.