Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

HI Guys
The pipe that runs across the top of the grow tanks do they have to be at a set distance apart if so what is it and from the photos I have had a look at on this site you all seem to be using the white sparkies pipe do you have to or can you use black heavy duty poly pipe
my grow tanks are going to be 2 mtrs wide 19 mtrs long and 4oo deep that should just fit into the poly house nice and snug
any thoughts please Trev

I only ever use polly pipe - but then again I have several small pumps running my growbeds and grow tower... I guess its going to depend on your pump...

HI aquamad
I am thinking of two pumps for aeration like large bilge pumps.then one in each tank to the grow beds and one in each pit at the end of the grow beds they would be the largest this way I can have one or both tanks going at the same time

Just a small bed heh. Ideally you would use potable water pipe, like that which is used in the walls of many houses these days.

wow, lots of pumps (like me )
Why not post a sketch of your planned system, that helps us visual learners work out things better. Oh, and what kinds of pumps (LPH)?

this is it I hope its in the early days yet

This shouls be a bit better to have a look at Trev

try this one Trev

at last
The size of the tank is 2MTR wide 19.8 Mtr Long and 400 high with one return tank on each and each has its own fish tank both side by side in the poly tunel hope all the makes sence trev

Do you have this long bed already trev. What is it made of?

HI Veggie boy
not yet it will be made of pressed tin the same stuff as the silos are made of I think this will be the cheapest option trev

Trev. I am going to use pvc pressure pipe, bit strurdier than DWC drain pipe stuff and UV stable.

Hey Trev, a couple of points I can see from your sketch up design so far. Firstly, if you are burying your fish tank into the ground, then you may have no need for a drain tank, slope the growbed back towards the fish tank and use gravity, with only one pump...

Second point, thats one hell of a long growbed I can see that it would take a long time to get the water from one end to the other and you may run into problems with flooding in the bed, unless you encorporate a few more drains along the length of the bed.. I think that just one drain at the end, and water having to flow through 19 m of gravel you will have some troubles... Also, you need a bit of fall in the growbed so that it drains, over 19m the far end will have to be pretty high up.....

Any chance of dividing your growbed into smaller beds for the design?

Food for thought.....

Pressed tin trev. Are you going to line it with something - pond liner, plastic??

i have a growbed 4 ish meters long half filled with bean gravel (10-20 mm in size) and it takes about 20 seconds to get from one end to the other, and its on a steepish gradient (about 30 degrees off the horizontal)

just to give you abit of an idea of how long it might take...