Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

hi heka, thanks for the comment about the r2 batts in concrete, being a newbie, ive only posted the desighn, and not have yet fully explained how i will be doing things, i should be more clear about what im doing, when i mentioned the out-flow pips set in concrete, i actually was thinking, when the slab is poored, i will have channels formed into the slab, so when im ready for the set up,i can then just lay the pipes in, and also i was going to cover the r2 batts in orange plastic, the type that is used in underlay in concreteing pooring, ( im an ex chippie...lol)then fill around the pipes and water proof the r2 batts,that way if anything does go wrong, it will be easier to smash the stip of concrete with straight edges, against solid concrete with unsightly jaggered edgers. n
now as for the sump, if the sump pump pumps out enough or more water in-than out ratio, i really dont see any problem with the sump size,if the sump pump is a lager output, i think there will be less strain on the actual pump, cos the way i see it, if the pump pumps out more water than coming into the sump to a certain degree, it wont get over worked cos it will be cutting off when water level is low and re-activated when float rises, and also i will have a overflow pipe in the sump leading outside, in-case of failer aswell, which will be about 4 " below top of sump and diameter of about 75mm.any comments would be much appreciated..

ps:::: i forgot to mention aswell, the 2 pumps in the main tank will operate at different times, i will try and set it up as one pump finished pumping on a timer, and the sump has emptied from that flow out, the other pump will activate and fill the other gb's, so basically it will be chasing it's tail in two lots of pumping, and it will also give that extr few minutes, im calculating about maybe45-90min of drying time in the gb's to airate the roots of plants, and cos i will be using expandable clay balls, they will retain a lot of water and keep the roots moist enough until next pumping time, but still oxigenate roots at the same time

Generally speaking, it is the water draining from the GBs that sucks air into the media and aerates the roots - leaving the GBs empty of water for 90 min periods would not be a problem though

thats true ellkaybee, i done some calculations with the sump, im now looking at atleast 840 lts to work effectivelly, so what im going to do is when the slab is poored, i will get the concreters to form up the sump so it is an intergal part of the slab, it will work out cheaper by doing all the concreteing at the same time

round it up to a thousand litres and bang an ibc in there.

i m1ght as well do that twintragics, because i will loose some literage cos of the overflow pipe to the out side and want to keep it at least 4" below top anyway's, so yeah, sounds like a plan, i cant get any concreter's to do the job until after jan 9th , too close to christmas, and im having my driveway done aswell at the same time, so it's a very big job, it's just over 27 cube of concreting im having done