Ideas for Aquaponics Hybrid System Integration?

[Japan Aquaponics - アクアポニックス 日本]

Hi there,

I was wondering if anyone has experimented with hybrid aquaponics systems - specifically I am interested in the experience of anyone that has considered a system with:

• The fish tank at the highest point

• Gravity fed to one or more Grow beds

• Gravity fed to one or more DWC beds

• Return to the Fish tank via a sump

My real interest is in how people would have the water move from the media-filled grow bed to the DWC beds without a big drop in height of the system.  I am assuming that if the media-filled grow bed is being drained via a traditional siphon, then we are going to need quite a drop to allow for that - and that would mean that there would be quite a height difference between the media bed (and/or sump) and the DWC beds.

I am not sure if I have explained this very well - but if anyone has idea about how to integrate the media bed as efficiently as possible with a DWC bed, and ideally allowing the whole system to remain gravity fed... and can it be done without large height differences across the system?

I would love to hear people's ideas.

[Jonathan Kadish NYC AA Chair]

I would imagine they are quite noisy on a large scale, the one i have for my wine makes enough noise to make people laugh when you pour a glass.

[Japan Aquaponics - アクアポニックス 日本]

...do you have one of those vinturi contraptions?  it is quite a clever pun really though!  But seriously though, why don't people use them on growbed inflow pipes and the such?  Surely the noise can't be that terrible?  Would it seriously affect water flow or cause problems/burnout in the longterm for a pump?

[Jonathan Kadish NYC AA Chair]

I had similar thoughts a while back, and i figured out that the small pumps made by Eco actually come with an Venturi. I gerry rigged my pump to suck air+water on the intake using the venturi connector they supply. I am not using it exclusively for aeration because it doesn't perform as well as the air-stone. If you look around for aerators on youtube you will find people doing it on a big scale for pond applications.

Oh and the wine Venturi makes a big difference - works quite well.

[Japan Aquaponics - アクアポニックス 日本]

Is the water from the intake then going to the growbed, or returning straight to the tank?  

I had seen a couple of designs that added a venturi to the intake and the blasted out huge amounts of air into the tank - but almost all the videos were returning the water direct to the tank (or the pond as you said).  You say that you also use the air-stone?  Some of the venturi designs I saw look like they would never need additional aeration... there was one quite funny video showing a guy gerry-rigging a venturi to his pump, turning it on and literally turning his aquarium into a jacuzzi... fish must have added a little bit more ammonia and solid waste into the system at that point!

I was thinking more of adding the venturi to the pipe supplying the growbed.... additional aeration would not be huge of course but wouldnt it be something?

[Jonathan Kadish NYC AA Chair]

The water gets split, about 1/3rd to the GB and 2/3 goes back to the tank (I over sized my pump i think). I like the wine Venturi because it is gravity fed which would work quite well for a siphon returning water to a fish tank. I would just worry about having some redundancy built in. Having aeration provided by your water pump and your air pump gives you a little more life support if one fails.

Everything in aquaponics needs O2 so I guess you can never have enough. The design I would go with is what Nelson & Pade has done. They are very experienced and science based, and they have airstones everywhere. DWC, Media, Fish tanks, Mineralization Tank, Degassing Tank. They have one pump for their 7000 gallon system.

[Japan Aquaponics - アクアポニックス 日本]

That sounds good Jonathan... I too like the Nelson + Pade aquaponics site, and regularly look through their information.   I saw that they have recently linked with a University to provide the practical component an aquaponics module that actually gives accreditation points for someone doing a degree.