Starting My First Aquaponics Garden

[Neil Stratton]

Hello Friends,

I have just completed the online course from Udemy by Sylvia Bernstein. I realized it was a beginner course and it answered a lot of my questions. I have more questions and hope to build my system as planned. I am located in Southern California. This will be an outdoor type with a greenhouse in the future.

Here are the specs. I have a 600 gallon fish tank sunk into the ground. I plan on using 6 55gallon drums cut lengthwise to make 12 27.5 gallon grow beds. Using a expanded clay media and a siphon draining system. I don't think I need a sump tank based upon the 40% of water I will be using in GB.

6 x 55 =330 gallons (40% is 132 gallons)

Maximum of 23% of tank would be drained to fill the grow beds.

One of my concerns deals with the 1:1 ratio of GB to FT. I am at about 2:1 GB to FT with 330 gallons of GB to 600 gallons of FT. I assume as long as I don't have too many fish or not enough plants, I can control the ammonium and nitrate levels.

Another design question I have regards to plumbing pipe size. I see a lot of 2" pipe and I see a lot of 1" pipe being used. Which route should I use? My thoughts are to use 2" with a ball valve to reduce flow.

Thanks for your input,

Neil

[Harold Sukhbir]

Hi Neil,

Plumbing sizes are mostly determined with the Rules of Thumb for turnover rate of the FT per hour and pump size for the application. The pump determines to some extent the pipe sizes(because of head height etc). The pumps i try to select are the most efficient for the head height and water volume turnover rate. In barrel systems I have used 1/2" inlets with 3/4" returns, 3/4" inlets with 1" returns all successfully.

I have found that systems with more FT volume take a wee bit longer to establish build nutrient as compared to Rule of Thumb ratio-ed systems, but once established they are basically the same.

[Neil Stratton]

Thank you for you input.. I will get pictures up as the project continues.