Comment

Comment by Roger on May 24, 2012 at 8:53pm

So if I got a sixty gallon sump tank how would the pump in the sump tank know when to cut on?  Also, if I'm running the plumbing into the 100 gallon fish tank from the sump tank wouldn't the bigger pressure of the FT not allow the pump to work properly?  

Again, I apologize for all of the questions and want to thank everyone who has chimed in to date.  Everyone has been a great help lately!

Comment by TCLynx on May 24, 2012 at 6:58pm

Yep bigger sump tank or if that isn't really an option, arrange the drains in the grow beds such that the bottom couple inches don't drain so you won't have as much flood and drain Or maybe even set one bed as constant flood and the other as siphon.  then you just have to fill the constant flood bed to it's flood height and then you are only going to worry about the fluctuation of water level caused by one bed flooding and draining.

Comment by Roger on May 24, 2012 at 6:35pm

I can't raise the GB as this is in my basement.  I lose significant grow room for my plants if the GB are elevated above my FT.  My basement is only about 8 feet in height.  So it seems like the general consensus is a bigger sump tank?  

Comment by Sheri Schmeckpeper on May 24, 2012 at 12:20pm

Dan, what you suggest is the simplest, for sure. The only problem is the 100 gallon tank will be reduced down to 60 gallons if both beds fill at the same time, which could be detrimental to the fish. The benefit of a sump is it provides stability in the FT's water level.  Eliminating the sump may require a bigger FT, or smaller GBs, but it is an option.

Comment by Dan Ponton on May 24, 2012 at 10:18am

Hi Roger

I'm no expert in AP, having just started myself. But I have been doing plumbing for a long time. Bye the way, the pictures TC has are great, take a look.

So, it seems to be with two beds why use a sump (tank in the middle), just drain the two directly into the fish tank.

Pump the water up into the beds and gravity drain (free fall) back into the fish tank.

f the FT is the 100 gallon tank then buy a100-200 GPH pump

Comment by Dave Mannina on May 23, 2012 at 10:46pm

I can"t get my pics 2 load on here ... dang !   O  well...

Comment by Sheri Schmeckpeper on May 23, 2012 at 10:14pm

Roger, TCLynx is right. Assuming your 50 gal GBs are filled w/media that uses 60% of the space (general rule of thumb), you'll need 40 gal if both fill at the same time. That doesn't give you any reserve in your sump to cover your pump or to account for evaporation. With a timer you can run them separately off two pumps and different intervals, but it might be easier to get a bigger sump.

Comment by TCLynx on May 23, 2012 at 9:55pm

Roger, I don't have much time to answer right now but here is a link with some diagrams that will probably help you out some

Plumbing class

If you do a CHOP 2 system, you should only need one pump but you probably will be cutting it close trying to flood both 50 gallon grow beds at once from a 40 gallon sump.  I would have recommended at least a 50 gallon or 60 gallon sump.

That said, if you could place the grow beds high enough to drain back into the fish tank, you could skip the sump and have a simple system.  100 gallons of grow bed is reasonable to flood from a 100 gallon fish tank.

Comment by Roger on May 23, 2012 at 9:53pm

I should have also mentioned I'm just having trouble figuring out how I'm going to plumb this system.  Probably seems simple to most but I don't have much plumbing experience.

Comment by Roger on May 23, 2012 at 9:42pm

Thanks for having me everyone!  The community here looks to be really alive and friendly.  I have a few questions.

My system - 1-100 gallon Rubbermaid fish reservoir, 2 - 50 gallon Rubbermaid GB, and 1 - 40 gallon hydroponic Botanicare reservoir for sump tank.

I am now trying to decide how to do the plumbing. Can I fill both 50 gallon GB at the same time.  It seems like I'll drain the FT too low.  I'd like to run one pump and just tee off to both GB but am thinking I may need to pumps, two in the FT, each one pumping to it GB once an hour for 15 minutes each.  Also what kind of sump pump can I find that'll cut off when the water level in the sump is low?

I know there are so many question in this post.  I'd appreciate anyone's feedback.  I'm looking at doing the plumbing work this weekend and plan on using 3/4 inch PVC.  Thanks ahead for any help!  Oh, and BTW I've attached a picture of my basement system so far!

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