Comment

Comment by DJ Wambach on January 5, 2014 at 1:45pm

@Jeff Sullivan I was going to build the bell siphon in cap but could not find a PVC 2 inch nipple at the big box store, what kind of nipple did you use?

Comment by Jeff S on January 5, 2014 at 10:21am

I forgot to mention that I was using the cap. That does seem to be the most logical thing to use.

Comment by Jim Fisk on January 5, 2014 at 10:19am

"if you also plan to use the top of the ibc" Sorry, I meant to say "the bottom" of the IBC. One can never proof read enough I guess

Comment by Jeff S on January 5, 2014 at 10:19am

I used 2" PVC for mine. It's been a while so I don't recall exactly what fittings I used but when I changed it from gravity drain to a bell siphon I reduced it to 1" drain. I'm going to assume that if you put a 2" nipple through the opening and press fit the outside and the inside with a 2" to 1" reducer for the bell siphon you can get a good enough seal provided you are draining directly into your tank. For a tighter seal use silicone or O ring.

 

Comment by Jim Fisk on January 5, 2014 at 10:17am

Using the cap is a bad idea especially if you also plan to use the top of the ibc for gbs. Why have to design and use 2 methods? Just look at my bell siphon design and place it in the opposite corner from your inflow as I have shown in my photos. You want the raw sewerage (sorry but that is exactly what it is) to have the maximum flow thru the gravel or media bed in order to have max exposure to the bacteria before returning to the sump (just like a municipal sewerage system which also uses media beds and then flows back into our rivers). Unless you build a surround style inlet manifold, which WILL plug up with raw waste, you will end up with a dead corner (no flow thru) and that spells trouble. Keep it simple stu...

Caps should be dismantled completely and washed, "o"ring and all, in dishWASHER detergent and then reattached using silicone or you will have leaks down the road. There is a terrible tendency to over engineer everything when simple is always better. As to siphon design I have now sold nearly 300 without a single complaint and they are simple but smart and based upon proven designs of others, mainly Affnan's 2-1 principal (look it up). As to mounting it in the IBC, they are tough enough (the ibcs) that we never use "bulkhead adapters" but simple TAs. (threaded adapters) with a #18 "o"ring on the 1" and a #15 on the smaller barrelponics 3/4" bell siphons (1 1/4" and 1" holes respectively). That cuts the price of each siphon nearly in half and in 1 1/2 years of continual operation we have never had a siphon or cap leak. Only leak I have had was a patch where I drilled the 1 1/4" hole right over a support joist by mistake and had to patch that hole. Measure AND LOOK twice: drill once

My goal is to help others build their systems at the best possible price but with the best possible results. With all that is going on in the US these days from GMOs to chemtrails, (go ahead and laugh at your own peril, have u tasted the snow lately?) feeding your family and neighborhood using aquaponcs is becoming more and more urgent. Big gov and big corp have merged and taken over at our detriment. Party affiliation makes no difference anymore so this is not a political statement. It is we the people vs the political/corporate banksters. Get your food system built now and plan for future expansion because you will want to expand when you taste the results of your labor.

Comment by DJ Wambach on January 4, 2014 at 10:23pm

I have looked at the IBC of Aquaponics and got many good ideas but did not see anyone using the cap for the bell siphon. 

Comment by Leo White Bear on January 4, 2014 at 7:45pm

As Tc stated, if you don't have it by now, download the free PDF "IBC of Aquaponics" It has fantastic information.  I tried to use the 2" cap for my bell siphon without success so I repositioned it to one corner of the grow bed.  That said, maybe you will have better luck than I so don't be discouraged from my experience.  I have a 14-unit IBC set up I'm still working on (the build is complete just doing the electric now) The units are all functioning good with the bell siphons.  If you have good luck with using the center cap, please post your results, I would be interested in reading it. 

Comment by DJ Wambach on January 4, 2014 at 4:54pm

I wanted to use the IBC cap that has a 2 inch threaded hole as my bell. I could not find a threaded adapter that is long enough to thread anything on the bottom. Does anyone have a photo of how this can be used?

Comment by TCLynx on December 29, 2013 at 6:58am

If you want lots of pictures and ideas, look around.  Jim's page will provide you with pictures and links to what he has been doing here.

Then you can do a search for the Free PDF "IBC of Aquaponics" that the people over on the BYAP forum put together.  They give detailed info about getting a very simple IBC system set up and cycling but the IBC of Aquaponics is SO MUCH MORE because they detailed systems using IBC of many members of the BYAP Forum so there are so many different styles and Layouts to look at from basic tiny systems up to almost commercial scale systems using the entire IBC as a grow bed (providing plenty of filtration for a trout system in the desert.)

Think of your personal goals, needs and restrictions for your system.  Just because some one else does something, doesn't mean that is how you should do it.  However, if some one gives advice like use bigger plumbing and even bigger drains, they probably have very good reason for those warnings.

Building a first smaller system to learn from and be able to use for quarantine of new fish is actually a good idea, make sure it will be big enough to handle and filter for a new batch of fish for at least 6-8 weeks.  Make sure your fist batch of fish is extra small though since you will probably be growing them out in the first learning system.  FYI a simple single IBC system is only good for about 12-16 fish growing out to 1 lb each.  If you grow channel catfish or some fish that will grow bigger than 1 lb in 12 months you definitely need to stock them accordingly (as in make sure they have plenty of fish tank and filtration to grow to 2-3 lb because if you over crowd them without enough filtration you will wind up with sick fish that are really horrible to watch die.)

Make sure to leave yourself enough space for walkways and access to fish tanks and sump tanks.  If it is too hard to access something for regular maintenance, it won't get done and the system will suffer for it.  Remember plants can grow into quite the jungle and plants that are all piled on top of each other are often not as productive as they might have been if you thin them out a bit.  You still need to be able to reach the plants to harvest.

Good Luck

Comment by Pat James on December 28, 2013 at 4:43pm

In my own experience, I had to "go large or go home"... mainly because I was converting an inground swimming pool with its whole established plumbing into an AP system. On top of that money was a major consideration.

Trying to be cheap (well TOO cheap) has cost me a little more in replacing some of my plumbing to a bigger size. That is my  feed lines for the grow beds started out as 3/4 inch and are now 1 1/2 inch. That change was only a little over a 100 bucks. I also started with styrofoam rafts instead of the blue Dow plates. I am replacing those as the old ones break.

But essentially, my system has not changed that much in the past year. I read all I could, listened to advice given in discussions here. Then I applied that advice as best I could. You can bet there are systems here that I would rather have. And if I were building from scratch, I would do alot of it very differently.

But part of the whole AP ideal is practicality...

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