Aquaponics Design phase begin.

[Philip Vanderhoofven]

Hello all,

I'm relieved to find an online community to bounce some ideas off of. I have been thinking about aquaponics since I discovered it a year ago on a PBS special. I took notes and started searching for simple design parameters. Such as how many fish will one person eat in a year. I know there is an answer out there but really its subjective to the person. I eat fish maybe every other week so thats maybe 23lbs of fish I'd eat in a year. Anyway, I went out to Olomana Gardens in Waimanalo, Oahu for a tour and have been thinking about designing and building a small home system ever since. Here is what I have come up with so far;

 

3 - 8X2 ft growing beds 12 inches deep (lava rock growing medium)

1 - 250 gallon fish tank

up to 48 lbs of fish at any one time.

 

Here's the twist - 3 - 8X2 ft rabbit cages under the growing beds.

And another twist - Make the fish tank look like a pond by burying most of it and have the return lines from the growing beds cascade as a water fall.

 

The rest of ideas that I want to incorporate are;

 

 3X bell syphons for the flood/drain growing beds.

maybe a smaller pond up higher for duck weed and breeding the replacement talapia.

 

Any helpful ideas are welcome.

[Philip Vanderhoofven]

GROW BED Test. Will it hold water? Will the bunnies get crushed? Will the silicon seal on the stand pipe leak? Will the bell siphon work as advertised?

 

Grow Bed inside measurements 2 feet by 8 feet long almost 12 inches deep- rare shape, special order, specially made by KODAMA  for the Wiamanalo feed supply store.

Math 2 X 8 = 16 cubic feet (There are 7.48 gallons in a cubic foot)

16 X 7.48 = 119.68 gallons

 

But the Stand pipe is only 10 inches tall on this end (10 & 12 have a common denominator of 2 = 5/6)

119.68 * 5/6 = 99.73 Gallons (3 of these grow beds = my fish tank size with out any media in them)

 

Okay notice under the grow bed my two bunnies. That's Pierre looking this way and you can see this hugh rump - that is Annabelle facing the other way. Will they survive my grow bed test?

1 gallon of water = 8.35 lbs

119.68 gallons = 999.32 lbs that is half a ton of water

luckily we are only dealing with 99.73 gallons = 832.7 lbs still very heavy.

 

And I drilled a hole through that really expensive grow bed - yikes and I didnt know the uniseal was for sold by Aquatic eco system (Thanks TCLynx, you sell them too right?) I used silicon to seal the stand pipe in place. But the silicon package says it is only rated for 30 gallons. I'm expecting more then 3 times that at 99.73 gallons.

 

Then my final question - will the Bell Siphon work and will it work without a snorkle? I had to push the "I believe Button" on this one. Some say the Snorkle is not needed. Who dreamed up a snorkle for a bell siphon if its not needed? I didnt put one on.

 

Well this could get really wet if any of these tests fail

 

 

[Philip Vanderhoofven]

Here is an overview of my system set up so far. Space is at a premium so it might be hard to convey how tight of a space I'm working with. Hey here are TOBY and RANGER running toward me. Hey boys - they are very small dogs so for scale you can see this is tight. This is on the side of the house and for the most part it has been wasted space where it gets really dry and only weeds grow and we have stored stuff that we think we might need some day that is not worthy of the garage.

 

From this end; the 300 gallon tank to become my fish tank 3/4 inch supply line from this end goes up 5 feet and through a 45 and 90 degree PVC fitting and then along the wall 32 feet where it drains. Notice along the CMU wall vanishing point how the pipe does slants slightly down to help the pump out. The pump wont have to push the water 32 feet along the wall because of the slight slope off level toward my end grow bed.

The posts are greater than 8 feet apart. I had to move this far end post 5 inches to get my tank to fit along the wall.

You can see the three grow bed tables lagged with 1/2 inch bolts to the 4x6 posts.

Only the far table has a grow bed at present because they cost $350 for "special plastic HDPE - food grade U/V protected" yeah whatever - $350 but does it hold water? We are about to find out.

[TCLynx]

Hay Philip,

I've never seen uniseals or top hat grommits or any of the similar things at a local hardware type store.  Aquatic Eco Systems has them (as do I), suprised you didn't get them from there since you were ordering other things as well.

But hopefully your home make bulkhead with silicone will work.

 

I've often done small set ups without gluing, just make sure to secure any pipes likely to get bumped or kicked and anything under enough pressure that they could blow off and give you a fish water shower.

 

As to the siphon snorkel.  It is only needed if your siphon doesn't break (shut off) properly.

 

[Philip Vanderhoofven]

Status update 1/11/11,
Plumbing is all cut and connected dry. Not sure if I’m going to glue it all together, depends on if it doesn’t leak much hooked up as it is.
Kudo's to one of my best tools, a Pipe Cutter by Lynex, that I just happened to have from some plumbing repair work we did around the house. It was worth every penny. Both supply and return lines are cut, dry connected and hung in place – The only part that pipe cutter didn’t cut was the outside shell to my bell siphon. Talking about the bell siphon I didn’t put on a snorkel – please tell me why it needs a snorkel and I’ll put one on it.
Back to the pipes, I predrilled all the pvc pipe brackets onto a CMU wall and then screw in the concrete set screws. Thank you Black and Decker for a nice drill that did all the work for me.
As for my first grow bed – I drilled the stand pipe hole and put silicone to seal it in place. I couldn’t find the "Uniseal" brand gasket at either home depot of Hardware Hawaii so I'm hoping the silicone works. The silicone package read that it is limited to 30 gallons. Well, it’s going to have to hold at least 100 gallons based on my 2X8 foot grow bed with a 10 inch stand pipe. To build the Bell Siphon, I followed the instructions from CTAHR – University of Hawaii – Check it out.
Tonight I will fill up the one grow bed with water and make sure it holds water okay and then test out the bell siphon once the water in the bed reaches the stand pipe level. We will see if it works as designed.
The other part I need to report is I ordered testing equipment from Aquatic Eco-systems to measure Temperature, pH, Ammonia levels, Both Nitrite and Nitrate's, and Dissolved Oxygen levels. 6 different items of hazardous material and Fedex is bringing them – expensive so we’ll see how it works once the scientific gear gets here. Anybody come up with a practical log sheet for their aquaponic system yet?
Oh and I also found out where to purchase some Tilapia for my 300 gallon fish tank - Wiamanalo Feed supply store. The same place where I got my Fish Tank and Grow bed - hahaha

[TCLynx]

May people do manage to heavily over stock tilapia but you probably don't need the stress so it is always better to take it easy on the fish numbers early on.

[Philip Vanderhoofven]

Thank you TCLynx, I was just going through your plumbing class slides when you responded. I will try to start with 15 fingerlings after a month long fishless cycle and wont add more until I add more grow beds.

[TCLynx]

NO, don't start with 100 fish.  Stick with the more reasonable amount.  And actually if you are only setting up one grow bed to start, you should start with fewer fish.  What happens if you get extra fish but something comes up and you don't get the other two grow beds installed before the fish start getting big?

 

If you are worried about not getting enough nutrients quickly enough from small fish, you always have the option of fishless cycling before you get the fish.  Then you can be assured of being cycled up and having plenty of nutrients to get plants going even if you only put in a minimal fish load to start.

 

For one 2ft by 8ft grow bed (even though it is a bit shallow) you could probably still get away with 16 tilapia, then add 16 more after you get each additional grow bed set up.  (I'm pretending each square foot of grow bed is equal to a cubic foot of media bed even though your beds are not that deep, I'm figuring that with tilapia in a good climate you can get away with that little bit of overage and still manage.)  Now of course we know that once a system is mature and the person tending it is experienced, you may get away with more fish but you should never stock to the max with a new system and expect to catch up later.

[Philip Vanderhoofven]

On Saturday 22 Oct 2012, I bought all the start up components for my initial aquaponics system. This is a date to remember even though its not all set up yet and I dont have fish or plants growing in it yet. You have to understand something, for me its about the journey toward the destination. The fun part is moving in the right direction and Saturday was a hugh step forward towards reality of what was just a dream for so long. Now I could have marked my starting date back several years when I began researching and considering the criteria and then designed my own system in my head. Usually I fill up an entire journal with drawings and calculations and thoughts. This time I havent drawn up anything. I dont know why but I have it all down in my head and I'm just building it.

 

I now have;

1).  A 300 gallon fish tank which has an inch of rain water in it at present. It doesnt quite fit perfectly in the space yet but I'm going to move a 4X6 post over and reframe up the arbor in order to allow it to fit perfectly. Once I get my first grow bed set up and the plumbing going then I will cycle the system for a month. Plan is to keep the tank filled to within a few inches of the top for freeboard in case the 43-60 Talapia fingerlings get jumpy. Should I start with a hundred fingerlings?

 

2). One 2X8 foot grow bed 10 inches deep. I plan to purchase 2 more grow beds over the next several months after I get one set up and working first. 100 gallon volume for each grow bed for a total of 300 gallon grow bed volume to match my fish tank. You figure once I add about 50 gallons of the black cinder growing medium to each of the three grow beds that it will only require 150 gallons of water to fill them. If that should ever happen at the same time, I'll at least have 150 gallons of water still in my fish tank.

 

3). One 950 gallon/hour mag drive pump and all the plumbing pvc piping. My pump has a 3/4 inch fitting so out from there I stayed with 3/4 in pipe for my supply line. The pump has to move the water up 4 to five feet head height and then 30 feet horizontally to my end grow bed. At 6 ft of head height I think the table on the pump said it is rated at around 700 gallons per hour. If I divert 100 gallons back to the fish tank for areation then that leaves enough water to fill all three beds up 4 times an hour turning over my entire volume of fish water twice per hour. For the Bell syphons I plan on an inch diameter stand pipe set as high in the grow bed as possible up to ten inches.

 

4). Three 2X8 foot grow bed tables framed with a 2x6 foot box lumber and abx plywood with 2X4's 16 inch on center. Each table top is lagged with half inch diameter bolts to 4X6 posts sitting on concrete pillars. They are sturdy because they will have to support a half ton of water and rocks. A gallon of water weighs 8.35 lbs.

 

5). Also the twist with the Rabbit cages under neath - yep I have built the first 8X2 foot rabbit cage split into two cages with a hay rack down the middle. It is hanging from under the first grow bed table with one Doe and one Buck living there now. Plan to build two more double cages the same way and encrease the herd by two more Does and then have two spare cages for growing out females and males seperately.

 

Thanks for reading my plan and if you see an issue with it please let me know . Thank you.

[Claudio J Tracchia]

your question on water pump. Get a pump for a 300gallos aquarium or larger what is importan is the amount of water flow in to the siphon to make it work. How you control this is connecting a T coupling whit a valve so you can divert the exses of water back to the tank and used as a aeration. The system, for what I know it has to run continuously no timer need it

[Claudio J Tracchia]

The rule of thumb is one pound of fish per 5 to 7 gallons of water for tilapias, for beginners like me it translate to one fish for every 7 gallons of water on the safe side you can add more fish later and also reduce or increase  the amount of water, not because your tank holds 300 gl it have to be fill to the top. Murray Hallam tell it very clear that for a 1000 liters tank you need 1000 lt of grow bed. 280gl +- .

Now here come the patient of a farmer, because after all this is farming and a challenge for me because I press buttons all day long. Every thing haves to mature.....the fish from fingerlings to plate sise one year, so you have to wait one year to eat 40+ fish, staggering is the key and also take time, the grow bed have to mature as well maybe 3 months for the bacteria and worms to develop for a beginner like me start with only one small bed and wen the bed mature meaning your plants look green not yellow or brown ad another bed and so on. remember that your tank hold 300 gallons  / 7 = 43 fingerlings not full grow fish meaning that you lack pup.

Aquaponics is so exciting that many of us rush blind folder and fail and abandon every thing and you don't want to here " I told you so"  this is not a computer or a computer game I tell everybody, this is nature and allow us to play whit it. And another thing... don't take short cuts like I did or you going to end up like me at the pizza place.