Plan for spring

[Windy Elliott]

I have a basement dedicated to aquariums and two aquaponic systems. Unfortunately none of my tanks are larger than 75 gallons and I have 5 adult breeding tilapia, 1 group of fingerlings, and 1 group of fry. I'm going to run out of room for my tilapia fairly quickly I think. I would love to have a 300 or 400 gallon tank for them to continue growing in, but I don't have the room in my basement and the weather is going to turn too cold outside for me to move them out. So we are going to suffer through the summer and plan on building a new summer system outside.

 

This is what I would like to do. I have a deck that is 9x11 over a backyard patio that is about twice that size. I would like to build an IBC tote system where the grow bed is actually on the deck with planter boxes around it for additional grow space while the fish tank from the aquaponic system is down in the shade under the deck close to some rain barrels and a small outdoor greenhouse. I am trying to maximize the space I am using to farm in my townhouse and hopefully be growing most of my own food and have several tilapia growing to dinner size by the middle of the summer.

 

I have several months to plan this out and execute it and I plan on trying to build the planters for the deck as well as the IBC system from scratch. Please feel free to give me advice and input into things I need to consider as I try to build this system.

[TCLynx]

What is the deck made out of?  If pressure treated wood, you will probably want to make sure water doesn't drip from it into your fish tank.

 

Do some careful research into pumps since heights will greatly affect their efficiency, you will probably need a far bigger pump than you are used to lifting water that high.

[Windy Elliott]

Crud. It is pressure treated wood. hmmm.... pump efficiency. I wonder if I could make myself a water wheel instead of using a pump to drive everything. That may be beyond my ability.

[Rick Stillwagon]

You can prevent water from dripping in to the fish tank with a lid on the tank, and get a waterfall pump. They have plenty of power to do the job just calculate your head requirements and flow needed after that. They usually have a chart that comes with the pump.

[TCLynx]

Water wheel might be fun but they take up a lot of space and then you would need something to turn the water wheel if you want it to lift water  (most water wheels are actually being turned by flowing water from a river and either lifting water to an aqueduct or the flow of the water is powering gears to turn something else like saws or a grinding mill or something else.)

 

To turn a water wheel attached to an aquaponics system you would need to get the energy from some where to turn it.  Either a wind mill or by pumping water up to flow down and turn the water wheel but that would kinda defeat the purpose.

 

You can find some good pumps to do what you want to do but just keep in mind that the higher you pump the more energy it takes so you will need to find a good efficient pump to keep from getting a nasty shock on your first power bill after setting it up.

 

Also, you do get a bit of a bonus for the height, you can really aerate water by having it fall and splash.

Also, you could hang towers along the rail of the balcony.

[Windy Elliott]

I haven't seen any towers. I would have to see an example of those I think. It might make it a bit more complicated since there has to be a cover over the fish tank.

[TCLynx]

You can do gutters under the towers and direct the flow to the fish tank.

Bottom left of this picture you see the gutter under the end two towers.

 

I'm also doing something with durascrim liner connected to rails to catch the water under the expansion to this system.

[Windy Elliott]

Happen to have a set of instructions? ;-)

TCLynx said:

You can do gutters under the towers and direct the flow to the fish tank.

Bottom left of this picture you see the gutter under the end two towers.

 

I'm also doing something with durascrim liner connected to rails to catch the water under the expansion to this system.

[Chi Ma]

Can you take a picture of your backyard/deck to give us a sense of what you are working with?

[Windy Elliott]

Sure. Here's a couple pics of the deck, the back yard, and I also included some pictures of my basement.

[Chi Ma]

Hey your house looks like my house. LOL tanks everywhere. What I envision for your set up is a NFT system or a DWC wrapping around your. If it was possible I'd put the largest tank you could get into your basement and pump the water into the NFT/DWC from your basement. That way you can keep the water temp stable year round for your fish. You can filter the solids from the fish tank with something like this. Cost to make the system would be less than a media system because you won't have to buy media.

[Windy Elliott]

hmmmm... That would mean throwing out everything I already have in the basement. And getting the water out through the sliding glass door would result in an issue when it comes to heating or cooling the room. I would have to put in plumbing through the wall. I also have several kinds of fish, so I need more than one tank. The tilapia breeding situation requires 3 or 4 alone. I think I would like to keep the indoor system, but add one large tank for outdoors and work around that. Yes, I would need to either heat it, or empty it in the winter, but then I could put in a large setup while still keeping my current systems and growing my tilapia and koi.

[Chi Ma]

Okie dokie. Just an idea:)