How do make a failproof flood/drain system, when my growbed is UNDER my fishtank?

[Tommy Denda]

Hi everyone

 

This is my first post in this forum, and i'm completely new to aquaponics,

so bare with me :)

 

I have been using the last couple of weeks to come up with a small scale system.

About 6.6 gallons.

 

 

 

This is my quite primitive miniature model, but it gives an idea of where i'm going.

The blue cardboard paper is the fish tank, (i'm thinking about placing the fish tank on a

transparent box so the bottom of the fishtank, levels with the top of the growbed (the black cardboard paper), the growbed will be some sort of plastic tray, the thing on the left is going to be a mountain with a waterfall, in the right side of the picture a pile of stones wich is there to conseale the corners of the fish tank (here i want plants instead of stones i think).

 

The growbed will be about 5.9 inches high

 

The fish tank will be about 19.7 inches in lenght, 9.8 in width and 7.8 in height.

 

I'm thinking that maybe i can grow some kind of ivy, that doesnt have to deep roots, and it will

be sorrunding the fishtank, looking like a forest floor.

 

In the right side of the fishtank i will drill a hole or two, attatch some plastictubes and place them

in the growbed ( plastic tray),where the ivy will be, make some holes in the tube, and the water then feeds the plants.

Then i'm thinking, that i can place a pump IN the growbed (plastic tray) that will pump the water up to the top of the mountain, and the water will then slide down into the fish tank and give the creatures a bit of oxygen.

 

But what do i do when the pump suddently breakes down, the plastic tube from the pump breaks loose and the growbed gets full of water? I have the fishtank IN the growbed, so how can i make this system so failproof as possible? I just cant seem to figure this out. help...

 

Maybe drill some holes in the top of the growbed, attatch some plastic tubes, and stick them out my window or leed into my toilet...Hmm... maybe not :)

 

The creatures in the fish tank probably is going to be some prawns, snails and a couple of fish that can thrive in 6.6 gallons of water.

 

I would like to have this whole setup, standing on top of my bookshelf,  so i can be looking at a miniature model of a forest, a waterfall, and in the middle, a small lake, but i don't want want all my books wet, if the growbed suddently gets flooded!

So please tell me if you have ANY idea how tomake the simplest... flood and drain system (is that the right term..?) with this setup and i'll be the happiest man on the planet :)

 

Since i'm at it, i have been wondering about having plants, sand, stones, wood in the fishtank. What are my possibilities, if i want to give the fish some hidingplaces, but still not mess up the quality of the water?

 

Tommy

 

 

 

[Tommy Denda]

Thanks for the ilustrations :)

If the fish tank floats, the water will drip into the growbed from the sides of the fish tank , and IN the growbed is the extra container collecting all the water, coming from the rim of the fish tank, down to the drilled hole (the outgoing pipe), which is placed about 2.8 inches below the surface of the water in the fish tank.

 

If the fish tank is 19.7 inches in lenght, 9.8 in width and 7.8 in height, the amont of water will be

about 2.3 US gallons, and the extra container placed behind the fish tank, and IN the growbed, will take these 2.3 gallons and a bit more just to be sure if the fishtank or the growbed floats. I hope i'm making sence :)

 

So i choose version number 1, and my solution to the risk of water flowing over the top of the fish tank,

is to place an extra container in the growbed, collecting the water.

 

To me this seems like the best solution, but i might be wrong.

[TCLynx]

but if the water flows from the fish tank into the other container, what is going to keep the pump from running dry in the grow bed when all the excess water flows into the other container instead of into the grow bed?  But if you add enough water to fill the extra container so that it overflows into the grow bed for the pump to pump it then you don't have the extra capacity to catch water and keep it from overflowing.  Seems more complex to get it all balanced right.

[Tommy Denda]

Hmm... I see. Then maybe i just make sure that the gb can hold

ALL of the 2.3 gallons coming from the fish tank, and a bit more to be sure my books stay dry.

Then i just have to make sure that there is space enough in the gb to hold the water,

when adding lava rocks etc. and plants.