A Community and Forum For Aquaponic Gardeners

How Do You Plumb Your IBC Fish Tank?

I erroneously put this discussion on Page 2. Not really sure anyone will find page 2. For now I'll leave it there but wanted you all to know it existed.

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Permalink Reply by coty on December 11, 2012 at 7:07pm

This is my first system and i am still building it but i basicly cut the top half of my ibc tank and flipped it 180 degrees for my grow bed. I braced it with 2x4s. I am building a bell syphon and cut/thread a whole in the center of my tank cap. Then im just going to use a dirty water submersable water pump to run water to my grow bed.

Permalink Reply by Jim Fisk on December 12, 2012 at 7:17am

Here is the link to page 2 which is not all that easy to find:

http://community.theaquaponicsource.com/group/ibc-aquaponics/page/h...

Permalink Reply by Pat James on January 1, 2013 at 2:41pm

Jim Fisk said:

Here is the link to page 2 which is not all that easy to find:

http://community.theaquaponicsource.com/group/ibc-aquaponics/page/h...

Permalink Reply by Pat James on January 1, 2013 at 2:43pm

I just ot my delivery of 8 IBC totes. each one has the cap on top but NOT the center plug. At a quick glance it looks like a 2 inch threaded design. I hope it is standard and easily matched.

Permalink Reply by Vlad Jovanovic on January 1, 2013 at 4:50pm

Congrats on your purchase Pat :)

If your talking about the bung hole center cap/hole (in the center of of the 6" lid)...they come in two flavors.... 2" NPT fine thread, and 2" coarse thread. I took all 8 of mine out on purpose and just screwed my 2" bulkhead fittings into that center hole for my standpipes. If for some reason you should need those 2" bung caps, you shouldn't have a hard time finding them online for a couple of bucks...or making them with a piece of plastic and a lathe.

Permalink Reply by Pat James on January 2, 2013 at 10:21am

I am going to start a new discussion with some of the questions I have but for the plumbing, I will continue here..

I am going to use both the top and bottom halves of the IBC's as growbeds.

Looking at the photographs others have posted it seems that most do not use the center cap for their siphon. What do you do with it? i was thinking the easiest and safest (regarding leaks) would be to use a 2 inch threaded fitting an then cap it. maybe even silicone all around just in case. Then cut and install a smaller diameter bell siphon on the side opposite the in-flow.

That brings up how you use the existing drain and ball valve in the bottom half. Or do you ignore that as well and plumb it like the top for consistency?

And that leads to the optimum sizes for the bell siphon (and it's components) and inflow piping for an IBC.

Permalink Reply by Jim Fisk on February 25, 2013 at 7:02am

Hey Pat, to ans. your old question that I just came across:

I use a little silicone on the threads and close up the top lid as I like to feed the gb at one rear corner and drain at the adjacent corner so the cap is of no use. Also I want all my siphons the same so why deal with a dif. siphon for every other GB?

Next: since there are only enough metal pallets for every other GB I don't use them at all under GBs but rather make a common platform with PT decking (they condense underneath and plain wood will rot) which keeps them all looking the same and at the same base height.

On my GBs the ball drain serves no purpose and just stays shut. Be sure to remove and clean the valve as chems get behind the ball. I find that in the open position the ball is loose enough to flush behind it on the ones that are really hard to get off.

The bell siphon we have addressed before so I will not go into that here other than for an IBC a 1" stand pipe = 2" funnel top = 3" bell (x 12"h) = 4" Gravel guard (spiral sliced half way up) x 15" h.

Permalink Reply by Dottie Kinn on March 10, 2013 at 2:48pm

Hi Jim,

Thanks for the good info but what in the world is PT decking???

Permalink Reply by Tim Kelbert on August 18, 2013 at 11:46am

Here is how we made ours. We just added the second bed. The fish are in the ground utilizing the ibc with radiant tubing around it and in the cement slab. E live in wyoming and will be trying to grow all winter. We will be tested soon.

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Permalink Reply by Jim Fisk on August 18, 2013 at 4:34pm

PT stands for "pressure Treated" as in deck planks.

Dottie Kinn said:

Hi Jim,

Thanks for the good info but what in the world is PT decking???

Permalink Reply by Jim Fisk on December 18, 2013 at 3:57pm

That should work.

Tim Kelbert said:

Here is how we made ours. We just added the second bed. The fish are in the ground utilizing the ibc with radiant tubing around it and in the cement slab. E live in wyoming and will be trying to grow all winter. We will be tested soon.

Permalink Reply by Anthony Payne on December 18, 2013 at 5:58pm

Hay I'm getting my first two totes in the morning,330's. I'm thinking of inverting the tanks so the 6” opening is in the bottom center to suck up waste easier to send to the swirl bio-filter. Or should I just plumb them in series for easier expansion. Love to see what others have done. I have a design in my head. I'm putting the totes in each corner of gh with the bio-filter between them and emptying into a 300 gal sunken watering trough for a sump and pushing the water to the beds, and back to sump. Dose this sound like a decent set up? Some input would be nice as this is AP number one for me thanks. Oh I'm thinking of running 1 inch for pipe on the pump and 2inch on drains. The bell siphon would be 1inch drop into a 2 inch pipe to the sump.