Planning My First System

[Ellen Roelofs]

I am working on planning my first system.  I live in a 700 square foot apartment, so it's going to have be pretty compact and tidy (it's going in my living room).  Still, it's important to me to grow food fish (tilapia).  I have my eye on a galvanized steel 175 gallon stock tank (6x2x2), and I have a 4x2x1 fiberglass sink I'd like to convert to a grow bed.  It sits on a steel stand, which I hope to modify to sit over the fish tank. For lighting, I was thinking 4 x t8, but am still exploring. The grow bed will sit directly in front of a large window that gets direct morning sun, so that will help quite a bit.

 

I want to do drain/fill, but don't know how to set it up yet.  There's so much marketing and crap to wade through doing searches... can anyone direct me to some good reading to further my project design? Also, any feedback on my ideas so far would be more than welcome.

 

Thanks!

Ellen

[Ellen Roelofs]

Okay, I'll start digging in right here then!  Right now I have planned a roughly 185 gal fish tank, and two grow beds, the 90 gal is the top of the IBC fish tank, and the 45 gal is a 4' fiberglass sink.  I was planning to have the GBs drain (via bell siphons) directly back into the FS.  I am wondering how I can regulate my system so the beds do not end up full at the same time.  My concern is trying to keep the water level from getting too low in the fish tank.  Any thoughts?

[Chi Ma]

You can have 2 pumps on an alternating schedule.

Ellen Roelofs said:

Okay, I'll start digging in right here then!  Right now I have planned a 240 gal fish tank, and two grow beds, the 100 gal is the top of the IBC fish tank, and the 45 gal is a 4' fiberglass sink.  I was planning to have the GBs drain (via bell siphons) directly back into the FS.  I am wondering how I can regulate my system so the beds do not end up full at the same time.  My concern is trying to keep the water level from getting too low in the fish tank.  Any thoughts?

[Ellen Roelofs]

Then how do I make sure a grow bed isn't sitting (almost) full when its pump timer shuts off?

[Chi Ma]

Use a barrelponic style system. You'll have to figure optimum timing out.

 

[Ellen Roelofs]

Do you know if anyone has set one up indoors (that doesn't involve a pop bottle peeing all over the living room floor, which is what I'm imagining at the moment)?

[Chi Ma]

Lol. I can't find a vid but here is another solution. 

 

 

[Ellen Roelofs]

Ah, yes, I have tried reading Affnan's blog but haven't really taken the time to understand it yet. With Affnan's valve, the water level must still reach stand pipe height to work, right?  I don't understand how this will solve the problem of the pump timer cutting off with water in the grow bed?

[Chi Ma]

There is a hole at the bottom of the stand pipe to let the water drain completely. He calls it a weep hole.

Ellen Roelofs said:

Ah, yes, I have tried reading Affnan's blog but haven't really taken the time to understand it yet. With Affnan's valve, the water level must still reach stand pipe height to work, right?  I don't understand how this will solve the problem of the pump timer cutting off with water in the grow bed?

[David Waite]

Ellen in your case the 240 gal tank will feed or support 240 gal of grow beds so again you will have to use less water in the tank. If you only have 2 grow beds that equal 140 gal then thats the amount of water you should have in the aquarium. Definitely dont use the flush system indoors they are a pain in the ass. Use a timer and or constant run the pump with affnan siphons. You should drop the 100 gal tank and look for  a bed with about 40 or 50 gal size. This way you wont be filling so much bed out of the aquarium and dropping the water level beyond the recommended 20 percent level. So find 4- 50 gal beds and run them out of your fish tank. Use affnan siphons and even if all fill at the same time which will happen, it will only be about 75 gal of water. This wont be a norm but your system will cycle fine. The other option is a CHOP system with a sump but my fingers are sore. hehe.

[Ellen Roelofs]

David, thanks for the tips. I am confused, though about why I should use less water in the fish tank?  I'd rather give my fish more room than less... tilapia are big fish, they need room to turn around.  I am not planning to stock very densely.

[Ellen Roelofs]

ok, so it would eventually drain through the weep hole.  I saw on his diagram he says to use a 4mm weep hole.  I wonder if I could do bigger to allow for faster draining?

Chi Ma said:

There is a hole at the bottom of the stand pipe to let the water drain completely. He calls it a weep hole.

Ellen Roelofs said:

Ah, yes, I have tried reading Affnan's blog but haven't really taken the time to understand it yet. With Affnan's valve, the water level must still reach stand pipe height to work, right?  I don't understand how this will solve the problem of the pump timer cutting off with water in the grow bed?

[Chi Ma]

I think just as long as your weep hole doesn't drain faster than you fill it you will be ok.

Ellen Roelofs said:

ok, so it would eventually drain through the weep hole.  I saw on his diagram he says to use a 4mm weep hole.  I wonder if I could do bigger to allow for faster draining?

Chi Ma said:

There is a hole at the bottom of the stand pipe to let the water drain completely. He calls it a weep hole.

Ellen Roelofs said:

Ah, yes, I have tried reading Affnan's blog but haven't really taken the time to understand it yet. With Affnan's valve, the water level must still reach stand pipe height to work, right?  I don't understand how this will solve the problem of the pump timer cutting off with water in the grow bed?