Aquaponics build - please guys tell me what I missed

Hi all,

This is my next 3 month project, I will add costing as I go along.

Regards, St. John

 

Hi there

I know a picture is worth a thousand words, but maybe talk us through what you're planning here? Things like:

System processes (what flows to what to what, seperated/joined how, pumped by/gravity fed etc.)
What ponics you're going to aqua (species choices)

As well as anything else you think might be important. It'll help us all understand a little more about what's going on there, and what directions you can take from here.

Regards,

 

Hi,

I will have to sit down and type it all out in depth.

Basically, I would like a fluidized sump, feeding through filter and sponge then ceramics tubes back to sponge and filter into an outside tank. (Tank will hold koi)

Then we have a pump to the first three raised rectangles on bottom of pic two, these originally were ebb and flow, I think with a quick tweak, I can use bell syphon to change the set up and remove my pump.

The last of these 3 will run into the others through a pipe at the bottom and have an over flow incase the bell fails.

Regards,
St. John

 

Why the extra filtration ? Maybe a particle filter ... but is the idea not that your grow media is your filtration beds ?

 

As @f-fish said. No need for the sump. You will actually hamper the planted part by removing nutriants that they need.

 

as was said before a sump filter is not necissary. what you could do (which is how i had my system setup) is have your kio "pond" a constant water level with an overflow pipe into a sump where your pump is housed (no filter media other than mechanical filtration ie. a bag of sorts or sponge). this sump will need to be easily accesible for maintenance and cleaning and also to monitor water levels. the pump can then feed your grow beds with a bell siphon so that the beds are constantly flooding then draining. these drain straight into your kio "pond" creating some water flow and oxygenating the water.

what are you looking at growing in them as different stocking levels will obviously provide different levels of nutrients. your leafy plants like spinach require less nutriants than something like tomato or pumpkin. also you may need to add some micronutrients to the water from time to time depending on what you grow.

as a side note go have a look at the living seeds heirloom seeds site. some really cool things you can grow.

if you have any other questions i can attempt to answer them to the best of my knowledge and experience.