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Hot on the heels of starting the ‘cycling’ of the Aquaponics system using the small beds around the edge, the big central growbeds are going in. Here’s how they have progressed:
And final one for the night – the growbeds in place, drainage fittings all complete, and the gravel starting to go in. They are going to need a LOT of gravel – I foresee a week of shifting gravel coming up
There we go – the growbeds on the long side are all done, the drains are all connected, and they’re plumbed in to the fish tank. And we’ve finally taken the plunge – the pump is now running automatically, once an hour:
Now I just need to start keeping an eye on the Ammonia readings to see how our bacteria are going – I guess they’ll be growing VERY slowly this week wth the frost we’ve been having.
We’ve made some major progress on the Aquaponics in the last couple of weeks, and now I’m getting ready to start ‘cycling’ the system. This is what you need to do to build up the colonies of beneficial bacteria in the growbeds that will clean the water once we have added the fish. To minimise the risk to the fish you do this cycling ‘fishless’, by adding ammonia manually to the water. Once the bacteria are going well they will feed off this ammonia, turning it into nitrates for the plants. Without the bacteria, ammonia in the fish water would quickly reach a fatal level, so we need to have the bacteria well established before we add any fish.
We’re going to start cycling the completed side of the aquaponics system while I complete the plumbing and gravel-washing on the other sections, and here is the completed side:
Now you can see the plumbing all connected it hopefully makes more sense: The water overflows from the fish tank at the back into the dark grey pipes which feed each growbed. The water then slowly drains through holes in the bottom of the growbeds into the white return pipe, which returns it to the sump.
I’ve connected up the pump too. It’s quite an impressive beast:
What’s even more impressive is the flow from it – the pipe in the photo is 38mm (1.5″):
So now I just have to get the bacteria to build up and we’ll be ready for the fish – I might even start to plant some seeds in the beds while we’re waiting.
As my work laptop is currently a smoking wreck on the bench of our local IT support guys, I’ve had a bit more time to work on the Aquaponics system. And so here we are: the first growbed is ready. All the piping to it is cut, the standpipe and standpipe surround are in, and I’ve filled it with gravel.
I have to admit, that is a pretty good feeling – even though I now have another 11 small ones like this, and then 3 large ones to do. Pretty fantastic stuff really!
Not long and we’ll be planting, and adding fish.
Finally, after much work inside and outside the polytunnel over the last few weeks, we have put the polythene onto the tunnel. We only just got there – had a full-on Sunday getting everything ready and then doing it. We haven’t finished yet – one end needs more battens, and we need to put the doors back on. We did manage to do it though, and just in time – the first frost of the season was last night, and while everything outside the polytunnel was frosty, everything inside was just a few degrees warmer, with no frost. Not bad bearing in mind we only got the cover on at dusk, so it didn’t have much time to heat up yesterday.
Here’s what it looked like just after we had finished – showing the fantastic lighting:
Today we’ve started to put the completed growbed stands in. The growbeds now all have drain holes in their bases and the drains are almost all in place. We’ve even connected all the sumps together (nice big 110 mm pipe). Now I just need to get the tubing and fittings for the drains and inlets and we’ll be ready to start the system up.
Here are some more pics of the growbeds and stands:
Steel & Timber growbed stand:
With growbed in place:
Showing the three linked sumps:
And a frosty growbed sitting outside the polytunnel:
Following last weekend’s adventures with timber (cutting the legs for the stands and the fish tanks), The steel rails for the top of the growbed stands is now here. Luckily it’s cut to size, so now I just need to finish the legs off, drill some holes, and assemble the things.
Easy 
The aquaponics system is all coming together – the tanks and growbeds arrived yesterday. Here they are laid out in their final positions in the polytunnel, and luckily thay all fit! Now I just have to do a little bit of digging to sink the sump (the mid-size tank at the top), get the stands made that’ll support the growbeds, and do the plumbing!
Our Aquaponic Polytunnel
OK, here’s the latest iteration of our Aquaponic System. I’ve managed to squeeze another two small growbeds in, and have added the pipes to help show how it works . I’ve mainly been working on the planting list to see how well it’s going to do at feeding us all, and from that I’ve realised that some seedling-prep areas will be required, you can see these lattice-style designs at the right-hand end, designed to be a great spot for sowing and storing seedling prior to planting out in the beds.
I’ve even added a small non-aquaponic bed under the south-facing row of growbeds – shown here in green. I’m going to try peanuts in there as they should like the temperature and they are just the right height to fit under the growbeds. It’ll be an interesting experiment!
Not sure whether it’s the joy of finally finding a house for us to settle in for the next decade-or-so, or whether it’s the delight at finding a garden that, due to its orientation and terracing, is perfect for a garden split between agricultural and familial duties. Or is it just that spring is in the air? a glorious spring at that!
Whatever it is, my mind is embracing the possiblities of our new situation. A situation that lends itself to a no-holds barred aquaponics system. Gone is my initial timidity. Stuff it, let’s go stright to a BIG system. One that’ll feed the family, and then some.
To maximise its potential, we’re going for a system that is referred to as CHIFT PIST (Constant Height In Fish Tank, Pump in Sump Tank) or CHOP (Constant Height – One Pump). Essentially what this means is that the fish can remain serene, and undisturbed in their tank, with a large sump tank handling all of the variation in water height as water is pumped through to the growbeds. Here’s how it works:
- The system starts with the sump and fish tank full of water, and the growbeds empty.
- A timer turns the pump on – the pump is located in or near the sump.
- The pump transfers water from the sump to the fishtank.
- The fishtank overflows, passing water to the growbeds by gravity.
- The growbeds fill with water, while some starts to flow slowly out of the growbeds to the sump.
- With the growbeds full, the timer stops the pump, and the fishtank stops overflowing.
- The water from the growbeds drains under gravity into the sump.
So it only needs one pump, a timer, some careful pipework and a sump large enough to handle all of the water from the growbeds.
Following my last post on Greenhouses and Polytunnels we’re going for a HUGE polytunnel. Would love a greenhouse, but for the size that we’re after it’s not in our budget. Here’s our proposed system:
Large Polytunnel Aquaponic System
It’s a bit of a monster! Here are the details:
- The fish tank (rear right) is 6′x4′ and 4′ deep – 2700 litres
- There are three rows of growbeds : Ten that are 4′x2′x12″, and three that are 7′x4′x18″ (although these will only be filled to a depth of 12″).
- Total growbed volume – 4300 litres.
- Growbed:Fishtank ratio is 1.5:1
- The sump is made up of three interlinked tanks,7′x4′x18″.
- Total sump volume is 3050 litres.
- Sump:Growbed ratio is 0.7:1
So those are the tech specs, what does it mean for food? This system should provide more than enough fish and non-root veges for a family of four – that’s my estimate, based on other systems I’ve seen. That’s our target – at least from year 2!
While I’m keen to see how much food we can get out of an Aquaponic system setup in a cold garden in the North West of England, I think I’m going to try and restrain my “bull in a china shop” enthusiasm and start off with a small development system. Once that’s balanced and working, I’ll be ready to develop a full system with the aim of providing year-round food for our family.
With that in mind, here’s my hastily sketched initial system:
It’s a flood-and-drain system, all housed in a standard 8′ x 6′ greenhouse, with a 500 litre fishtank and two 320 litre growbeds. I’ll post details of it on the Backyard Aquaponics Forum and see what the experts think before I do too much more development.
