Greetings from Western Washington State

[ehawkins]

Hello,
I live in the Seattle area of Washington state. I'm pretty new to the whole aquaponics scene. I have a few questions about the set up. Basically, I want to build platforms to hold my grow beds. I am still at the beginning and don't have much set up at this point. Anyway, my current plan is to have the stock tank with yellow perch, a sump, and five grow beds. So I want to put my growbeds on a platform about 30" high. I am putting the platforms off my deck in an L shape. So the platform will be held up off the dirt by pier blocks. I think I will put a pier block on each corner and one in the middle of each span. Or would that be total overkill? I'm thinking my grow beds will weigh in at just over 2000 lbs all together.
My second question is: do you think it is better to plumb the grow beds in an assembly (linked all together with one in and one siphon at the end), or separate, with each one having an in and siphon?
Anyway, any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

[alex281]

welcome!!

[davidstcldfl]

Hi ehawkins, welcome to the forum.... :)

In regards to your pier blocks....I'd go with 'overkill'. If something were to happen...well that would be a mess... :cry:

I saw a guy tie 4 of the mixing tubs for concrete, together with one extrenal bell siphon. He had a pretty large fish tank...so the water level didn't go up and down much.
Not sure how big your beds will be...? You have to think about how much water the beds will be using from the sump/fish tank while they fill up.

[keith_r]

more growbeds=more plumbing.. i've seen a couple external siphons that seem to work just fine.. there are loop siphons, affnan siphons,, or just a standpipe with a couple holes on the bottom for a timed "flood and drain"
constant flooded systems don't need a sump and you can adjust the flood levels for plant growth..just put a standpipe in at the level you want the water to drain and let it rip..
to figure the sump size, since the media takes up about 50% to 60% of the volume of the gb, base the size on 50% of the gb volume, plus a little extra because you don't want the sump to run dry

[commander]

Hello from West Texas. Nubie here as well and still learning.

[bsfman]

My second question is: do you think it is better to plumb the grow beds in an assembly (linked all together with one in and one siphon at the end), or separate, with each one having an in and siphon?
Anyway, any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

On my flood and drain system, I use two inputs to two growbeds from a single pump. Each has a separate bell siphon draining back through separate drains into the fish tank. But I am considering expanding the number of growbeds and having the separate bell siphons drain through a single return line into the fish tank. Aside from maybe more tweaking required to tune the bell siphons, I don't see why it shouldn't work.

[davidstcldfl]

I used a common header to drain 6 mixing tubs, each having it's own bell siphon. I was never really happy with it... :( If one siphon was engaged, it seemed to delay the start of the next one that was ready.

-The header was 1 1/2 inch pipe....it should of been 'at least' 2 inch.
-Each 1/2" drain went to it's own sanitary tee on the main header...I should of used wyes or combos.
-I used dwv 90's for the turns...I should of used dwv 'long radius' 90's.
-I thought that the air, each bell would draw, would be enough...but, I ended up adding a vent to the main header, it's self.
:roll:

About a year later, after a system re-design....I ran 'each' 1/2 " drain to the sump. So much easier....never had an issue with any of the bells. The cost of the pvc materials 'may have' been less too..?

[WAbedroomponics]

Welcome I am from Sammamish washington good luck