Suggestions wanted....

[Aquaponicsbob]

Hello everyone im new to this forum and looking for some input..

Im looking to build a very large system. Here is where im at..

1-The inground fish tank will be 80 ft. long x 4 ft. wide x 8 ft. deep..=2560 cu ft. = 19,123.2 gal.


http://screencast.com/t/Zq7yysX5

The above si a pic of growing powers system. There system is the same design i want to use with a few tweaks.

As you see in the pic. the fish holding tank is inground just like the setup im going to do. He also has 2 grow beds on top of his fish tank. I dont want to use this setup because if you notice the first grow bed closest to the inground fish tank has lights mounted above it to get light to it because of the second bed on top of it.

Here is my question..

Could this system with the inground fish tank be used with one bed on top of it only and 2 beds offset to each side allowing the sunlight to reach all the beds without using lights? ( total 3 beds)

Or would you need to have 3 inground fish holding tanks for each of the 3 beds (individually)?


The grow beds would be 80 long x 4 ft. wide by 1 ft. to 1.5 ft. deep? ( is the bed depth ok?)


each bed would have an inlet at the top of bed with water pumped into it and the bed would have a slight slope to it allowing the water to run down to the other end then drained. ( same setup in the pic. and very successful)

at the end each bed would seperately drain back into the fish tank and the process runs again and again..


Thanks

[keith_r]

with an 80' long bed.. if you have "slope" from one end of the other, the high end of the bed won't flood high enough - you want the water to distribute evenly to about 1" below the surface of the media
i'd break that up into multiple beds.. or

with that much space, i'd make 4 separate independent systems, especially if i was "breeding" fish.. but even then..i'd use one system for minnows and crayfish if i was raising something like bluegill, yellow perch or trout.. and that way if you get a problem in one tank, it doesn't take out all your fish

i'd also thing about doing a couple of floating raft systems, just because i'd like to.. and in those you can also raise crayfish and or minnows.. but if you do, the water going into the raft beds must be filtered

good luck, and let us know how it goes

[bsfman]

The grow beds would be 80 long x 4 ft. wide by 1 ft. to 1.5 ft. deep? ( is the bed depth ok?)



I toured Growing Power this past summer. Their growbeds are constant flood and VERY shallow - just a few inches deep. I mention this because you said you were modeling your system on theirs.