PDA

View Full Version : Backyard 600 gallon IBC system



dsrtlzrd32
03-08-2013, 08:53 AM
Ok, so I have just about finished my first aquaponic system and I wanted to share some of the processes and designs with this forum, you guys helped with a lot of ideas. To give you an overview of my system and the conditions it will be in I will start and say that the majority of my system design was to help avoid overheating of the water. I live in a hot desert climate where 120 degree weather is not uncommon in the summer. I wanted to start my first system small but as I was thinking I decided I would need a fairly decent volume of water in order to help stabilize the water temperature. I ran across the IBC's of aquaponics youtube video by backyardaquaponics.com and thought that setup looked easy and cheap. My basic design follows their setup for an IBC system but I have three 275 gallon IBC's all plumbed together with 4 inch pipe with one 2000 gallon per hour pump. I decided to do a constant flood system and just go for max aeration to keep the grow bed from heating up during the summer and plants oxygenated. But enough with the layout, let me show you some pictures. (first time trying to post pics so lets hope this works.)

http://i1341.photobucket.com/albums/o750/dsrtlzrd32/100_7915_zps0408f7c8.jpg
This is the hole I dug for the system, it is about one and a half feet deep. I lined the bottom of the hole with leftover roofing shingles turned upside down to add extra protection from rocks to the bottom of the IBC's. The ground is really rocky around here. The system is located on the southeast side of my house so it will be shaded in the afternoon.

http://i1341.photobucket.com/albums/o750/dsrtlzrd32/100_7938_zpsaef1f28c.jpg
Here are some of the rocks I pulled out during my digging. The smaller hand sized and below rocks went into a hole in my yard from a dug up tree.

http://i1341.photobucket.com/albums/o750/dsrtlzrd32/100_7932_zpsd51f9b00.jpg
There are the IBCs put into the hole and plumbed together with 4 inch pipe. I used Uniseals as suggested on this forum, and I am very happy I did. They are great. I did have to put some aquarium silicone around the seals to stop leaks, but I think that is because I had some rough holes cut from my hole saw.

http://i1341.photobucket.com/albums/o750/dsrtlzrd32/100_7992_zps082d0274.jpg
There is the water flowing through the pipes during filling time

http://i1341.photobucket.com/albums/o750/dsrtlzrd32/100_8010_zps3324994c.jpg
I built a frame around the top of the fish tanks with 3/4 inch plywood and 2" roofing insulation. I also put sun screen on top of the fish tanks to help protect from the sun. Like I said, keeping a cool water temp is a top priority.

http://i1341.photobucket.com/albums/o750/dsrtlzrd32/100_8014_zpsd737f1dc.jpg
Oh, and here are my kids helping out. The boys are relaxing in the sun. 80 degree weather in February is pretty nice!

http://i1341.photobucket.com/albums/o750/dsrtlzrd32/100_8033_zps409eb34d.jpg
Got the growbeds filled with viastone clay rocks after an afternoon of cleaning them in a mesh bag outside of the system. I also framed the grow beds with 1/2 inch plywood to help protect the IBCs from the sun since they are not UV stable.

http://i1341.photobucket.com/albums/o750/dsrtlzrd32/100_8034_zpsd4eb53f6.jpg
Here is the plumbing coming up from my 2000 gph pump. I have a 1-1/4 inch pipe going off as an aeration line to the middle tank. 2 inch pipe runs to the top to the growbeds and then goes to 1-1/2 inch pipe with 1/4 inch holes drilled in the bottom for distribution of water to the gb.

http://i1341.photobucket.com/albums/o750/dsrtlzrd32/100_8036_zpsefd01d92.jpg
Water flowing down my 2 inch drainpipe to the fish tank.

http://i1341.photobucket.com/albums/o750/dsrtlzrd32/100_8102_zps2615fb2c.jpg
Here is an overall of my system, I had a leak in the lid of the first growbed which is being repaired as we speak. But I was able to just cap off the T to keep the system running with the other two growbeds. I planted a tomato plant in each growbed and also a row of radishes in each one. I have seedlings planted and just about ready to put in. I am pleased with how the system looks with the plywood frame.

I have started cycling the system with ammonia from Ace hardware. I will try to get the system cycled that way before I get my fish. I have a couple questions about some of my start up but I will ask that in another thread. Thanks for the help I got from this forum. Also I am thankful my wonderful wife helped with the building of this. We had a fun time building it together. I am also thankful God took care of a lot of the details. I am a poor planner and many of my mistakes ended up working out nicely in the end. Now we get to sit back and enjoy running the system. My wife loves opening our bedroom window and listening to the water flow at night. She says it is like living by a waterfall. Pretty nice to have here in the desert.

Jeff
03-09-2013, 10:47 AM
Looks great! And great idea by putting chairs around it.......If you're anything like me, you will spend a lot of time just SITTING and watching the system do it's thing! The sound of the water and (eventually) the fish swimming around is very relaxing!

Where did you get your Viastone rocks, if you don't mind me asking? I ended up purchasing about 450 Liters of Hydroton and it cost me a lot of money.......but I may try Viastone on a second system I will build if I can find a place that doesn't gouge you with too high shipping.

dsrtlzrd32
03-10-2013, 07:19 AM
Thanks Jeff, yeah we are already sitting and enjoying the sound of water already. Very relaxing. I got my viastone rocks online from the home depot website. We are in a rural area so finding a place that sold any clay rocks was almost impossible. Home depot was one of the cheapest prices ($29 for 50 liter bag) I could find online, plus, buying more thatn $45 worth gave it free shipping to my house! :shock: All other online sources I could find were around the same price or a little higher but they charged shipping, and for packages that big, it was high prices. So it worked out nicely for me. Good idea on a second system, I am already contemplating how to add on to mine. :lol:

bcotton
03-11-2013, 05:52 AM
It looks like you are doing everything possible to stabilize water temperature. Adding insulation is something i have always kept in the back of my mind and pant to eventually add.

If you could report back your experiance over time I think we would find it helpful. Interested in both 1) resistance to temperature change and 2) water temperature as it relates to ambiant temperatures.

brian

jackalope
03-11-2013, 01:31 PM
Nice setup 8-) 8-)

I might have placed valves in between each IBC (in case you need to make repairs, clean out a tank, etc.) :mrgreen: Also, since you're in the desert, you may experience a lot of water evaporation from your GB's and FT's - you can reclaim some of the water by building a plastic 'tent' over the IBC's and GB's so that the evaporating water will collect on the plastic, run down the angled sides of the 'tent' and drip right back into the FT's and GB's. I used this in Montana in the hot summers - I hate having to make work out of this AP stuff ;) :lol:

Just wanted to mention one other thing ...... rocks DO work their way to the surface over time .... next time you may consider pouring 3 or 4 inches of concrete below your IBC's (of course, that may be 10 or 15 years from now :lol: ) If you have a lawn or garden, you can keep an eye on them to determine how fast rock rises to the surface in your area.

dsrtlzrd32
03-13-2013, 09:19 AM
If you could report back your experiance over time I think we would find it helpful. Interested in both 1) resistance to temperature change and 2) water temperature as it relates to ambiant temperatures.

Good idea, I was planning on keeping a temp log of water and air just to be able to compare the two over time. I thought maybe it will help some others looking to starting an ap system in a hot climate.


I might have placed valves in between each IBC (in case you need to make repairs, clean out a tank, etc.) Also, since you're in the desert, you may experience a lot of water evaporation from your GB's and FT's - you can reclaim some of the water by building a plastic 'tent' over the IBC's and GB's so that the evaporating water will collect on the plastic, run down the angled sides of the 'tent' and drip right back into the FT's and GB's.

I tossed around the idea of throwing in valves between the pipes but decided to just buy a 4" cap for the pipe to save room and be able to have the tanks a little closer. Hopefully it will work well enough if I do have to quarantine a tank off. And boy does the water evaporate! :shock: I have had to add an inch or two of water to the system since it started up and that is only in 80 degree weather. I like the idea of a "tent" to return the water back to the ft.

Thanks for the ideas guys. :)

bbikebbs
03-13-2013, 10:06 AM
Here's what I've done since I started my system:

[attachment=0:215r8ofh]Water vs air temp.xlsx[/attachment:215r8ofh]

jackalope
03-14-2013, 10:00 AM
And boy does the water evaporate! :shock: I have had to add an inch or two of water to the system since it started up and that is only in 80 degree weather. I like the idea of a "tent" to return the water back to the ft.

Thanks for the ideas guys. :)

You'll still lose some water, especially in the GB's if you don't apply the 'tent' there too, but if it saves you some work, that's better for you in the long run. The evaporated water will most likely be like 'distilled' water, so some of the ions, nutrients, minerals, etc. may not be there, but I'm pretty sure that that won't affect the fish or the veggies if you add fresh water every so often ;)

Some people use distilled water for household aquariums because it lacks the chemicals found in tap water supplies. It is important to supplement distilled water when using it for fishkeeping; it is too pure to sustain proper chemistry to support an aquarium ecosystem.[7]Clik ;) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distilled_water)

FloridaChris
03-21-2013, 08:55 PM
Awesome build! I just started my adventure in AP, built my first system today, and I'm already imagining building one like yours! Congrats on a great build!

SimonB
03-22-2013, 03:47 AM
Hi!
Nice looking build!
I did a quick check from the values given in your excel and it seems that the greatest deviation between air and water is maximum ~6°C at any given point (i had to translate to Celsius to get a better grip...).
What kind of humidity are you looking at during this period? I was thinking that maybe the system is working kind of like a cooling tower at the moment? It would be interesting to correlate these values to the wet bulb temperature.
It might be possible to utilize this to keep the temperature even lower in the system, but unfortunately optimizing for cooling will probably give an increased evaporation loss in the system and also increase the rate of buildup of unwanted stuff in the water.

But for a hot climate it might be an idea to give some other properties to the return flow to maximize cooling?

bbikebbs
03-22-2013, 09:03 AM
Hi!
Nice looking build!
I did a quick check from the values given in your excel and it seems that the greatest deviation between air and water is maximum ~6°C at any given point (i had to translate to Celsius to get a better grip...).
What kind of humidity are you looking at during this period? I was thinking that maybe the system is working kind of like a cooling tower at the moment? It would be interesting to correlate these values to the wet bulb temperature.
It might be possible to utilize this to keep the temperature even lower in the system, but unfortunately optimizing for cooling will probably give an increased evaporation loss in the system and also increase the rate of buildup of unwanted stuff in the water.

But for a hot climate it might be an idea to give some other properties to the return flow to maximize cooling?


I actually had a "temporary" green house over the system this winter. It really helped with stabilizing the water temps. Humidity (>80%?) was actually quite high. There was condensation on the inside of the plastic film most days.

As to the summer, I had a tarp wrapped around the sides of the system to shade it from the sun. That also helped to keep it cool. http://i1075.photobucket.com/albums/w424/bbikebbs/100_0669.jpg
Humidity is usually above 90% most of the time between May and October. The gold fish thrived in the warm water. I didn't get the blue gill until October, so they didn't see the worst of it. This year, I will be insulating a new fish tank with 2" rigid foam. Hopefully, that will help the fish. But in all of this, remember that my grow bed is acting like a radiator. Air temps warmer than the tank water will heat the water up. But when the air is cooler, the water will tend to cool off. That's why I'm trying to fit shade cloth into the budget.

dsrtlzrd32
03-22-2013, 11:55 AM
Good news, we finally have some nitrites showing up! Only .25 right now but at least they are there. I am surprised at how well my plants are doing also. I have a wide range of plants from store bought tomatoes that I transplanted to corn and radish seeds I started in the system. The tomatoes are producing already, the corn and radishes have sprouted and my many other plants are taking nicely too. The only thing I am starting to notice now is the new growth is turning a bit yellow, but I think that is due to nutrient lockout from my 8.2 ph.