Hello,

I am building my first system out of 3 275 gallon IBC's pretty much following the youtube tutorial for an ibc system. I am going to plumb the three ibc's together and use one pump to fill the three grow beds sitting on each of the fish tanks. I will have a larger pump (thinking of 2000 gph) feeding through a 2" pvc pipe in each bed. My grow beds are about 8" deep (although after reading through oliver's aquaponics 101 guide I wish i would have made them deeper). I will have a 2" pvc standpipe in the growbeds to drain them but have a constant flow system.

I was thinking of doing a 4" pipe to plumb the FTs together so the water would have plenty of flow to keep all the tanks equal depth since I have the GBs drain at 2". This would also allow fish to go in between tanks. Is this thinking rational or should I go to a 2" or maybe two 2" pipes between the FTs?

I plan to insulate the FTs by burying half of them and insulating the top half with roofing insulation. I deal with 120 average summer temps from may to oct and keeping the water cool is going to be a challenge (The reason for 3 ibc system instead of just one to start) I will have a mesh shade over the top to allow some sun through but not full sun. I am hoping I can keep a system alive in this climate (desert, little humidity, high temps). Anyone have any advice on that?

Thanks for your help.