Hey everyone,
So I've been lurking on here for several months now but held off commenting or posting mostly because I was still trying to wrap my head around aquaponics conceptually before adding my .02. I absolutely love whats going on here and I am excited to read your posts as they are some of the best information on the web for aquaponics.
So I finally decided to take the jump into designing and building my own system. I chose to design my own system on account of the facts that I am in the city (Philadelphia if anyone is from around here), have limited space, and want to grow all year round. This eliminates a lot of the designs on here that require a lot of space or require natural light. I appreciate any and all comments and feedback, especially if I am missing something stunningly obvious (which is something I am good at! ).
So here's what I have so far.
A four tower system with a 45 gallon tank using a 120GPH pump. Each tower is 3' tall and suspended directly over the fish tank. I have 1/2" PVC tubing for the plumbing and 4 1/2" ball valves, one for each tower. The towers will be filled with Hydroton and are hanging by sturdy steel hooks (and not so sturdy zip ties..) I am using this as a prototype for future (hopefully commercial) vertical tower systems so I am very flexible in what I want to plant, what fish to grow, and practically every other aspect of the build.
Questions:
1. Will this system work? Haha, loaded question and I'm sure it won't until I get some much needed critiques
2. Should a system like this be a constant flow system or will I have to add a grow bed w/ bell siphon to make it an ebb/flow setup?
3. Directly tied to how many/what type of plants I am growing, how many fish per plant would people recommend for a vertical system? I was planning on varying the number of holes in each tower to see which grow better but are there rules I should stick to?
4. Is this pump going to be big enough to raise water 5+ feet in 1/2" pipes? http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006M6 ... os_product
I will continue to post updates as progress happens. Am I missing anything obvious or non obvious?
Thanks for any input, looking forward to becoming a more active member!
-J