Our Back Yard System

[Nomad33fw]

I live in a townhouse with an HOA so I am limited as to how much I can put on my patio, and what it can look like. So we designed a system that would be ascetically pleasing and hopefully will produce a little too. The system consists of a 30 gallon fish tank, a 26 gallon grow bed, and two 2 gallon grow pots. The grow bed and the pots are all equipped with T-siphons and are being fed via one pond pump connected to a manifold. We also added a small aerator to the fish tank just to make sure they are happy. Just goldfish in the tank, we are only looking for veggies.

To make the system we used one sheet (4x8) of marine grade plywood that was sealed, then covered in PVC wicker. The wicker is the same kind that you would use to repair outdoor furniture. We are using clay growing pebbles and using baskets to help keep things separate. The whole thing is on heavy duty casters from harbor freight so it can be easily moved if I have to.

We are growing tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, spinach, peas, beans, cucumber. Still have 3 empty spots and will probably add more spinach in those.

The pictures are of the build, sealed wood, and the final outcome with wicker an grow pots added.

[Deuem]

Looks like you are ready for some pesky gold fish. The book end pots look nice and they are plumb in also. I like 1 sheet plywood jobs. You had to do some calculations to get it all sized for that. The wicker looks nice as a wrap. Our balcony is about as long as your doors are with 2 walls so I am even more limited. I need to go more up. Still in planning. Nice to see someone is done. If everything you planted in there grows well you will have quite a jungle. The pepper should last for years to come and the toms and cucs will eventually need a trellis or cage. I have done best so far with toms and pumpkins in my trails and they have their eye on the entire balcony. I will need to cut my way out there in a few months. It would be nice to see some follow up shots as they grow up. Nice woodworking.

[Nomad33fw]

Looks like you are ready for some pesky gold fish. The book end pots look nice and they are plumb in also. I like 1 sheet plywood jobs. You had to do some calculations to get it all sized for that. The wicker looks nice as a wrap. Our balcony is about as long as your doors are with 2 walls so I am even more limited. I need to go more up. Still in planning. Nice to see someone is done. If everything you planted in there grows well you will have quite a jungle. The pepper should last for years to come and the toms and cucs will eventually need a trellis or cage. I have done best so far with toms and pumpkins in my trails and they have their eye on the entire balcony. I will need to cut my way out there in a few months. It would be nice to see some follow up shots as they grow up. Nice woodworking.

Thank you

Yes everything is plumbed and working well, the pots take about 15 minutes to fill and 1 to drain. The main grow bed takes about 45 to fill and 3 to drain. I have it on a constant cycle, not sure if that's too much. We have 14 tiny little gold fish right now, not sure if that's too many either.

I started by buying the grow bed that I wanted and matched the fish tank to that, going off the 1:1 theory I added the pots to have 30 gallons of grow and 30 of fish tank. My Thai pepper has flowers on it already, can't wait for a truly organic pepper.

I designed the frame to allow me to remove the white wood on the back and add a lattice, or even to screen the whole thing in.

[Deuem]

I hear my tomatoes calling me to add some posts or a cage right now. I just was out there and they are more then ready to get staked.

How are you draining the two book ends?

For myself I would run it just like the sun in your parts. Off at night. See how it works for you. But never turn off any air to the pesky gold fish.

If the pots take 15 to fill and the bed 30. What happens to the pots for the 15 minutes. Looks like they fill and drain almost twice to the main GB. So they will be getting twice the feed per day? If I had a timer I would change it up to 30 minutes on and 1-1/2 hour off. During the off time the beds should be draining and let the O2 to be sucked in. I have drowned too many plants. It was my number 1 problem. Our plants can go a long time without new water as long as the media is wet. I actually measure my plants when doing any testing, before and after.

[Nomad33fw]

I hear my tomatoes calling me to add some posts or a cage right now. I just was out there and they are more then ready to get staked.

How are you draining the two book ends?

For myself I would run it just like the sun in your parts. Off at night. See how it works for you. But never turn off any air to the pesky gold fish.

If the pots take 15 to fill and the bed 30. What happens to the pots for the 15 minutes. Looks like they fill and drain almost twice to the main GB. So they will be getting twice the feed per day? If I had a timer I would change it up to 30 minutes on and 1-1/2 hour off. During the off time the beds should be draining and let the O2 to be sucked in. I have drowned too many plants. It was my number 1 problem. Our plants can go a long time without new water as long as the media is wet. I actually measure my plants when doing any testing, before and after.

Started running just in daylight hours like you suggested, the airpump stays on 24/7 for the fish. The bookends have small 1/4" T-siphons that draing back into the fish tank independently. The main bed has a 1/2" T-siphon. To feed it all I have one pump that connects to a four way, each bed/pot has its own ball valve so I can control the flow to each indpendently. I played with it for hours to get each one set at the minimum flow for the siphons to start.

The valves let me turn each bed off once it's siphon starts making sure that the beds are empty at night. The siphons are all set to be about 2" below the top of the media, so the top pretty much stays dry.

Most of the design came from forums like this, YouTube, and a commercially sold one that goes for over $1.5k. I think I have about $500 in this one total, the media being the most expensive part. I'm working on putting a spreadsheet of costs and plans together for it since now half the neighborhood says they want one. I like to say that I have a Ph.D. in YouTube.


I will ill try and take some pictures of the plumbing but it's my weekend to work, ugh.

Incidently the only power tools used making the thing was an old black&decker battery powered circular saw, a drill/screwdriver and a staple gun. My workshop consists of a colasable bench in my garage.

[Deuem]

Ok, what is a t-siphon. got me on that one. Bells understand. AP needs to invent a siphon that is outside of the Gb. they take up an entire plant space. I guess we could always just use an electric valve on the drain. Leave it open till the fill starts again. The hardest thing to do is to get the timer setup so that it fills the bed and it drains and stops. Sounds like you got it working OK.
Did you see the water tower here for mineralizing the fish poo. Just a tube of water and air. I like it and might try it on my fish tank to pull out the solids. 2 meters tall. And I have just the right spot for it. Then all I would worry about is ammonia. Once in awhile pull out a glass full of water and check the color and order. If it is yellow and stinks, then too many fish for your load. Fire up the BBQ. Gold fish pee more then 2/3rd of their body weight every day. So I get about 2/3rd of a pound of it daily. Good for the plants, hard for water changes if the load is low. I feed them 4 times a day. Hoping I will get some giants. Yet one of them is staying so small I am afraid the snake head will lunch on him any day. He could take it down now with a bit of work. A big swallow. With 200+ minnows in the tank they have enough small prey to go after.


Do you have a lid or screen for the FT. Sometimes they jump out or get pulled out by a cat or raccoon. Even a large bird if they find you.

[Nomad33fw]

This is a T-siphon https://youtu.be/GVGw4luRndg excuse the end of the world music, but the guy does explain it well. I drain mine from the bottom of the buckets and grow bed, just like you would from
a Bell. The T does take less room in my opinion and was easy to scale for the bad size. For the buckets I bought the smallest diameter that homedepot had for the buckets.

When I replaced my Bell in the main grow bed I used the same 3/4 drain that the bell was attached to then used 3/4 for the main tubes, then narrowed it to 1/2 at the top of the T then back to 3/4 at the drain. I'll try and put some diagrams together. If I can repay all the help that I've received by reading here it's the least I can do.

[Nomad33fw]

Here is my bucket T-siphon in action, sorry about the poor quality but you can see the basic design and how much room it takes. https://youtu.be/rTYy0GAZNfU

[Deuem]

Thanks for the 2 vid links. Unfortunately for me UT is banned here and the work around gods are sleeping at the wheel. I will get on when I can, if I can.

Just as I was ready to hit post, it came on and I got to see yours. Watching the other one now. They have an exterior one I am looking at also.

[Nomad33fw]

Fish tank	$ 45.00
Main Grow bed	$ 40.00
Grow buckets	$ 8.00
Wicker	$ 48.00
PVC
Pump	$ 22.00
Aearator	$ 18.00
Deck Screws	$ 10.00
Grow Media	$ 60.00
Total	$ 331.00
1 Sheet of Marine Grade Plywood from HomeDepot 4x8
Tuff Stuff KMT102 30 Gallon
Tuff Stuff KMM100 26 Gallon
Leaktite 2 gallion bucket White from Home Depot
Phifertex PVC Wicker 2 yards 54x72
PVC
T-Siphons	17 Elows
	3 T's
	6 caps
	6 Bell Caps
	Connectors
	O-rings
	Tubing
	Tubing Connectors
	Ball Valves

Without the PVC my system is at $331, will take me a bit to put together all of the PVC parts I bought