indoor aquaponic sump filter

[jpierce3]

Ok, so I know there is a lot of aquaponics outdoors and I've seen a bunch of systems. Will be installing a good sized system on the farm in the spring as a part of our channel cat aquaculture project.

I have a 125 that I've always wanted a wet/dry on and should have installed when I first moved it into the house. But I didn't and here I am. There are a couple of issues. First I would have to move the tank away from the stand to put the sump down through the top opening of the stand. A real pain.

Second issue I have is that it is a show tank in my living room near a window and I have always had algae problems. Two solutions for algae is less light and more plants, right? Unfortunately, with the current stock, plants really aren't a good option. There is a little anubias in there but it doesn't grow fast enough.

I am a big fan of freshwater plant refugiums (installing on my 65g next week). I thought yeah I could grow some plants in the sump and maybe be able to sell off cuttings or move them to other tanks. But how about growing something I could use? Lettuce seems to be the benchmark for most aquaponics systems, so I'll start with that.

I have a 30g on a metal 36"x12" stand:


The overflow from the 125 will go through bioballs, then I am going to construct a shelf from PVC that will hold a tray that has cups for the lettuce. The roots will stay in water with a continuous flow, then be pumped back into the 125. I have two 36" T8 light strips that will set on the top part of the frame where that empty 20g is sitting.

I have the overflow and pump ordered and should be on their way next week. Anyone tried this at all? Any ideas before I get way deep in it?

 

[brich999]

Good luck I'd like to hear of the results, get a good test kit and record what you find, I'd be interested to see how it works out

 

[brich999]

But I don't know what those pics are because I don't see a 125

 

[jpierce3]

But I don't know what those pics are because I don't see a 125

The 125 is sitting right next to the metal stand. Lights are off for the night. The sump will be next to, not underneath the 125.

I do want to monitor Nitrate levels along with phosphate levels and a few other tests. I want to keep it semi-scientific. I know I won't need to add CO2 this way and I shouldn't have to worry about PH swings hopefully because of the aragonite sand in the main tank.

 

[DrawnToBeaches]

I would grow both underwater plants and vegies if you're gonna go all out, throw in some watersprite just to take up some more nutrients, then have the vegies growing at the surface, ripariumsupply.com a checking, his hanging planters are perfect and filling them with hydroton and osmocoteplus would be perfect for your intentions, though i don't mix my hydroponics and aquarium keeping i do have a hydro veggie garden and this seems like it will work, however keep in mind you will need a bit of light.... i look forward to seeing how you set this up. goodluck

 

[jpierce3]

I thought about that, growing underwater plants also, but wanted to get data from the above ground plants first. I may end up having to do both to keep the nitrates down. Just waiting on the pump and bioballs right now. Shipping took a lot longer than I expected. Should be here today or Monday; latest Tuesday.

I would like to do the sump completely full of hydroton with an ebb-and-flow system. But then I would still need a reservoir for the pump and a float valve. That would require adding a piece of glass (not really hard but don't have the glass) and I've never used a float valve before. I do have another acrylic box like the one I will be keeping my bioballs and filter pad in. But it's broken. Repairable, but I don't have any Weldon to do it right now. I may end up changing over to hydroton in both acrylic boxes and possibly making a third once I have the tools and supplies. Then I can keep my pump under them and as long as I stay with lettuce for the time being I can run it continuously. For right now, I want the KISS method and use what I have.

You're right that light might be an issue. Right now, I'm going to stick with the two T8 light strips. However, I found some T5's that are pretty cheap or I will look into making my own.

I cut the cups yesterday and the gravel I already have is just slightly too small. So I have to get some bigger gravel to go in the cups. But hydroton might work better. Going to check the hydroponics store today and see what the have.

I will have to get the pump running and get the water level set and marked so I can build the pvc stand. But then I started thinking, if the pump shuts off like if the power goes out, the water will rise and flood my lettuces. So I was thinking about using cut pieces of styrofoam and siliconing them on to the sheet of cups. This is where hydroton would work much better than gravel, because the weight of the gravel would keep it from floating. I wouldn't need a stand at all really if I can get the system to float on the surface properly.

The wait time on my equipment has given me the time to refine my design scheme a bit. Now I just want to get it up and running so I can test it. I just planted some lettuce in regular seed cups, so I have some time to work out the kinks.

Do you sprout your plants in the hydro system or do you sprout the seeds in dirt then move them to the hydro? From a lot that I have read, I guess it's very difficult to sprout seeds in aquaponics systems. Most are only planting after they have started them in dirt.

 

[DrawnToBeaches]

hydroton will work way better than gravel the investment is well worth it, it is always reusable, i'm using 16 year old hydroton still, though i didn't start with it, came from my brother's hydro setup. get a 1 inch sprout or 2 inches of roots, whichever comes first then put it into the hydroton, use less fertile soil like vermiculite to grow them so it isnt such a shock going to hydroton, cause unless your hydroton has been in the tank soaking up some nutrients it will be fairly inert though they will bounce back in no time especially lettuce we harvest weekly enough to have a 2 person salad daily on average, love how fast it grows under halides. anyway whichever way you go will work however i would go hydroton over bioballs or the scrubbers, scrubbers are way better imo. not to mention they cost like 5% of the cost for bioballs to fill the same area. also to fix the floading lettuce problem go to ripariumsupply.com if you can invest in some and get the hanging planters, they work very well for your application's needs, also putting in suump check valves and running an overflow from the sump to a large empty tub is a good idea incase your pump fails along with your overflow, just put the sump overflow in the absolute max you want the water and you have a fail safe, some people overflow to a drain or if upstairs straight outside but that is costly and invasive.


one more thing, i have sprouted plants in straight hydroton submerged but never lettuce or any plant like it, just aquatics and bog plants.

 

[jpierce3]

I got some hydroton. That stuff is kind of cool. I had it partially set up earlier and went for my camera and of course the batteries were dead so will have to wait until tomorrow.

I set a max operating and fill line. I draw them in permanent marker so that if the pump shuts off, the tank will never overflow.

Anyway, I was looking into lighting if I need to increase. What spectrum is the best? I generally go with a 6700K for aqua plants and in general because I like the look of it. Same spectrum or go with something in the 5600K range? Halides might be a bit much for me at the moment. Already have hundreds tied up into all of this. But I can probably get away with some T5's when I get the chance.

 

[jpierce3]

I used silicone and some styrofoam to float my tray:


Now I just need to get some plants in there and find out if I have enough light:

 

[jpierce3]

So I had a total redesign of the system. I just wasn't happy with the floating cups. Too hard to work with and if I need to do maintenance on the sump, every time I touched the tray the hydroton went everywhere. I went with a more conventional aquaponics set up.
First was the grow tray. I found this oval tray at tractor supply for $20. Nice hard plastic and easy to drill through. Found a 3/4" tank fitting there also. Built a bell siphon so I could have it as a fill and drain system.

I split the water line from the return tubing from the pump:

The bed fills and drains about every 12 minutes. I used sunleaves.com starter plugs and so far have been able to sprout lettuce and cabbage in 3 days. That's when I realized I was going to need lights faster than I thought.

Lighting is a dual bulb 36" T5 ballast ($35) that I got at Home Depot and put it into an old 36" T8 hood. One of the bulbs isn't good and only putting out about 50% light so will need to return it and replace it. The light stand is just some 2x4's and some hooks.

Transplanted a pepper plant from the outside garden and trying a cutting from my basil.

With the couch in front, don't really notice the sump and covers up the horrible stains on my carpet. (kids and fish don't mix with white carpet)

You can see the algae issues I'm having in the 125g. Hopefully this stuff will really start to grow soon and help with my Nitrate situation. Been having trouble keeping it under 80ppm. Took a reading today and it is well over 100. Need to keep up with WC's until the plants get big enough.

Evaporation hasn't been too bad, but I am going to cut a piece of acrylic for the top of the sump. Will keep stuff from falling in as well.

There is some noise both from the overflow from the tank because I have some needed bends in the pipe and from the siphon breaking in the grow bed. But really I have gotten used to it and don't notice it anymore at all. Won't matter if I can get fresh veggies all winter long