Aquaponics - Simple Set-up

Today I did a small Aquaponics set-up today just to show that what you may do. This is done in ONE DAY. So it is not so difficult.

If you look in the web, there are many other examples. You may copy those as well. As long as it works, who cares?

Initially I thought of having some major racking system but I didn't want a monstrous thing.

There were two consideration:

1) it has to take a lot of weight. (I couldn't find the right Hydrotons so I have to prepared to use gravel in my growbeds, that means the rack has to take a lot more weight.)

2) It has to be simple in design and do not take up a lot of space.

The solution is PVC pipes, at least that's what I think. Will still have to test it out. So follow this blog, and I will update my progress.

I bought a lot of PVC pipes (1 inch/25mm)... about 10 metres.

Then a lot of elbow and t-shape 3-way joints. In Singapore, most of the hardware stores only have these two, so I have to improvised.

A) Start with the base. I want the rack to be able to go above and over the tank. So, I measured the OD of the fish tank and made sure it can fit.

 

B) Add T-joints to prepare for the legs

I thought the base wold a simple one but I think it may not take the weight.

C) Then add the legs..

By this time, I think I have to add in more legs to support the weight, so I did some changes.

I added 2 more legs on each side just to be sure. So the rack finally looks like this.

After that, you have to glue the whole rack with PVC glue. I got this from local hardware shop. Do it in a very well ventilated space and do wear mask. This thing is super toxic.

You should leave the elbows at the top unglued so that your can make some minor adjustment for alignments.

With the 2 growbeds going on top. I would have to place some anti-slip pad between the PVC rack and the bottom of the growbeds so the the whole thing won't slide off.

Naturally, the fish tank will have to fit inside the rack. This is a small 128 litre container, or equivalent to 33 gallons.

The 2 growbeds is about 102 litres and fish tank together with the rack. So I will have a 2 GB to 1 FT ratio.

I will talk about the above ratios and the application of sump tank in another post.

Next I will install the Bell Siphon in the growbeds.

Ok, that's it. If you have any questions, please leave it in the comments section.

Happy Farming.

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Update (19April 2014):

1) I realised that I will need a sump tank so this set-up will not do. I will have to reconfigure.

2) As it turn out, this PVC type will end up as a prototype. I actually cut it up to harvest whatever PVC pipes that I can salvage.

My new set-up - just completed. You can read the details here: Aquaponics - Simple set-up, Part-2.