Very good video. Thank you! Could you please show us how you filter/contition the water coming out of your fish tank before it enters the sump? I assume that from now on all my water, also the water which goes to the media beds is already solid free? Don't I use a whole lot of (important) nutrients if I just filter out the solids and dump them or are you using a different method?
We have "almost" no filtration before the sump. We get rid of our heavy solids, but most are sent to the towers, which are basically trickling mechanical/biological filters.
Bright Agrotech I really do like your concept! Do you suggest a swirl filter for the heavy solids. Right now I'm not using one, because I think I'd loose too much... I go from the FT to the MB with gravity. Then sump and towers. I'd like to eliminate the gravity to the MB. Could you please clarify on your heavy solids removal process or is this part of your business sectret (which I could understand, even if I wish you'd explain it in more detail). Either way: Thak you for the good work!
A detail: When designing the piping, use bigger pipes, smaller pumps. "Fatter pipes cost rises as about the second power of their diameter, but their friction falls as nearly the fifth power of their diameter"(A. Lovins, Reinventing Fire). Bigger pipes, smooth bends, diagonal pipe runs, using Y-junktions instead of T-junktions, all reduce friction dramatically. The bigger the savings in pumping energy, the smaller the pump and capital costs.
Once again, well done. Picasso would be envious of your drawings! Seriously, I've been thinking about changing my system to a single pump system. The biggest problem is my sump isn't large enough to support the volume of all my grow beds if they all are drained at the same time....
I'm sure you've thought of this, but what if you use an indexing valve to flood your beds in sequence for constant and predictable drain volume to the sump instead of auto-siphons?
I did that in my old greenhouse...it's just another expense and piece of equipment that will eventually fail. I went with KISS as much as I could with the new system. ;-)
Yeah, that's a toughie. I've been in a similar spot once or twice. We actually dug in an additional sump well when we built our new greenhouse just in case we needed it down the road. Scaling is one of those hard things to plan for. . .
Ja,Ja,ja. I´m reading the rest of the post and it seems I´m allready subscribed to a lot of channels, what a big family we are!! aquaponics, vermiponics, permaculture... My Family!!!
As always, another excellent and informative video! I'm sold but it's a little cold right now to be converting anything. 4 weeks and 10 days until spring, but who's counting ...
hey nate... i do a system where the fish and plants are totally separate in a sense... I run the fish in a aquaculture system with one pump and from this system I also have a smaller pump that pumps the water to the plants. It works well if you have a problem with the fish tank pump there will always be water running through the whole system (much less ,but enough). This allows me to have a much higher stocking densities in my fish tanks. Your system of splitting the flow is really good as well. But I try to use energy saving pumps and they dont have so much pressure so splitting the flow isnt a option for me. I try to circulate my fish tanks 4 times a hour and this is also too much water to run through my plants... thank for your videos, they help a lot...
This is a very simple choice and almost a no-brainer actually. Now that you explained it like this, it doesn't make sense to spend money on a system you can't scale at a minimal cost. Pick up a large client and the plant capacity may need to drastically increase almost overnight....thanks for the detailed info on this one Nate!
Thanks Wayn, yes, it works really well for scaling down the road. Drop in a new pump, a couple of tees and bam, you're scaling. Super easy with this design.
This made me redesign my whole idea. The compartimesation of the fishtank and growbed is perfect for beginners as maintenance becomes much easier. back to the drawboard... oh, btw, thank you for actually sharing information (!) instead off all the "designs, tips&trick, setups" and so on that are just showing off their own setup. exeptions excluded offcourse. you make me actually think-out my design a lot more than just drawing a setup! so again; thank you!
Yeah, don't want to complicate things with like an overflow pipe or something. Your 4 year old is too busy at school to be doing it for ya....DO THIS INSTEAD !
I'm looking to utilize ONE pump in my Hydro greenhouse supplying two bato bucket lines (6 for peppers/8 for tomatoes), one 48"Hx48"W six tub vertical NFT (strawberries) and 5 24"x20"x6" grow tubs (lettuce, greens, herbs? I found the EcoPlus 2166 GPH (8176 LPH, 226W) Submersible Water Pump w/ 15 ft Power Cord (Aquarium, Fish Tank, Fountain, Pond, Hydroponics) that is powerful enough to split flow . My question is given peppers, tomatoes, strawberries and greens are what I'm growing can I get by with a single nutrient formula if so what do you recommend for NPK - I use ChemGro 4-18/38 but would like to keep it simple so that I could mix nutrients in my top off tank that would feed my common reservoir. Thanks - you're video are so informing I have learned a lot.
Sorry Nate, but you say "If we need to spray our plants with a pesticide that is dangerous to our fish". I thought aquaponics was inherently organic due to the fact that any harmful pesticides will harm the fish?
Same thought here. I never use pesticides in my aquaponics system. You are what you eat, and I'd prefer not to have ANY of my food be treated with chemicals. All natural for me. There are SO SO many natural and organic ways to get rid of vegetative pests.
It depends on what the pest is that needs to be eradicated. If it's a potential parasite to the fish, then killing them off and potentially losing some crop might be worth it compared to losing your entire stock of fish on top of the damages to the rest of the system once the infection has spread. Sometimes damage control means drastic measures.
Thanks for the video. Because of the big volume of my fish tank 40 000l in relation to my gro-aria 10m2, must I still circulate all the water in say an hour? We have a 15 000l/h pump at the moment.
Thanks. Question. Any ideas on the best greenhouse for a climate zone that can get 110+ in the summer and close to 25 in the winter, which is more mild? I live in St George Utah, very dry area. Ventilation in the summer can be costly and difficult. I have an half acre behind my home in the center of town where I want to get going with aquoponics. Been a green thumb all my life and I already have restaurants wanting to buy fresh organic produce.
huh?? the plant water drains to the sump, pumps to the fish, then goes back to the sump, then goes to the plants again?? This piping makes no sense... the valves would have to be automaticly opening and closing every pump cycle.
hey if I have a 4 x 4 row of buckets and have 1 pump in a reservoir, how can I get a H2o top feed/waterfall bucket to each bucket ? hope someone can help!
When splitting the water from the sump between the fish and plants, aren't the plants receiving nutrient depleted water at some point? At what point is the water from the sump not nutrient rich enough for the plants?
Nate, If the fish tank water is traveling to the sump via slo, what is being used to filter out the fish waste? Wouldn't waste accumulate rapidly since only half of the flow is traveling to the grow beds?
In our system, it's all broken up by the sump. Some of it is sent back to the fish and some of it keeps circulating. Over time it will accumulate in the ZipGrow Matrix Media which act as both a bio/mechanical filtration. If you're not using towers or another media-based technique, you'll have to install solids filtration equipment.
Awesome video, thank you for it as it helped us build our system in this manner... Question... we have an 800GPH than claims 400GPH @ 6ft HH which is where our system is at... after all is said & done, we are moving about 300GPH through aquarium, sump & garden with ball valves controlling everything at all points... is it ok long-term for the pump if we keep it around this 25% restriction?
I have a concert floor so a underground slump is a no no So can someone help me find a same height on the floor aquaponics system i plan to run a 300gal fish tank I would to run a bigger tank 500gals but i dont think i should but so much weight on a concert floor (in he basement )
if I turn off the flow to my fish , my pressure is so high it over flows some of my beds. how do I split it evenly? basically the beds closest to the pump are getting more then the 1 1/2 return pipe can handle. let me know what you think. thanks
will that back pressure on the pump be a issue? i was trying to handle the flow but ya if i can just reduce the flow then i wont need to add more beds and worry about even distribution.
Excellent information, very scientifically explained. But as Δρυοπας φαναριτης was saying, the difficulty lies on calculating how much water is drained out of the fish tank each hour if the pump is sitting in the sump tank. Other aquaponics experts suggest thath the entire volume of the fish tank has to be pumped out every hour, but how to make sure of that if the water flows from sump to fish and back from fish to pump by the SLO drain?
Hey Nate, how is plumbing if I have 6 grow beds when using the split-flow? I mean the right side(In your diagram) pumping water to the grow beds through a pipe; does the water enter GB1 then GB2 ... till GB6 then into the sump tank OR does the water enter GB1 then drain into the sump and GB2 then drain into the sump .... and GB6 then drain into the sump? I tried my best explaining in writings! Thank you.
So we have a system that I am trying to help design (or adjust the current design). We have a rafting system with 2 IBC containers as fish tanks. Two rafting grow beds are attached via 2inch PVC pipes, and the beds are connected together (water flowing in one and through to the other) the beds then drain into the sump tank where the water is then returned back to fish tank. We are having a problem with the flow of water OUT of the fish tanks. The water flow INTO the fish tanks is much faster than the water OUT of the fish tanks (even with a back flow from the sump tank) How do we increase the flow of the water out of the fish tanks? Do we need larger diameter pipes out of the fish tanks? Should be raise the fish tanks to a higher level than the grow beds? (all is gravity based except the return back to fish tanks). What are your thoughts? It's been a real hassle. We have an overflow pipe in both fish tanks to prevent overflow (which we had problems with)
Thanks for the break down of the two systems. I am looking to build an IBC system to be ready in the spring and now see the up side to the split flow, very helpful.
I noticed in another video that you are using a pool pump, is there a specific reason you are using a pool pump instead of a submersible pump? Also I haven't seen any filtering equipment in your system. I understand it is to maintain the amount of fish waste and not to lose any of the nutrients in the system. But does this not increase the chance of developing disease in your system?
With the amount of towers we have in our greenhouse, a submersible just won't cut it. Submersible pumps become more expensive for every gph they deliver. There's definitely a sweet spot there. The opposite is true for inlines: the larger the volume you're moving, the more cost effective in-line pumps become. Regarding the filtering: We have a settlement tank that our solution goes into, but the majority of the bio/mechanical filtration is actually performed by our Matrix Media (shop.brightagrotech.com/matrix-media). Our Matrix Media is 93% void space which gives our plant roots an incredibly aerobic environment, reducing the risk of disease and eliminating detrimental anaerobic zones.
There is a manifold with adjustable valves going to the lines. I kinda think its a lack of pressure. Mabey a bigger pump? I dunno I took the nfts out for now.
somehow all the water ended up going to the biofilter line. the valve to the NFT was open, but no water was flowing??? It was all going to the other line. the NFC is elevated higher than the other line, and I know more pressure is required on that line, but the required pressure seems to change over time.
Very informative. A question about pressures, when scaling this system do you glue the pvc or will a friction fit hold? Second question, based on longevity is there a better option than pvc for pressure and splits?
Hi, If you turn of the flow to either the fish or the plants dosent the increase in pressure effect the pump? Or is there another pipe feeding water, that isnt taken by the fish or the plants, directly back to the sump?
That depends on the type of pump. Most submersible pumps can be turned down to 0 with a simple ball valve with no repercussions (in fact, the energy usage will drop, so it's best to set the flow to only what you need). Maybe not a good idea with external pumps, but I use only submersible types so take that with a grain of salt ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. 3 year old comment but hopefully it helps someone.
Would the split flow system not end up with the sump tank and lines needing cleaned more regularly. ie. The solids have not first been run through the media beds.
using a gravity feed system wouldn't you just need to increase flow to the fish tank from the sump tank, so the added beds get the water they need? you do of course need valves and a bigger sump.
What system do you use to return the water from the plant tanks back to the fish tank? And how do you aerate the water returning back to the fish tank?
Hey Big Dog - We actually don't have a traditional bio-filter. Our fish water goes through a settlement tank where all the big solids are filtered out and then it goes to our towers where our Matrix Media acts as a bio filter, trapping the smaller solids and contributing to more nutrients for our plant roots with the help of our redworms! Hope that makes sense.
I am having difficulty regulating pressure with my new split flow valve. I have water going from fishtank/sump to the splitrer valve. From the valve, one line goes to nft and the other to a biofilter, dwc, then gravelbed. unfortunately, the flow of water is not constant and seems to change over night and again during the day? Couple days ago the nft ran dry and plants died.
Hmm. It could be a lot of different things, including too little flow in any one direction and too many solids in your system. Are you using a valve to regulate pressure in any direction?
uhhh, yes. Matter of fact, I just switched it, because it was fouled up. Also, the biofilter was clogged. Lastly, after reviewing the spreadsheet, I do think the water is going much to slow. I may need a larger pump. First, I'm going to add a larger solids filter and shuffle some bucket filters around a bit. I hope the larger solids filter removes more solids so the biofilter doesn't get clogged. While I'm at it, I'm cleaning everything out and enlarging some fittings to try to get more water flow. Thanks guys! You guys have been very helpful!
I have been teaching advanced scuba diving techniques and we use something called "accident analysis" to improve the safety of the sport and offer a better training. Until then, you don't know what you don't know :)
Hey brettC ! We appreciate your viewership. If you are interested in growing, however, we would love it if you invested in our ZipGrow products as that's how we can keep these videos coming (and feed our families!).
Great explanation of the benefits gained when allowing for separation of your sub-systems... I am putting a modest system in over the next two months or so, and will be utilizing some of your ideas... including your separate (secondary) drainage systems for flexibility when issues may occur. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and knowledge!
great video. I think this is the route i will take for my system. what is the ratio for grow bed / fish tank / sump sump size is my question I took an IBC tote 1000L , I cut the top at 14" for the grow bed , and the bottom is for fish. what size then does the sump need to be? thanks for helping Paul.
Your sump should at least be the combined volume of all of your grow beds. If you're using towers, or a flow-through technique it can be smaller. We run our 4000 gal, 350 tower system on a 250 gallon sump tank.
Absolutely agree with what you are presenting. After watching your previous vid on two pump systems i converted my CHIFT-PIST system to a split flow. The split flow design now allows me to control the flow through the grow beds and keep it slow so they cycle at the rate i want, while keeping a good turnover of water through the fish tank for maintaining oxygen levels and removal of solids. Excellent vids. Appreciate the information.
Great info Nate! As a hobbyist, considering an expansion of my system, I have never thought about these points. Now I don't have to learn the hard way! Thanks How do you handle solids in a system like this?
Hi Mark, Our heavy solids are removed by a couple of crude fish tanks we use for some settlement, but most of our solids are sent to our towers where they're filtered out by towers.
Thanks for the good idea. The aquaculture should really be separated from the hydroponics. The only reason for grow beds in aquaculture is for bio filtration and absorbing dissolved nutrients from the water to discourage algae growth. The fish wastes should be taken out constantly to provide nutrients for hydroponics
thanx Nate for explaining few things and especially how single pump flow works. Gives me some ideas as to how to design a cheaper alternative to current aquaponics. Looking to set up also a living wall but still need to figure out how to do it and not cause dampness issue.
I think its the almost the same. Its only two valves and one T we add to the system and that allows us to control it better. He could make the split flow example at the first drawing.
First of all I want to thank U, Nate for your videos, they are really helpfull. what you said about splitting flow relating to convert our aquaponics into an hydroponics, is a really nice idea, allthought I concern about what will be happening to our bacteria and worms with the hydro solution. Hope U guys can forgive my english, its been a while since I practice. thanks in advance.
Hey MyDARAMA - Definitely not a good idea to use worms with hydro and bacteria are not something you want to focus on either since hydro should be fairly sterile. These are both for aquaponics.
ElenoraRumer71559 The person posting as +ElenoraRumer71559 is not very classy by bombing somebody else's you tube channel with a commercial for her own *inferior product.* Because Bright Agrotech is too classy to say something, then I will. If your comments have something to add to the discussion then they are welcome, but if they aim to redirect people away illegitimately, like +ElenoraRumer71559, (because you don't have a good enough product to stand on its own) then every body else is WARNED to avoid +ElenoraRumer71559's SCAM
I'm surprised you don't need a 2nd pump and sump in case of emergencies, and what if you separate the plants from the fish, what's going to act as the biofilter for the fish?
Hello, thank you for the information. I just have a questions, since the "dirty" water and the " clean" water are mixing in the sump... Is it clean enough for the fish and dirty enough for the plants?
there is a problem , say, you turn off the spigot to the grow bed then the dirty water will keep recycling within the fish tank. I dont know how long you can do this without killing your fish!
Draining from the Fist Tank to the Sump Tank is done through an SLO drain, which is basically 1 of 2 methods, one of them is just a tube going down to the bottom of the FT, with an exit through the FT wall on the upper edge that then turns back down on the outside to the floor and runs into the ST, a better explanation can be found here Solids Lifting Overflows for Aquaponics and here goo.gl/flqC1j
Might want to expand the idea of 1 pump to (pumps only in one tank) since occasionally it is actually helpful to have redundant pumps or when you expand you can add another pump instead of having to buy a bigger pump to handle the expansion or if using timers, one might want to only turn the plant system pump on/off via the timer while having a continuous pump running for the fish. All these ideas follow the basic Idea of CHOP even if using multiple pumps provided all the pumps are drawing from the same single sump reservoir.
Hi. I have been thinking about this system and it's very interesting. I wanna have a greenhouse in a near future and grow diferent types of vegetable however I would like to grow carrots and onions for exemple outside alongside the greenhouse. So my point is. can pump water from the fish tank to spray those cultures outside and pump water to the tank to replace the water used outside?
Hi +joss almeida - It's entirely possible, but I'm afraid that if you didn't get your flow rates sync'd up well enough, your outside soil crops would drain your aquaponics system and all it's valuable nutrients your greenhouse plants are relying on. Assuming you're going to setup drip irrigation for your outside crops, you could always set it up with a splitter that would let you occasionally water your root crops with your AP system water. Your outside crops will really appreciate the organic nutrient boost, but you just need to be careful about draining your greenhouse system too fast! Remember the soil should hold more water (and nutrients) so you won't need continuous flow like you would for indoor/greenhouse systems using high void space types of media like Matrix Media. Hope that helps and best of luck!
+Bright Agrotech I'll keep that on mind and maybe wiching beds should be the best way for soil. I'll keep following you for updates and I'll contact you guys later for more advises and instructions for my aquaponic system. Thanks a lot
+joss almeida Happy to help. Don't forget, Nate is doing a massive in-depth AP course on Upstart University right now. Check it out if you're interested.
all of yr explanations is so far good but i would appreciate a little more accuracy, could u give us an example e.g, how many times has the water to be circulated per 24h all around the system in order to calculate the exact need of pump capacity to use. Basically, im living in greece and im planning to install a photovoltaic source for my pumps for daily use and cost saving, so i have to achieve good flow for the least spent of energy since my energy resources will not be limitlless since during night or shady days i will use batteries for the system as well as lack of grid power source at the place of installation. thank u in advance and im hoping for an answer, keep up the good work and all of yr info are very helpfull.
Sylvia Bernstein, a very popular aquapon states in her book that the entire volume of water from the fish tanks has to be pumped out into the grow beds at least 1 time each hour. With a 1000L tank, you would have to pump 1000L out in an hour, which is not hard for todays pumps. The question is, how to calculate how much water is circulated out of the FT, if the pump is actually sitting in the sump tank and not in the FT. With the setup explained in this video, the pump climbs water into the FT, and the excess is drained back to the ST again, but how much every hour?? Thats the real question here!!!
José Pablo Méndez You can run variable rates to your plants and fish, if you plumb them as subsystems. Basically, we shoot to turn over the entire volume of our fish tanks at least once every hour to two hours, with the same volume being circulated through our towers on the hour. It doesn't really change based on your system design. The goal is alway to circulate the entire system volume at least once per hour to two hours.
Bright Agrotech Awesome, that confirms part of the dilemma, but here is the tricky part. Say there is 1x1000L fish tank, with a 500L sump tank, and 1x500L grow bed. Say you have a 250GPH pump. How much water from the fish tank exits the fish tank every hour? Remember that the sump is inside the sump tank, not inside the fish tank. So how can you calculate this? And what if you suddenly add 280L of grow bed? Is there a formula you can fill in with all these variables?
ElenoraRumer71559 I dislike these types of rambling commercials with a sole purpose of selling me something. I much rather prefer Dr. Nate Story and Bright Agrotech on giving straight succinct information and allowing me to make the best decision for me, and I especially like how they don't talk down to me like your animated commercial does
Will be altering our system over the Christmas break & you have given me some food for thought..
Thanks for the ideas Mr Nate & have a great one..
Great to hear Rob Bob !
Agreed Bob, I have learnt from you also.
Very good video. Thank you!
Could you please show us how you filter/contition the water coming out of your fish tank before it enters the sump? I assume that from now on all my water, also the water which goes to the media beds is already solid free? Don't I use a whole lot of (important) nutrients if I just filter out the solids and dump them or are you using a different method?
For the most part, I believe red worms and ZipGrow Towers/Grow Beds set the stage for bio filtration (the bacterial version of "water conditioning").
DJ Naccarato
Do you think that there is NO solids removal/particle removal on the way from the fish tank to the sump?
We have "almost" no filtration before the sump. We get rid of our heavy solids, but most are sent to the towers, which are basically trickling mechanical/biological filters.
Bright Agrotech
I really do like your concept! Do you suggest a swirl filter for the heavy solids. Right now I'm not using one, because I think I'd loose too much... I go from the FT to the MB with gravity. Then sump and towers. I'd like to eliminate the gravity to the MB. Could you please clarify on your heavy solids removal process or is this part of your business sectret (which I could understand, even if I wish you'd explain it in more detail). Either way: Thak you for the good work!
This is great!!! Totally changing my design based on this! Thank you so much!!!
+akfiremedic Glad we could help! Good luck with the system!
A detail: When designing the piping, use bigger pipes, smaller pumps. "Fatter pipes cost rises as about the second power of their diameter, but their friction falls as nearly the fifth power of their diameter"(A. Lovins, Reinventing Fire). Bigger pipes, smooth bends, diagonal pipe runs, using Y-junktions instead of T-junktions, all reduce friction dramatically. The bigger the savings in pumping energy, the smaller the pump and capital costs.
Once again, well done. Picasso would be envious of your drawings! Seriously, I've been thinking about changing my system to a single pump system. The biggest problem is my sump isn't large enough to support the volume of all my grow beds if they all are drained at the same time....
I've had this thought process many times. ;-)
I'm sure you've thought of this, but what if you use an indexing valve to flood your beds in sequence for constant and predictable drain volume to the sump instead of auto-siphons?
I did that in my old greenhouse...it's just another expense and piece of equipment that will eventually fail. I went with KISS as much as I could with the new system. ;-)
Yeah, that's a toughie. I've been in a similar spot once or twice. We actually dug in an additional sump well when we built our new greenhouse just in case we needed it down the road. Scaling is one of those hard things to plan for. . .
Ja,Ja,ja.
I´m reading the rest of the post and it seems I´m allready subscribed to a lot of channels, what a big family we are!! aquaponics, vermiponics, permaculture...
My Family!!!
As always, another excellent and informative video! I'm sold but it's a little cold right now to be converting anything. 4 weeks and 10 days until spring, but who's counting ...
Hi JT,
We're ALL counting at this point. . .
On my system I need to alter the water flow into the grow beds so my bell siphons operate. So split water flow is best. Cheers bud
Our pleasure!
GRATITUDE 💥🐟💥🐟
hey nate... i do a system where the fish and plants are totally separate in a sense... I run the fish in a aquaculture system with one pump and from this system I also have a smaller pump that pumps the water to the plants. It works well if you have a problem with the fish tank pump there will always be water running through the whole system (much less ,but enough). This allows me to have a much higher stocking densities in my fish tanks. Your system of splitting the flow is really good as well. But I try to use energy saving pumps and they dont have so much pressure so splitting the flow isnt a option for me. I try to circulate my fish tanks 4 times a hour and this is also too much water to run through my plants... thank for your videos, they help a lot...
This is a very simple choice and almost a no-brainer actually. Now that you explained it like this, it doesn't make sense to spend money on a system you can't scale at a minimal cost. Pick up a large client and the plant capacity may need to drastically increase almost overnight....thanks for the detailed info on this one Nate!
Thanks Wayn, yes, it works really well for scaling down the road. Drop in a new pump, a couple of tees and bam, you're scaling. Super easy with this design.
This made me redesign my whole idea. The compartimesation of the fishtank and growbed is perfect for beginners as maintenance becomes much easier. back to the drawboard...
oh, btw, thank you for actually sharing information (!) instead off all the "designs, tips&trick, setups" and so on that are just showing off their own setup. exeptions excluded offcourse.
you make me actually think-out my design a lot more than just drawing a setup! so again; thank you!
Here's a great aquaponics system that I use: AquaSystem.xyz
Yeah, don't want to complicate things with like an overflow pipe or something. Your 4 year old is too busy at school to be doing it for ya....DO THIS INSTEAD !
I'm looking to utilize ONE pump in my Hydro greenhouse supplying two bato bucket lines (6 for peppers/8 for tomatoes), one 48"Hx48"W six tub vertical NFT (strawberries) and 5 24"x20"x6" grow tubs (lettuce, greens, herbs? I found the EcoPlus 2166 GPH (8176 LPH, 226W) Submersible Water Pump w/ 15 ft Power Cord (Aquarium, Fish Tank, Fountain, Pond, Hydroponics) that is powerful enough to split flow . My question is given peppers, tomatoes, strawberries and greens are what I'm growing can I get by with a single nutrient formula if so what do you recommend for NPK - I use ChemGro 4-18/38 but would like to keep it simple so that I could mix nutrients in my top off tank that would feed my common reservoir. Thanks - you're video are so informing I have learned a lot.
Sorry Nate, but you say "If we need to spray our plants with a pesticide that is dangerous to our fish". I thought aquaponics was inherently organic due to the fact that any harmful pesticides will harm the fish?
Same thought here. I never use pesticides in my aquaponics system. You are what you eat, and I'd prefer not to have ANY of my food be treated with chemicals. All natural for me. There are SO SO many natural and organic ways to get rid of vegetative pests.
It depends on what the pest is that needs to be eradicated. If it's a potential parasite to the fish, then killing them off and potentially losing some crop might be worth it compared to losing your entire stock of fish on top of the damages to the rest of the system once the infection has spread. Sometimes damage control means drastic measures.
Thanks for the video. Because of the big volume of my fish tank 40 000l in relation to my gro-aria 10m2, must I still circulate all the water in say an hour? We have a 15 000l/h pump at the moment.
Thanks. Question. Any ideas on the best greenhouse for a climate zone that can get 110+ in the summer and close to 25 in the winter, which is more mild? I live in St George Utah, very dry area. Ventilation in the summer can be costly and difficult. I have an half acre behind my home in the center of town where I want to get going with aquoponics. Been a green thumb all my life and I already have restaurants wanting to buy fresh organic produce.
huh?? the plant water drains to the sump, pumps to the fish, then goes back to the sump, then goes to the plants again?? This piping makes no sense... the valves would have to be automaticly opening and closing every pump cycle.
Very informative. Thank you, learned a lot.
I am doing a split flow single pump with an indoor hydroponic system. But water is not being distributed evenly between the t valve? Any suggestions?
hey if I have a 4 x 4 row of buckets and have 1 pump in a reservoir, how can I get a H2o top feed/waterfall bucket to each bucket ? hope someone can help!
When splitting the water from the sump between the fish and plants, aren't the plants receiving nutrient depleted water at some point? At what point is the water from the sump not nutrient rich enough for the plants?
Thanks Nate, im designing a system for my back yard currently and i was going to go the single flow route. interesting video, makes me think twice
+Matthew Young Glad it was useful! Best of luck with the system build. Have fun!
Thanks for helping others to undestant a bit better
Where do you put the filters? They need pressure
great! you are the Steve Jobs of aquaponics.
ha ha, I'm not sure we'd go that far! But thanks!
how many ppm aquaponic need?
Nate,
If the fish tank water is traveling to the sump via slo, what is being used to filter out the fish waste? Wouldn't waste accumulate rapidly since only half of the flow is traveling to the grow beds?
In our system, it's all broken up by the sump. Some of it is sent back to the fish and some of it keeps circulating. Over time it will accumulate in the ZipGrow Matrix Media which act as both a bio/mechanical filtration. If you're not using towers or another media-based technique, you'll have to install solids filtration equipment.
swirl filter placement?
Awesome video, thank you for it as it helped us build our system in this manner... Question... we have an 800GPH than claims 400GPH @ 6ft HH which is where our system is at... after all is said & done, we are moving about 300GPH through aquarium, sump & garden with ball valves controlling everything at all points... is it ok long-term for the pump if we keep it around this 25% restriction?
I have a concert floor so a underground slump is a no no
So can someone help me find a same height on the floor aquaponics system
i plan to run a 300gal fish tank
I would to run a bigger tank 500gals but i dont think i should but so much weight on a concert floor (in he basement )
if I turn off the flow to my fish , my pressure is so high it over flows some of my beds. how do I split it evenly? basically the beds closest to the pump are getting more then the 1 1/2 return pipe can handle. let me know what you think. thanks
Hi Joe, put valves on each bed and then choke back flows to what you want. Hope that helps!
will that back pressure on the pump be a issue? i was trying to handle the flow but ya if i can just reduce the flow then i wont need to add more beds and worry about even distribution.
It should be just fine for your pump. If you are worried about pressure on the pump you can use a check valve.
Excellent information, very scientifically explained. But as Δρυοπας φαναριτης was saying, the difficulty lies on calculating how much water is drained out of the fish tank each hour if the pump is sitting in the sump tank. Other aquaponics experts suggest thath the entire volume of the fish tank has to be pumped out every hour, but how to make sure of that if the water flows from sump to fish and back from fish to pump by the SLO drain?
Hey Nate, how is plumbing if I have 6 grow beds when using the split-flow? I mean the right side(In your diagram) pumping water to the grow beds through a pipe; does the water enter GB1 then GB2 ... till GB6 then into the sump tank OR does the water enter GB1 then drain into the sump and GB2 then drain into the sump .... and GB6 then drain into the sump? I tried my best explaining in writings! Thank you.
🤔 With all due respect; at 50 degrees below zero, your fish & plants are all dead...😕
Glad I watched this before finalizing my setup.. back to the hardware store I go! 😂
Lots of people seem to use Epson Salt to treat fish deseases, so...adding this to the fishtank, not only will bennefit our crop!!
Good call bringing this up MyDARAMA - we have a video on this too! Adding Epsom Salt to Aquaponics Systems
So we have a system that I am trying to help design (or adjust the current design). We have a rafting system with 2 IBC containers as fish tanks. Two rafting grow beds are attached via 2inch PVC pipes, and the beds are connected together (water flowing in one and through to the other) the beds then drain into the sump tank where the water is then returned back to fish tank. We are having a problem with the flow of water OUT of the fish tanks. The water flow INTO the fish tanks is much faster than the water OUT of the fish tanks (even with a back flow from the sump tank) How do we increase the flow of the water out of the fish tanks? Do we need larger diameter pipes out of the fish tanks? Should be raise the fish tanks to a higher level than the grow beds? (all is gravity based except the return back to fish tanks). What are your thoughts? It's been a real hassle. We have an overflow pipe in both fish tanks to prevent overflow (which we had problems with)
Thanks for the break down of the two systems. I am looking to build an IBC system to be ready in the spring and now see the up side to the split flow, very helpful.
I noticed in another video that you are using a pool pump, is there a specific reason you are using a pool pump instead of a submersible pump? Also I haven't seen any filtering equipment in your system. I understand it is to maintain the amount of fish waste and not to lose any of the nutrients in the system. But does this not increase the chance of developing disease in your system?
With the amount of towers we have in our greenhouse, a submersible just won't cut it. Submersible pumps become more expensive for every gph they deliver. There's definitely a sweet spot there. The opposite is true for inlines: the larger the volume you're moving, the more cost effective in-line pumps become. Regarding the filtering: We have a settlement tank that our solution goes into, but the majority of the bio/mechanical filtration is actually performed by our Matrix Media (shop.brightagrotech.com/matrix-media). Our Matrix Media is 93% void space which gives our plant roots an incredibly aerobic environment, reducing the risk of disease and eliminating detrimental anaerobic zones.
There is a manifold with adjustable valves going to the lines. I kinda think its a lack of pressure. Mabey a bigger pump? I dunno I took the nfts out for now.
somehow all the water ended up going to the biofilter line. the valve to the NFT was open, but no water was flowing??? It was all going to the other line.
the NFC is elevated higher than the other line, and I know more pressure is required on that line, but the required pressure seems to change over time.
Very informative.
A question about pressures, when scaling this system do you glue the pvc or will a friction fit hold? Second question, based on longevity is there a better option than pvc for pressure and splits?
Hi, If you turn of the flow to either the fish or the plants dosent the increase in pressure effect the pump? Or is there another pipe feeding water, that isnt taken by the fish or the plants, directly back to the sump?
That depends on the type of pump. Most submersible pumps can be turned down to 0 with a simple ball valve with no repercussions (in fact, the energy usage will drop, so it's best to set the flow to only what you need). Maybe not a good idea with external pumps, but I use only submersible types so take that with a grain of salt ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
3 year old comment but hopefully it helps someone.
I like to see a clip on the spit flow system im sorry but the diagram on the board is slitly confusing
Would the split flow system not end up with the sump tank and lines needing cleaned more regularly.
ie. The solids have not first been run through the media beds.
using a gravity feed system wouldn't you just need to increase flow to the fish tank from the sump tank, so the added beds get the water they need? you do of course need valves and a bigger sump.
What system do you use to return the water from the plant tanks back to the fish tank? And how do you aerate the water returning back to the fish tank?
so if my grow bed is 100gal and then I put grow media , I think i lose at least 50 gal as result, therefore i can use 50gal sump ?
is it possible to add a horizontal grow bed using a bell siaphon below the towers with this system? to maximize quantity per acre.
Is it effective to have your verticle system drip into a media bed below it and return back to either sump or fish tank?
Is there any reason that a 50 gallon swirl filter couldn’t be used in this plan instead of the sump.
Thanks Doc
Cheers Nate!
Gravity fed to plant to pump in the dumping tank to fish?
thanks for the helpfull information.
how do you drain it from fish to grow bed? SLO? thanks
So you need only one pump to get the way around
Thanks for helping others to undestant a bit better
Do they have art school in Wyoming, so funny
Do i need a UV sterilizer on my aquaponics system.
where is your bio filter for solid waste from fish
Hey Big Dog - We actually don't have a traditional bio-filter. Our fish water goes through a settlement tank where all the big solids are filtered out and then it goes to our towers where our Matrix Media acts as a bio filter, trapping the smaller solids and contributing to more nutrients for our plant roots with the help of our redworms! Hope that makes sense.
I am having difficulty regulating pressure with my new split flow valve.
I have water going from fishtank/sump to the splitrer valve. From the valve, one line goes to nft and the other to a biofilter, dwc, then gravelbed.
unfortunately, the flow of water is not constant and seems to change over night and again during the day?
Couple days ago the nft ran dry and plants died.
Hmm. It could be a lot of different things, including too little flow in any one direction and too many solids in your system. Are you using a valve to regulate pressure in any direction?
uhhh, yes. Matter of fact, I just switched it, because it was fouled up. Also, the biofilter was clogged. Lastly, after reviewing the spreadsheet, I do think the water is going much to slow. I may need a larger pump.
First, I'm going to add a larger solids filter and shuffle some bucket filters around a bit. I hope the larger solids filter removes more solids so the biofilter doesn't get clogged. While I'm at it, I'm cleaning everything out and enlarging some fittings to try to get more water flow.
Thanks guys! You guys have been very helpful!
It's starting to sink in... Very useful (after digesting all the online info) information.
Thanks Doc
So glad this is helpful Jason!
Yes, it is, thanks again. Doesn't replace the time spent "being" an aquaponist (?) but it certainly helps going forward.
Nope, nothing replaces experience! Hopefully though, folks can learn from our mistakes as well as their own.
I have been teaching advanced scuba diving techniques and we use something called "accident analysis" to improve the safety of the sport and offer a better training. Until then, you don't know what you don't know :)
Yeah, we use accidental analysis a lot! It's typically the most terrifying analysis we do.
I feel like I should be paying you thanks alot friend
Hey brettC ! We appreciate your viewership. If you are interested in growing, however, we would love it if you invested in our ZipGrow products as that's how we can keep these videos coming (and feed our families!).
You can find our online store here: shop.brightagrotech.com
Very nice informative video !!
Great explanation of the benefits gained when allowing for separation of your sub-systems... I am putting a modest system in over the next two months or so, and will be utilizing some of your ideas... including your separate (secondary) drainage systems for flexibility when issues may occur. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and knowledge!
Glad you found them helpful, ***** !
great video. I think this is the route i will take for my system.
what is the ratio for grow bed / fish tank / sump
sump size is my question
I took an IBC tote 1000L , I cut the top at 14" for the grow bed , and the bottom is for fish.
what size then does the sump need to be?
thanks for helping
Paul.
Your sump should at least be the combined volume of all of your grow beds. If you're using towers, or a flow-through technique it can be smaller. We run our 4000 gal, 350 tower system on a 250 gallon sump tank.
Absolutely agree with what you are presenting. After watching your previous vid on two pump systems i converted my CHIFT-PIST system to a split flow.
The split flow design now allows me to control the flow through the grow beds and keep it slow so they cycle at the rate i want, while keeping a good turnover of water through the fish tank for maintaining oxygen levels and removal of solids. Excellent vids. Appreciate the information.
Excellent, John Wheat - Glad to hear you're seeing some results.
Great info Nate! As a hobbyist, considering an expansion of my system, I have never thought about these points. Now I don't have to learn the hard way! Thanks How do you handle solids in a system like this?
Hi Mark, Our heavy solids are removed by a couple of crude fish tanks we use for some settlement, but most of our solids are sent to our towers where they're filtered out by towers.
Thanks for the good idea. The aquaculture should really be separated from the hydroponics. The only reason for grow beds in aquaculture is for bio filtration and absorbing dissolved nutrients from the water to discourage algae growth. The fish wastes should be taken out constantly to provide nutrients for hydroponics
It can be a good design for some systems- especially with nutrient intensive crops
thanx Nate for explaining few things and especially how single pump flow works.
Gives me some ideas as to how to design a cheaper alternative to current aquaponics.
Looking to set up also a living wall but still need to figure out how to do it and not cause dampness issue.
My pleasure. I'm glad it's useful for you. Yes, the moisture issue is always there with living walls- one reason most of them are outside!
I think its the almost the same. Its only two valves and one T we add to the system and that allows us to control it better. He could make the split flow example at the first drawing.
also, it makes no sense not using split flow, because its the evolltution of the first system. awsome video. ty
Brilliant explanation !
This was amazingly helpful thank you
Namaste
Dylan Chong Excellent! Very glad to hear it.
First of all I want to thank U, Nate for your videos, they are really helpfull.
what you said about splitting flow relating to convert our aquaponics into an hydroponics, is a really nice idea, allthought I concern about what will be happening to our bacteria and worms with the hydro solution.
Hope U guys can forgive my english, its been a while since I practice.
thanks in advance.
Hey MyDARAMA - Definitely not a good idea to use worms with hydro and bacteria are not something you want to focus on either since hydro should be fairly sterile. These are both for aquaponics.
ElenoraRumer71559 The person posting as +ElenoraRumer71559 is not very classy by bombing somebody else's you tube channel with a commercial for her own *inferior product.* Because Bright Agrotech is too classy to say something, then I will. If your comments have something to add to the discussion then they are welcome, but if they aim to redirect people away illegitimately, like +ElenoraRumer71559, (because you don't have a good enough product to stand on its own) then every body else is WARNED to avoid +ElenoraRumer71559's SCAM
Very well explain with perfect example
Thanks!
I'm surprised you don't need a 2nd pump and sump in case of emergencies, and what if you separate the plants from the fish, what's going to act as the biofilter for the fish?
Not second!!
Hello, thank you for the information. I just have a questions, since the "dirty" water and the " clean" water are mixing in the sump... Is it clean enough for the fish and dirty enough for the plants?
Question*
You bet!
there is a problem , say, you turn off the spigot to the grow bed then the dirty water will keep recycling within the fish tank. I dont know how long you can do this without killing your fish!
nice,
how do you drain from the fish to sump?
the grow bed I assume is bell siphon.
thanks
Paul.
Draining from the Fist Tank to the Sump Tank is done through an SLO drain, which is basically 1 of 2 methods, one of them is just a tube going down to the bottom of the FT, with an exit through the FT wall on the upper edge that then turns back down on the outside to the floor and runs into the ST, a better explanation can be found here Solids Lifting Overflows for Aquaponics and here goo.gl/flqC1j
José Pablo Méndez Thanks for pointing those out!
Our system in particular, paulie pauly drains from the fish through a settlement tank to our sump then to our towers.
Might want to expand the idea of 1 pump to (pumps only in one tank) since occasionally it is actually helpful to have redundant pumps or when you expand you can add another pump instead of having to buy a bigger pump to handle the expansion or if using timers, one might want to only turn the plant system pump on/off via the timer while having a continuous pump running for the fish. All these ideas follow the basic Idea of CHOP even if using multiple pumps provided all the pumps are drawing from the same single sump reservoir.
Good idea Aleece. Redundancy is a life-saver. We'll have to do a video on this at some point.
Hi.
I have been thinking about this system and it's very interesting. I wanna have a greenhouse in a near future and grow diferent types of vegetable however I would like to grow carrots and onions for exemple outside alongside the greenhouse.
So my point is. can pump water from the fish tank to spray those cultures outside and pump water to the tank to replace the water used outside?
Hi +joss almeida - It's entirely possible, but I'm afraid that if you didn't get your flow rates sync'd up well enough, your outside soil crops would drain your aquaponics system and all it's valuable nutrients your greenhouse plants are relying on. Assuming you're going to setup drip irrigation for your outside crops, you could always set it up with a splitter that would let you occasionally water your root crops with your AP system water. Your outside crops will really appreciate the organic nutrient boost, but you just need to be careful about draining your greenhouse system too fast! Remember the soil should hold more water (and nutrients) so you won't need continuous flow like you would for indoor/greenhouse systems using high void space types of media like Matrix Media. Hope that helps and best of luck!
+Bright Agrotech I'll keep that on mind and maybe wiching beds should be the best way for soil.
I'll keep following you for updates and I'll contact you guys later for more advises and instructions for my aquaponic system.
Thanks a lot
+joss almeida Happy to help. Don't forget, Nate is doing a massive in-depth AP course on Upstart University right now. Check it out if you're interested.
Thank You
Big Dog No Problem Dog!
Bravo
+Anthony Ebenezer Thank you!
all of yr explanations is so far good but i would appreciate a little more accuracy, could u give us an example e.g, how many times has the water to be circulated per 24h all around the system in order to calculate the exact need of pump capacity to use.
Basically, im living in greece and im planning to install a photovoltaic source for my pumps for daily use and cost saving, so i have to achieve good flow for the least spent of energy since my energy resources will not be limitlless since during night or shady days i will use batteries for the system as well as lack of grid power source at the place of installation.
thank u in advance and im hoping for an answer, keep up the good work and all of yr info are very helpfull.
Sylvia Bernstein, a very popular aquapon states in her book that the entire volume of water from the fish tanks has to be pumped out into the grow beds at least 1 time each hour. With a 1000L tank, you would have to pump 1000L out in an hour, which is not hard for todays pumps. The question is, how to calculate how much water is circulated out of the FT, if the pump is actually sitting in the sump tank and not in the FT. With the setup explained in this video, the pump climbs water into the FT, and the excess is drained back to the ST again, but how much every hour?? Thats the real question here!!!
José Pablo Méndez You can run variable rates to your plants and fish, if you plumb them as subsystems. Basically, we shoot to turn over the entire volume of our fish tanks at least once every hour to two hours, with the same volume being circulated through our towers on the hour. It doesn't really change based on your system design. The goal is alway to circulate the entire system volume at least once per hour to two hours.
Bright Agrotech
Awesome, that confirms part of the dilemma, but here is the tricky part. Say there is 1x1000L fish tank, with a 500L sump tank, and 1x500L grow bed. Say you have a 250GPH pump. How much water from the fish tank exits the fish tank every hour? Remember that the sump is inside the sump tank, not inside the fish tank. So how can you calculate this? And what if you suddenly add 280L of grow bed? Is there a formula you can fill in with all these variables?
ElenoraRumer71559 I dislike these types of rambling commercials with a sole purpose of selling me something. I much rather prefer Dr. Nate Story and Bright Agrotech on giving straight succinct information and allowing me to make the best decision for me, and I especially like how they don't talk down to me like your animated commercial does