Aquaponics - New system expansion

In this first stage of my system expansion, I'll be using my existing pump and running a fairly conventional layout.

Half an IBC as a fish tank, and three, media filled blue barrel halves as grow beds with the existing fish tank as a sump, or perhaps 4 grow beds and no sump.

In a system with a sump, you maintain a constant height in the fish tank, by placing the pump in the sump tank, and filling the grow beds by having the fish tank overflow into the grow beds. The grow beds then drain back to the sump.

This type of system is often called CHIFT PIST (Constant Height In Fish Tank, Pump In Sump Tank).

Stage two would see me cutting the second IBC in half, and creating two media filled constant flood grow beds powered by either a new type of airlift I've been thinking about, a conventional airlift, a power head, or any combination of all these.

Or something else.

In short, the absurdly low power use system is still a little way off. The main problem I face is having to find a completely new form of media that will be ultra light weight so I can pick up and move a cubic metre of it. I live in a rented house, and may have to move it at some stage in the future, and a cubic metre of gravel might weigh around the same as a family car.

Currently, that media looks a bit like it might be soft drink bottle caps put through a garden mulcher, but it's early days.



120 Things in 20 years, where sometimes my aquaponics - new system expansions, simply dont happen.