Mantos new system

mantis

Been planning this for a while and trying to source stuff, and get it freighted here. The fish tank and the growbeds arrived today.

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Today I started landscaping and got a raised pad for the fish tank done, but not leveled yet as rain stopped play
The area for the system

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mantis

I boarded up the pad and filled it then the rain came

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mantis

Had to dig over an old jerusalum artichoke bed and ended up with these. Might have to make some soup me thinks

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mantis

This system is going to be a chift pist with the 2000L ft, 1000L sump (not purchased yet), and two 500L gbs
The fish tank has a sloping floor down to a sump that has a 65mm pipe outlet.
Would I be better to use the sump outlet for the gravity feed to the growbeds or put the over flow pipe through the side of the tank as per usual ?

Dale Morgan

Hi Mantis,
Well I am a bit of a newby but from what I gather going from the fish tanks direct to the grow beds via an SLO, then draining from GBs to sump, with pump in the sump the best setup. That means the pump is in clean water and therefore needs less maintenance. The fish poo goes straight to the GBs and the sump remains clean to take the clean water to put into the FT.
Some one will probably say you will be needing more grow beds but I'll leave that to the more experienced ones.
Your yard looks great, plenty of room to expand and play with.
Jerusalem artichokes, I know all about them!
I can't eat em they are the most terrible wind makers I have ever known! Pretty flowers though!
Is that a glasshouse I spy?
goodluck with it.
Dale

mantis

I have to make myself clearer here
You are correct Dale in that the SLO from fishtank to growbeds which drain via autosyphons to the system sump, then pump in system sump back to fish tank
The sump I am asking about is in the fish tank and has a 65mm pipe connection under the tank. Here is a very professional diagram of my thoughts which are probably more muddled than the diagram

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Oh, yeah and yes that is a greenhouse in the background that has my 500L trout system in half of it. The other half is dedicated to growing tomatoes in selfwatering tubs each year

vlt

since it already comes with a 65mm sump hole...would be produent to use that. Only issue I can see is that it will be painful to fix if anything goes wrong.

mantis

Yes I can see what you mean. The riser tube with the holes in it can be just pulled out and a riser with no holes pushed in, effectively plugging it. then the pipes could be removed for maintainence if needed.

mantis

Decided to go with a normal setup and use the sump outlet with a tap on it to pull off excess solids , like I do with the small tank
Another amazing diagram

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fishfodder

You could have gone with your solid 65mil riser idea and put a larger 90mil pipe around it with crenalations on the bottom. The water would have drawn up between the two pipes and take all the solids with it into your grow beds.

Ah well the tap idea will work as well

mantis

The riser is actually 110mm with lots of 8mm holes in it and sealed at the top, but the take off at the sump under the tank is only 65mm. I reckon most solids would get sucked into it.

I dont have a riser in the small tank, only some mesh over the sump hole weighted down with some bits of paver. So solids would just drop through the mesh, but I get nervous about the mesh being displaced, and a fish or yabbie ending up down there and getting trapped when I replace the mesh.
The riser stops any chance of this

Jamey

mantis wrote:

Decided to go with a normal setup and use the sump outlet with a tap on it to pull off excess solids , like I do with the small tank
Another amazing diagram

This is what im going to do with my IBC Tank, Going to leave the tap in the bottom for Emptying the tank if needed or just to Drop Solids build up out.

then transfer my SLO from my Current FT to the unit.

fishfodder

I used a double pipe thingy in one of my tanks to allow water to overflow but stop any fish or yabbies getting out. I suppose they could get under the outer pipe if they really tried but it hasn't happened yet

I pinched your drawing :oops:

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mantis

Hey , that drawing has been copyrighted against anyone putting straight lines on it :laughing3:

Seriously but, that would really suck up the poop good, me thinks
I havent even got the tank in place yet, still to get the pad where it sits solid and level. Should get that much done this weekend I hope
I suppose I could set it up using the sump outlet when testing it, and if that doesnt work, I can always go the other way

mantis

Got home tonight with some plumbing bits and got stuck in

Got the pad sort of level and put the tank base on

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Then rolled in the tank and put it in place

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Attatched the tanks sump pipe

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