As this was posted elsewhere, I thought it might be nice for others who have designed their own Aquaponics system as I have a thread to post their own designs. This way it could give others a place to view what has been done and maybe give them a starting point for their own designs.
The original thread: http://www.phoenixpermaculture.org/forum/topics/aquaponics-anyone-doing-it?id=2008067
Below is my MS Paint quick draft of what my system will look like from a side view.
I also have an alternate design without a draft of the same pieces, just arranged within a box formation next to each other to looks like a spiral of boxes back down to the fish tank from the sump, placing the Fish Tank and Sump tub right next to each other or maybe even having the sump tub sitting atop the fish tank to conserve space.
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Fish tank on bottom, grow bed on top (there is a third set of casters in the middle that you can't see)
The grow bed. I later added more hydroton, the plate of rocks was temporarily weighting down the siphon strainer
Less than 2 weeks after I planted the seeds
The next system (building it in the fall) will be bigger and probably a pump in the sump style.
1. I'm guessing that your fish tank is on the ground because of the weight, but you would get a lot more benefit out of the system to switch the sump and the tank and put the pump in the sump. It would allow you to keep a constant water height in the fish tank. As it stands now, I don't see any benefit to having the sump up there except to expand the water volume, and if that's all it's doing, you may as well just make the fish tank bigger and give them some room to spread out.
2. The duckweed tank. I love having it as a part of the aquaponic system, but the duckweed really prefers still water and when those bell siphons get draining, a LOT of water rushes out at once. Maybe if it was at the top of the system and the pump outlet was at water level or something to prevent much water disturbance?
3. The solar air pump is a great idea. Is there an easy way to put it in-line with some sort of battery so you still get nighttime aeration? In winter that shouldn't be necessary, but I'm concerned with a fully stocked tank when night time temps are in the 90's there will be need for aeration. Do you have any thoughts on this? I suppose you could always plug a non-solar air pump into a timer for summer use if it became an issue.
4. Are the hanging plants being watered by the aquaponics some how or are they just there maximizing your usage of space?