Office Aquaponics System DESIGN

I moved into a new office a couple of weeks ago. My aquaponics system I had set up in my previous office doesnt fit anywhere in my new office. Fortunately, no one is currently using my old office so I still have the system up and running in there. This coming Monday though, someone will be moving into my old office so I need to have it moved out by then; time to design a new office system!

The above picture shows the future location of my new office aquaponics system. As you can see, it needs to be a compact and space efficient design. Because of this, Ive had to design a system with a grow bed a little higher than I normally like to use. I normally like the top of the grow bed to be between 36" & 40" in height so it can accommodate all sizes of people. This is my office though and this unit is for me. I am 6 foot 2 so the slightly higher than normal grow bed height isnt going to be a problem. 

The window that will be directly behind the system is a south facing window (hooray). BUT there is a walkway that overhangs about 10 feet for the second story offices in our complex as well as a big tree right outside my window so I get almost no direct sunlight coming through. In order to provide my cultivar with adequate light for photosynthesis, I have hung a 600 watt 6 spectrum LED grow light. I plan on running it for a few hours in the morning before I come to work and for a few hours in the evening after I leave. If I ran it during the day my clients and I would go blind. (that thing is crazy bright!)

Since this system is going to be for me, I want to try to build absolutely as much of it as I can out of spare parts that I already have laying around in my shop (Im cheap like that). That is one of the reasons I went with 1" square metal tubing for the frame. I have about 200 feet of the stuff collecting rust in my shop. I also have quite a few remnants of 3/4" plywood not being used so I decided to use that for all the wood in the design. Once I hit everything with some black paint I think it will give it a nice professional look well suited for a life of operation in an office. 

The overall design is a quite simple one. It utilizes the C.H.I.F.T. - P.I.S.T. style of operation. For those of you who dont know what that is, it is an acronym that stands for: Constant Height In Fish Tank - Pump In Sump Tank. As you can see in the labeled picture below, the sump is on the bottom, the aquarium is in the middle and the grow bed is on the top. Water is pumped from the right side of the sump tank up into the left side of the grow bed. Once the grow bed floods, the bell siphons causes the water to drain into the right side of the fish tank. From there it travels to the left side of the fish tank where a riser pipe carries it up and out of the fish tank into the left side of the sump tank. That cycle repeats itself on an endless loop. This design enables the water level in the fish tank to remain at a constant height. Frequent and large fluctuations in water height in the fish tank can stress out your fish. 

The grow bed and the sump tank will be lined with a HDPE DuraSkrim liner. I have about 30 feet left over from a previous build and that will provide more than enough material for this design. The aquarium is also an item that I have had in my shop for quite some time. You can see in the rendering of the aquarium that the back and side glass panels are black. This is because I intend to paint them so I can reduce the amount of light entering the tank. This will greatly reduce algae growth in the tank. 

I have already started construction on the frame for this system and I plan on having it all done and ready to go by Monday. I will do another post on Monday showing the end product as well as the build process. 

Dont forget to check in tomorrow for the biggest "Friday SketchUp Archive" yet!!!!!!

(800 square feet!!!!!)

Let me know what you guys think and if you have any design inputs in the comments. I spend a lot of time making these and every model is to scale and every measurement is exact. You can literally open the file, use the measuring tool and get every exact measurement you need to build this unit. I will put the link to download the SketchUp file at the bottom of the post. If you choose to download the file or if you just like the blog and would like to see more stuff like this, please leave a comment or share the blog on one of the social media site links below. It really helps me out and the more the blog grows, the more cool stuff Ill be able to share with you. (Build it at your own risk of course, Im not your daddy nor am I responsible for you. These are just fancy drawings and I cant guarantee they will work, they are here to try to help you out in your aquaponic endeavors)
Hope you enjoy!

Download Link:

Office Aquaponics System

Related Posts by Categories