Friday SketchUp Archive Starter Commercial Aquaponics System ~ Aquaponics Get Ready

Todays "Friday SketchUp Archive" is the largest design I have done so far. This system was designed to fit inside of a 20 foot by 40 foot greenhouse. If you are someone who is looking to build their first small scale commercial aquaponics system, this design might be the one for you. Even if you are a hobby grower who is looking to expand your existing setup, this might be an option to consider. I have designed it to be as affordable as possible while still remaining reliable and very productive. The overall system design is a hybrid system. This means that it incorporates the media based, flood and drain style of aquaponics as well as a DWC or floating raft style of aquaponics.

Ill start off by describing the fish tank because that is where everything begins inside the system. This design features a 625 gallon round stock tank for the the fish tank. The tank is 8 feet in diameter and is 2 feet deep. For this design I have chosen to submerge the fish tank in the ground. It is the lowest point in the system. I have incorporated a submersible pump in this design but you could also use an in-line pump. The total water volume for this system is around 1,600 gallons. In an aquaponics system, you want your entire water volume to be circulated at least once per hour. To achieve this I would need at least a 1,600 gallon per hour pump at a head height of about 7 feet. (from the bottom of the fish tank where the pump sits to the entrance point on the swirl filter) I always recommend going with a pump that is about 2.5 times the minimum required flow rate. I found a pump close to these recommendations; its the Tsurumi Submersible Pump, Model PLB2750. It has a flow rate of about 75 GPM (gallons per minute) at a head height of 12 feet. This is well above what I need but its always best have a little more pump than you need. As pumps get older they can lose efficiency and your flow rate can decrease. Also, if you ever want to expand your system, already having a pump that can handle more than your current setup makes for an easy transition.

From the center of the fish tank the nutrient rich water is pumped into a conical bottom swirl filter. This will help settle out a good portion of the suspended solids in the water. If you have an aquaponics system that exclusively has DWC beds, a solids filter is a necessity (you would also need an additional bio-filter). If a solids filter wasnt incorporated in that style of system, solids would accumulate on the plant roots suspended in the water and block their ability to uptake nutrients from the water. Since this deign is a hybrid system, the media beds act as a solids filter as well as bio-filter. The swirl filter will not remove all of the suspended solids in the water, only a portion of them. The swirl filter is there to lessen the solids load going into the grow beds. This allows the grower to have a higher stocking density of fish as well as increase the amount of time between grow bed cleanings (eventually all media grow beds need to be cleaned out). An added benefit of the swirl filter is you can get a weekly dose of free fish poo fertilizer for all your plants you have growing in soil.

After flowing out of the top of the swirl filter, the now cleaner nutrient rich water is routed into all 8 of the media flood and drain grow beds. Each bed is 4 feet wide by 8 feet long and 14 inches deep. The beds are all constructed out of 3/4 inch plywood and supported by 2 x 8s resting on top of cinder blocks. This is a very easy and affordable way to construct many large grow beds. The beds are lined with a HDPE liner and filled with growing media 12 inches deep. The water enters one side of each grow bed and exits via a bell siphon on the opposite end. There is a 3 inch drain pipe that runs the length of the grow beds and is where all the siphons drain into. At the end of the grow bed row that pipe is ran down into the ground where it carriers the water over to the DWC pool.

The water enters the DWC pool where it begins its calm journey down the 20 foot long pool. The DWC pool is constructed entirely out of cinder blocks(keeping the build very affordable). The same HDPE liner that is used for the media grow beds lines the DWC pool. The pool can support 5 polystyrene sheets that are 48 inches by 48 inch by 2 inches. Each sheet has 3 inch holes drilled on 8 inch centers. This allows the grower to have 25 plants per sheet. Once the water reaches the far end of the pool a riser pipe lifts it up and out of the DWC pool and it drains into the lowest point in the system, the fish tank. It is from here that the entire cycle starts again.

In the fish tank and in the DWC pool you will need to have an air pump that is constantly pushing air into air-diffuses that are submersed in the water. This will create thousands of little air bubbles that create a higher surface area on the water allowing for greater oxygen exchange. Fish, nitrifying bacteria and you plant roots all need oxygen to live and thrive. These air diffusers will provide them with the necessary oxygen they need.

So thats my Starter Commercial Aquaponics System. It is not very complex but its a solid and reliable design that I think would be perfect for someone looking to construct a small commercial system. About 90% of the supplies for this entire build can be purchased at a local hardware store. It is a very affordable system and is capable of being extremely productive. It provides you with 256 sq. ft. of media grow beds and about 90 sq. ft. of DWC growing area. It has a 625 gallon fish tank for rearing fish and a 240 gallon swirl filter. If I had to guesstimate a price for all supplies necessary to build this design, not including greenhouse cost or labor, I would guesstimate the cost somewhere between $4,000 - $6,000. Not bad for this size of system. (look up turnkey systems online, they are about $1,000 for a couple hundred gallon system)

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!