Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Lookin good Johnnie

TT I've filled my 150mm PVC with gravel (scoria), yeah it is heavy but well supported. I initially had strawbs in drop in pots (I use the same pots as J7) which were filled with perlite but I found that these became root bound very quickly, and I think the growth of the plant itself was a bit stunted. I transferred one into the gravel150mm pipe and it took off but that might have been because it got more sun there?

Well..

It is still working well. Had lots of basil and a few strawbs from it. Lots of flowers (bizzie lizzies).

Wrong location for tomatoes, cucumbers and zuchinni (too much shade) .. also some overspray from my garden sprayers causing fungal diseases.

Today I moved the large goldies out to my other little tub system and added 8 small koi.

I dropped the hanging bucket idea (over complicating the system).

But I am thinking about a small scale bucket cascade system in the future.

The aquaculture / aquaponics system at school is imminent.

We have set up an aquarium room that is functioning and have some ponds and growbeds to set up and organise.

The reason being that the drippers kept clogging up.

I think next time I may try flood and drain cascade. (Bucket over bucket suspended on long chains)

Cascade buckets work like this ...

Set up the top bucket (no. 1) like a hanging basket. Set up three chains hanging from a hook.

Drill a small hole 2 mm in the bottom of a large bucket to direct water downward.

About 4 cm below the top rim of the bucket drill a hole in the side as an overflow.

This should be wider guage ..maybe 10 mm or so. This is the flood Maximum. (overflow)

Fit some small guage plastic tube into the bottom hole (slow drain) and larger guage tube into the side hole to direct the water into the bucket that will be attached underneath.

Around the rim of bucket no 1 drill three equally spaced holes to attach three lengths of chain with nuts and bolts.

Attach several buckets underneath bucket no. 1 drilled and fitted with tubes similarly to bucket no. 1 feeding into bucket below.

The three dangling chains suports buckets in turn so that water from no.1 will flood and drain into no 2, then to no. 3 and so on.

Bottom bucket drains into the pond.

Now fill some suitably sized flower pots with hydrotron and plant each with a seedling.

Put one flower pot in each bucket and set your timer.

Reap the rewards.

Does this make sense? or do I have to draw it?

There are "commercial" versions of this idea ....

You can do something similar using 25-30L square (tapered) planters filled with gravel.
Fit a 40mm pvc pipe down the middle and alternate each tub in the stack by 90 degrees ala verti-gro style with 4 plants per tub.
Drill overflow (large) and drain holes (small) in the central pipe to match the tub heights, so each tub gets its own overflow and a slow drain hole.
You`d probably have to floor mount the stack on a couple of blocks due to the weight,a single 30L planter with gravel and water could weigh upto 60kg

Well .....


It was a good experiment ...

Worked OK but IMHO could have been a lot better.

1) Way too shady! (I think this was the most important factor!)

2) Pipe dia too small. Pots too small. I think racked vertical systems using various sized tubes to suit the root mass of the plants .... cascading systems with shade lovers at the bottom and sun lovers at the top might work.

3) I has too many blockages due to lower outlet valves being tightly resricted. (flood and drain) getting clogged. (I used drippers because pump flow to header was at its maximum limit. I would oversize and use a header distribution tank with overflow if I choose to do this again

The drippers ... they were not reliable at all. (Even on pressurized retic I have never found drippers to be reliable.

Anyway .. was worth the time!

I will post some pics of my little experimental flood and drain "tub" system soon.

BTW the supended bread and milk idea where milk soaked bread is suspended over a pond, in a plastic mesh oinion bag, sprayed with water now and again to promote the cultivation of maggots that fall into the pond is a really fantastic idea.

And it works!

Overall

This was a faliure ...

1) Way too shady! (I think this was the most important factor!)

OK

I am now trying a small flood and drain ... 15 mins pumping per hour as the core pond.

No problem with this ... will experiment, expand and figure a nice way to make this pergola friendly in the future.

However I have added another pump which is located in the same pond (tiny tank). This pump kicks in only once every 6 hours .. (delivering watering only 4 times per day) into an elevated header tank that delivers individually via small bore pipe to pots packed with cocopeat via a gravity.

When the pump kicks in, the header tank fills and overflows back to the fish tub. Pots ar watered individually 4 times per day only.

2 systems from same pond.

The flower pots sit in several rectangular tubs amd each pot is watered individually by gravity. Each tub is fitted with a drain line back to the fish tub.

(I have 15 small flower pots in one tray. 8 in another and several in another.

Each pot has a small hole pushed into the side to take the small bore tube.)

Will post pics soon.

Regards

Johnnie

waiting eagerly for these pics hehe

Has worked really well ...

a few little mods to make in the holidays ...

unfortunately I have just cut back all of the flowers and taken them to school so that the kids have loads of cuttings to work with.

Will post pics when it is "blooming lovely" again.

Actually now that it is cleared of much foliage, might be a good time for pictures to show the plumbing and workings. Then when it is blooming nice, take more pics to show how quick it all grows back.