Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Here's the place to to post your entry for the competition. Please state in your post whether it's for the design or the build section of the competition. If there's enough entries we'll split it into two seperate topics. At competition closing time, polls will be added so that everyone can vote for their favourite..

Best of luck...

OK .. my entry ... build section.

My wheelie bin systems. Photo and video attached. (Pics and videos taken by my daughter.)

Goldies and Koi in one, Tilapia in the other, tilapia fry in the third one.

Two bins tank have a small red autosiphon bed - (undersized, but the system works),

This system would be great if the wheelie bins were buried and grow beds were much larger.

I am growing tomato plants and some papyrus reeds .. a little watercress.

Each bin has a small pond pump. and air driven undergravel filter (not really necessary - but I like to view the fish) and a heater for the tilapia.

The third bin has a simple gravel filter bucket sitting on top of a white tray whick has a discharge pipe set into it for aeration.

Videos :-

http://s99.photobucket.com/albums/l313/ ... 0_3050.flv

http://s99.photobucket.com/albums/l313/ ... 0_3052.flv

http://s99.photobucket.com/albums/l313/ ... 3054-1.flv

http://s99.photobucket.com/albums/l313/ ... 0_3055.flv

Airlift filter photo:

http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum ... ?pic_id=34

THis is for the design section

The image below is what one of my students will be putting together within the next 2 weeks! The pot/growbed will be continious flowing, auto siphoning, and will be filled with a mix of expanded clay balls and tinaroo gold gravel. It will be stocked with purely ornamental fish as he is after the produce, not eating the fish

I havent been following this very closely, and I know I've missed the cut off date, but here's an idea I had. Yeah I know its only a rough drawing but I still havent learnt sketchup.
It's kind of a modified NFT setup. Water is pumped up a central pipe, then spirals around until it makes its way back into the bin. A few drop in pots with perlite or similar? It may need to have a small solids filter at the top, perhaps stuff the top part with shadecloth?
As it's going to weigh about 250kg I thought it would be good to sit it on a rotating platform (like a "dumb waiter") so all plants can get equal exposure to the sun, every time you feed the fish you just give it a quater turn.
I've got no idea if it would work, it's just an idea

Here's my entry for the Design portion.

The idea is to cut the lid if needed, turn it upside-down, and use it as the base of the growbed. Rods through the wheelie bin support the lid. An access window is cut in the side of the bin. A small pump takes water from the fish area to run continuous flow through the gravel, and then drip through the cracks or drilled holes back to the fish below.

I don't have a sketchup for mine, but it has lots of similarities to Janet's.

Take Wheelie bin
Fabricate an UG filter for it
Cut the lid off, invert it, drill holes for drainage (Alternatively, use a couple layers of shade cloth to suspend medium)
fill lid/shadecloth with pearlite coco coir
Cut access area into the wheelie for feeding fish, getting fish for feeding me (alternative - attach removed flap with hinges to reduce light)
Run pump from the UG filter to distribution grid in the lid/shadecloth grow media area.
Either divert part of your pump back to the water to increase aereation, or run some airstones.

The UGF would be your biofilter. Pump would run continuously but trickle amongst the media to allow good aereation. Whole thing would have the same footprint as the wheelie, and could be run from a single fountain pump (mobile for those who are renting).

You can bend PVC pipe with a heat gun and make your spiral circular rather than squarular.

Here is my entry for the wheelie bin contest

First I used a wheelie bin which I already had.

I purchased a floor grill for forced air heating systems - very sturdy.
The grill was slightly bigger than the bin bottom so it had to go in sideways. This created the space to collect water.

I cut the end of a 1.5 inch tube in a manner that would always allow water in even if the tube touch the bottom of the bin. The tube length is equal to the inside hight of the bin minus 3 inches.

I filled in about 30 cm of the bin with rocks from my backyard that were being used by my previous system.

I used a used air stone and a pump which were gift from my brother. I put the air stone in the tube. I can see the bubles move from the top fo the tube to the side of it. That tells that the water is being moved.

When I move the bin the water level of the tube goes in opposite direction than the general water level. That tells me that the filter is working.

I have moved the fish there already. They look reasonably content.

The bin is sitting in the garage.

Total cost to me: about $30 Canadian

The next step is to build a rain water collector.

I will set the water collector so that it sends a given amount of fresh watrer everyday to the bin through a hose.

The bin overflow will be sent to a satellite growbed sitting outside the garage.

There will be no water recycling.

In my part of Canada water conservation is not as big an issue as energy conservation. There will very likely be lots of rain water to feed the system.

This setup will limit energy consumption to the small airpump to aerate and circulate water through the underwater gravel filter. No energy will be required to move water to the growbed. It will be done through gravity. No water will be wasted since it will be used to feed the plants in the satellite growbed.

This configuration also has the advantage of keeping the fish inside. That is important in my climate. If I get Tilapias they need to be kept warm and if I get Trouts they need to be kept cool during summer. (I never knew how sturdy Goldfish were until I got into this AP business)

Now the pictures

Update from original post

The system has been working for a while now.
The water is clean
The water lift pomping system works very reliably
The water is being used to feed the dirt garden
This is being done manually for now
The fish look happy

This works great for me.

I still have to do rainwater collection

When is the closing date, id like to submitt this entry...

Ok, idea mark 2, or combination of the 2.

Using flood and drain with loop hole siphons...

Mc

After our chat about your system (which you have posted here now) I pulled this together... I thought that if a person is going to build a frame to support the grow beds you might as well put in trellis/lattis for creepers/vines (beans, peas etc)...
For convenience of harvesting, and so as to be able to put the system up against a fence/wall I thought I would do away with the third grow bed as well.
What you think

Hmmmmmmmm... looks like a commode...with magazine racks!

LOL - well, dont s**t all over this idea!

Don't yyou mean please sir, I have enough nutrient in the system already?

LOL