Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I was thinking, (Johnnie has gone off on a tangent again!)

That a flood and drain vertical system that could also be NFT would be real neat.

I had a prob with towers ... blockages etc. etc.

So...

I got hold of some 90 mm pipe, cut to 2 metre length and sealed both ends with caps that you just glue in.

In the centre of each pipe I drilled a big and a small hole at the underside , (small tube for drain bleed and larger one for overflow respectively which were then fitted by warming the clear PVC beverage tubing to give an interference fit ). (No leaks!)

I then markad a line along the top surface of the pipe.

I marked out a 1.5 inch square with a diagonal cross on the top of each pipe, drilled a hole at the centre of each mark and then sliced the cross with my jig saw. I did this every five or six inches at the upper surface, along the line.

I got hold of my wifes hair dryer and bent each triangle to give a square opening. This allows ,me to drop a small square pot into the pipe at every hole, spaced 6 inches apart.

I mounted the 2 metre pipes on my pergola using two drop chains and attaching two loops also made from steel chain.

One pipe being a set foot or so above the other using chains. I leveled it all with a spirit level and planted each hole with some seedlings, in 1 inch square pots filled with gravel.

Thge top chanel fed to the next lowest one and so on.

No problemo ...

After a few days, I pondered .. (Why did I do this using chains?)

I was thinking, chains are good... but a sheet of "weldmesh" hanging from hooks on the pergola would be a hell of a lot easier. to tie horizontal tubes to, and the mesh could act as a lattice for climbers!

So I am going to attach my cascading 2 meter flood and drain tubes to some hanging weldmesh and see if it makes sense, and add as I go.

I will keep you posted.

Johnnie

sounds like a great idea , but do you have any pics ?

Soon! Moving from the chains to the weldmesh this weekend.

Yeah, i get the rough idea, but pics would be great!

We want pictures

we like to look

OK.. heres a couple of pics.

http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum ... pic_id=278


http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum ... pic_id=277

so hows it all going J7? what sort of cycle you running.. i will be using the same setup as you in a few weeks

15 mins on one hour off. Going good. But they do need a little hand watering until the roots actually get down to water level. I cut off the tops off the bottom row of square pots to get the roots a little further down without blocking light. I guess using more advanced seedlings would be a better idea.

I have also posted a pic of some mini-systems for the tropicals in the album. Things going OK with you?

I would use wider weldmesh next time, but that was all I had to hand.

have u partially filled your pipes with gravel? are you pumping straight from your fishtank into the nft then back to the fish tank?

things will be going ok when it stops pissing down and the wind stops howling( and i havent pissed Les off so i know its not his doings lol).

I will be bolting some pipe racking that i scored from work onto the new hothouse frame i built.is why i want to use nft as well as the "normal" AP setup.is a shame to throw good stuff out lol

.
Was going to suggest having the chains wider apart or more of them, until I read this:



Very neat and tidy J7...less chance of flooding the fish tanks if it rains with that design

J7 or any APers ,could you use the vertical pipes then drain into growbeds? Use that water to supply the GB! Ive thought about using them or towers ,no more pipes cluttering up the GBs. Pump through pipes or tower ,outlet onto GB ,then auto siphon empties GB as it already does, more growing area still have the biofilter GBs ?

Niloc, my towers drain directly into the blue drums grow beds.

The system is not NFT it is flood and drain.

Two pipes exiting each tube, large one controlling the overflow to the tube below and small one to allow slow empty to the one below so that the plants get air between cycles. It is currently set up as timer operated flood and drain, 15 mins on and one hour off.

The square pots contain gravel to help support the larger plants. No loose gravel at all in the pipework.

I was thinking about doing another pipe as NFT - no gravel and no pots, just holes, plants supported by a polsyrene plug in each hole. But I will wait and see how this lot performs first.

The bottom horizontal pipe drains into a gravel filled bucket to act as a large bacteria reservoir and also to polish any fine solids from the water so that the water is crystal clear. The bucket was "loaded" with bacteria as it came from another system I was messing around with. A large tomato is growing from the gravel filled bucket which has a spout at the bottom. (Blue bucket in the picture).

The "pond" is very small, an old white tote box container from a warehouse. The "pond" is just visible in the picture. There are about a dozen fairly large goldfish in there. The pond also has air fed to it continuously via a small aqurium diaphragm pump, air-line and airstone.

I have my fingers crossed, but I think I am going to need to buy some Iron chelate or some trace elements.

I have not tested nitrate, nitrite, ammonia, pH or EC / TDS.

But if I eventually have to add any sort of chemical additions I will be sure to test all parameters. (I guess that I really should do this to get better info on the system.)

Cable ties are securing the pipes against the weldmesh. Cableties are great but they can degrade in the sun so I fitted some loops of metal chain for extra security.

Will keep ya posted.

Oh .. btw ..

Why doesn't it work when I use the following syntax to post a photo on the thread, rather than just place a link here?



The doesn't seem to post the photo on the thread?

Best wishes

Johnnie

That'd be because in this case it's not a direct url to an image; if you use then you have to use an url that ends in .jpg or .gif. I think the album is protected against hotlinking, so it doesn't give a direct url.