Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I can get very ready access to recycled olive barrels and was just stewing over how to utilise them in a self starter format.

The issue I couldn't get past was how to effectively utilise the whole volume of the drum (2 x halves) and at the same time limit the rise and fall of the FT. So, here is the idea - roughly following the idea behind water diverters on rain water tanks.

Firstly, cut the barrel in half vertically (not lengthways) so that you have two beds of equal volume. One could be placed directly over the FT so that the time to cycle back to the tank is minimised. The second could be placed after, and slightly below with the following gizmo in the line in between.



Water enters the top pipe and initially, when the water is out the ball (black round thing - maybe a squash ball or similar?) is sitting in the base of the vertical tube. As the water level in bed A rises it will eventually force the ball to the top at point A and will block flow so that the water flows to bed B.

Of course bed A would require a slow siphon and bed B a fast siphon. Obiously limits your ability to control flow to each bed individually but would be pretty hard to block up?

Thoughts

Chatty

I turned my olive drums into swirl filters or rainwater tanks. I did think of cutting one in half and placing the top inside the bottom. Dirt in the top with a water catcher in the bottom. The other idea was cut them and use 3/4 as a deep gb and put a tree in it.

yeah, they'd be awesome for fruit trees. maybe olive trees?

I can't see why you want to add this complexity.
putting a valve on GB 'A' would lessen the flow, and allow GB 'B' to receive water. simultaneously.
If you do it your way, as soon as GB 'A' starts to siphon, then the squash ball will allow more water in.
The squash ball is also likely to screw up, getting coated with solids and other gunk.
Is there any particular reason you wish to fill GB 'A' first? it doesn't seem like it will use less water, as for GB 'B' to fill, 'A' must be full...
If you want to limit level change in FT, perhaps consider a sump? CHIFT PIST?
more information about how you want to arrange your system will allow for better analysis of your problem.
some photos of the area you wish to set up maybe?

KP, slow down! Not planning on using/building this system any time soon, just putting an idea out there for an alternative method of partitioning water flow across multiple beds.

Yep, it would lead to a slightly higher flow rate to GB 'A' but on the whole they'd be roughly similar. Not too sure that the ball would get stuck - it only needs to gently press into the gap at the top to divert the majority of flow.

Then again, you could just use a couple of taps...

Just a thought

Chatty

Chatty,
As I picture it the ball is floating up and closing off the downward pressure of the water. Been there, done that, but with an (approx) 3.5 liter plastic bottle. It turns out that with 10cm (4") of head and a pipe diameter of about 6 cm the bottle needed to be immersed at least a liter to get enough lift to divert the water.

I had this idea a while ago and I'm still considering it but instead of two GB it was going to be more like 20. My idea was a relatively large delivery line with many relatively small feeder lines to a stack of different containers of assorted sizes. I was planning to use this with a timer. When the pump was on each GB would fill and then shut off in turn until they were all off and any extra would go out an over flow in the end of the delivery pipe. When the timer turned the pump off they would slowly drain into a gutter and back to a sump.

Problem is while I'm sure it would work I havn't thought about putting it into practice because it wouldn't solve the problem I was trying to solve. Which was how do I build a system cheaply. I could, and did, get a whole stack of different containers cheaply, fridges, freezers, baths, sinks, spas, tanks etc but plumbing them into a system destroys their economy even if you get them for free.

For example 200L fridge ($2) or bath ($5-20) is a cheap GB container or small FT. Thats good. Say for drainage we drill a hole in the bottom which we will assume is free. Flows into a gutter made from corrugated iron which again we get free. Not counting the delivery pipe because we have to pay for that no matter what how much will the fittings be?

I don't know but I'm guessing they would be at least $4 (50mm-20mm wet earth $4.56) for the junction a dollar maybe for the take off pipe and at least a few more for the bell (couldn't find a bell reducer on wet earth) for the ball to rise into and say an off cut of the larger pipe that is heat formed to capture the ball. Plus the ball of course a price for which I have no idea.

Junction $4
Take off pipe $0.5
small pipe to large pipe fitting $3
Extra bit of large pipe $0
Ball $0.5?

Comes to a very conservative total of $8 for the plumbing.

THats means for a 200L container you are looking at $0.04 per L just for plumbing. If you pay anything for anything else the price jumps. Considering how cheaply you can make or get something to put a liner into and then with a minimal amount of plumbing makes me believe that two GBs made from liners is a cheaper way to go than many GBs made from cheap containers plumbed together.

If you can work out how to solve this then I'll give it a go myself in another system because I've got all these fridges, baths and a spa that I need to do something with

Too true Stuart!! You haven't includeded in the tinkering factor as well where you resize everything 3 times and end up with a heap of left overs

Chatty