Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Charlie, it all looks impressive and well thoughtout. From your planning, the quality materials you are using, the fine craftsmanship of your Able workers, the details of bolting and joining plates. The square tanks and growbeds waste less space. I can't wait to see the whole system working. (I also wish I had your budget!)

hi everyone, i'd love to be able to submit more pics, but i'm going to have to be patient. John is getting the second greehouse up to the level of the first, and completeing the plywood inner tank linings this week. The aeration systems have now arrived on site, the 450mm ducting is there and the control pannel is being finalised, plus we have the MDPE sheeting arriving during the week.
The plan is for this week to be spent getting both greenhouses tanked up and ready for lining, and then next week i'll be back down there for the week, getting the plastic linings welded up and all the system operational. The plan is by thursday/friday we'll fill the systems and commission then on friday, at which point i think i'll do an all nighter to ensure everything functions as required for at least 24hrs, but by then i will be able to remote monitor the system to check temps are stable before we think about planting it up and stocking with fish.

We're coming to the end of an exciting build and i cant wait to show you the final pics, as its then that i think you'll see whats been in my head all these months..

patience, almost there......

charlie

can't wait to see the outcome:) good work!
one question: how do you get the solids from the bottom of the GB since u have a standpipe for the drain?or did i get that wrong?

hi the molj

as for removing the solids in the growbeds, there wont be any (or very few) this is because they will have been extracted in the primary and seconday plug flow filter, its a little different from the media filled grow beds that are common on here, because we have a seperate filter and grow using deep water circulation on floating rafts.

hope that helps

charlie

i see, thank you, it would have been a mess with the heat-exchangers+solids

do you remove the solids or do you keep them in a separate compartment in the system as part of the nutrients?

so your doing the same sort of thing as the sperano's (sp) in the US?

Yep... standard UVI model by the sounds of it.... basil and maybe lettuce...

*hugs growbeds*

quote="molj"]do you remove the solids or do you keep them in a separate compartment in the system as part of the nutrients?[/quote]

hi molj, yes we do both, we remove them periodically from a seperate compartment in the filter systems, i'll post some pics soon. We leave the solids in for further dissolved nutes to be released, however they need to be removed to prevent build up and shortcutting in the plug flow filter.

We are also looking at the possibility of integrating a freshwater mussel species into the second stage filter tank to remove the fine solids, however the current contsraint is that their larval stages attached to fish and can causes scaring, so we have a couple of reserachers looking into this at the moment as we think its a nice idea, especially if the mussels could be sustainably harvested and used either for fish food, or even seeded to make freshwater pearls......... (an aquaponics pearl necklace........ )

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not sure, haven't seen his system but will look into it......

well yes in so much that we have DWC/floating raft, and are growing tilapia, but to be honest thats where the comparisons end..... except for the fact that we have a filter and sumpt tank. but then show be a DWC system that doesn't (and works).

anyway.... off back down to Wakefield in about an hour for another week in the greenhouses to get them finished

will update soon
charlie

OBO. Paula and Tom (late) Speranio's system uses media in beds like many of us.

Oh righto, I thought it was all rafts.

charlie thanks for the clarification,
i introduced 2 yabbies a while ago, and they cleaned my tank & water to perfect clarity, unfortunately they haven't survived, some temp issues.
mussels are probably more robust, but are quite ungettable here

good luck on ur research, looking forward to see more

HI everyone, just back from a solid 11 days building down at the able project, we had delays getting the HDPE plastic sheeting, but finally managed to make some progress, the plan is now that in the next week the second greenhouse will be finished and then end of next week i'll be back down again to get the systems filled and commissioned.

right so here is the next batch of pics.....

firstly here is the fish tanks, we desicided to install windows in the tank to try and nake them a little more interactive, here you can see the mofified framing and insulation


and here once the insulation is finished and cased with ply.

you'll also notice from the second pic above that the drain pipes have changed colour, thats not because we painted them but more due to my only major balls up this project.... allow me to elaborate.

my intention was firstly to use PVC soil/waste pipe for the systems gravity feed side, however i was also intending on using butyl liners and bulk head fittings, however, once i'd done the costings and spoken to some colleagues it was suggested that high density polyethylene sheeting could be used (HDPE) and seam welded. This also fitted with the ABLE to Build ethos of manufacturing systems and tanks in the future, so i did a few days reserach and came up with a supply of sheeting, a method of extrusion welding and the kit to do it all with..... anyway and here comes the balls up.... you cant weld PVC - PE (obvious some might say but i'll put my hands up, it didt cross my mind) so anyway no huge drama we just had to replace the pipes that went through tanks with 110mm polyethylene which we did and is why there are now black........

That is very special looking