Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

oo and the beer bottle was purely for scale purposes and remained undrunk all week

anyway here is a pic of the cascade filter tank, now with ply casing but without HDPE sheeting yet...


and picture of one of the pairs of DWC channels with sheet dry fitted

I use a lot of bottles for scale. Its a trade secret.

a picture showing the build construction of the DWC channels


and another picture showing how tidy the sheet : pipe seal is, thats before its been seam welded, but just with a 111mm hole cutter and a 110mm pipe, and more materials are polyethylene so will weld like a beauty......

thanks OBO and dufflight, bear with me, just uploading more pics........

Its a bit out of sequence and a topic i'll cover more later, but here is a pic of one of our aspirated screen air temperature sensors (creates air flow over sensor to provide acurate reading)


and one of the control panel with integrated Priva touch screen display, you can also see the heat pump on the left and a heater and 240-110v transformer on the table, nothings connected up and commissioned yet, so its a bit premature to show you in detail but its getting there.

back to construction of the fish tanks

first we level the drain pipes and fill the gaps with expandable foam, then once hardened off we trim flush, but hold them with a former whilst setting off


then dryline the tanks with teh HDPE sheeting (not as easy as it looks and needs to be spot on, (or "*butterflies* on" as John would say) inorder to get nice butting edges, but this is really determined by the accuracy of the framing and ply casing.

not sure why it says butterflies above, but john's phrase involved Male Chickens.....

and some pics of welds, again not as easy as it looks, the key seemed to be a very fixed temperature, the right welding rod and speed-weld nossels and a good gun (leister Triac), but a warning it does knacker your wrists completely, i left site yesterday and i still dont have feeling in my wrist or two fingers !! going to go see a doc (which is v. rare for me) anyway we used 3mm sheet, 3mm round rod for touching up and a triangle 7mm profile rod for main runs


the DWC channels welded (you can see in the corners 3mm round needs to be applied to buffer the seal around the 7mm triangle rod, but PE is very versitile and can be reheated etc, the key is heating all contacting edges to get thermo-fusion.


the fish tanks welded, as can be seen below we then used a pressure treated piece of wood with aquarium grade silicone applied to back, and screwed these flush with top edge (well above waterline) to hold the tanking in and create a nice finish

a picture to show you the build up prifile of the tank walls, you can see the 7mm profile bead welded on, but the screw hadn't been applied to the last predrilled hole on the wood coming down (which is why here is a gap...)



and a picture of the top piece which was siliconed and brad nailed on (but not sanded yet..), attentioned was paid to grain matching as i think it makes all the difference and turns our system into an interesting piece of furniture too (i'm looking at contacting artictects about integrating these timber frame structures into living spaces... i'd have one... it would be the heating and food production system of a house.....anyway one step at a time...


and another

right thats far to many pics for one hit.....

let me know what you all think......

one final pic at 7am to show how bloody cold it was without the heating commissioned yet.... and after 9 nights sleeping in the greenhouse i need to see if i can find a doctor who can regain the feeling in two of my fingers.....


look forward to seeing what you think, i have loads more pics, but the systems wont be filled with water till i'm back down at the end of the week....

i'll leave you with a final pic of a design idea i had for the side of the tank (as its an educational system...) more from me when thawed.....

Awesome stuff Charlie... and great attention to detail...

But I have to ask.... what's your budget for this project....

hi rupertofoz,
do you really have to ask....?

maybe i should ask what you think its worth......?

as i said before, i'm a little unwilling to talk about my clients budget, its not a back garden system where i hold the purse strings, i was given a budget to develop the aquaponics systems utilising ASHP technologies to provide a classroom outside (inside ) i have then been working with John Beaumont of Able to Build, where we've incorporated training into the build to develop a methodology that can be transposed elsewhere.

The overall remit was to come up with an ASHP based aquaponics system that was simple to use, captivating and interesting, and one that would engage people but ultimately be profitable. Welshdragons issue with temp currently bear testomony to the fact that unless manage our temperates then productivity plumets and the systems de-stablises and we have to reestablish the followin spring, however this system if designed to be productive year round.

Lets just say that it is cheaper that a prefabricated portacabin fitted out as a classrom, and we have the same but one that produces energy and food.

that combined with the fact that we have full data logging, a touch screen control that tells users what to do when, and provides a point at which data can be inputed (via pincode) so we'll know who does what, when, which is then our validation for using the systems as a research tool.

Due to the application some costs where obviously higher (health and safety, public access building regs, elecy regs etc etc, but its a functional outdoor classroom, designed not only to last but to be very cheap to run..... Afterall we wouldn't build a cost efficienct house in the UK with out packing in the insulation, so why therefore should the same principles not apply

anyway, sorry i cant be more specific, i hope you understand

but what do you think it would be worth?

best wishes
charlie

Appreciate everything you are saying Charlie... and your approach and intentions...

And all the good stuff you've incorporated... was just wondering how the cost was going to impact on "profitability"... particularly when it comes time for duplication...

Prototyping and concept development is never cheap, and I'd hope.. as no doubt you yourself do... that economies can be made from the learning experience...

Do you still think that the concept can be "duplicated" profitably.... or are issues of local climate and regulations prohibitive....

hi rupert of oz,

you make a ver good point and ask a pertinent question.

firstly i think the key is that the costs you highlight provide the potential for profitability, as these costly aspects allow us to grow when prices are high and where we are normally relying on imports. If that makes sence....

and when it comes to duplicating the model the costs are actually lower as the software has been developed, monitoring infastructure is in place, and all the lessons have been learnt and streamlined. So as you point out the cost comes in developing the prototype and the replicated systems benefit as a result

i think its absolutely viable for replication, once people fully grasp what we have here, its a food and energy production system, that sustainably produced (through "able to build") and fucntions as a productive eductional resouce and is thus profitable on many many levels.

I like the tank construction. It does make things cheaper when you iron the bugs out. Also when building more than one at a time. Will have to keep an eye on your progress.