Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Rain, rain go away,
I have AP stuff to do today.

What rain? It's 60 degrees and sunny here!

Jealous! We've been in the 80s in February and I prefer it cooler. Hopefully the rain wears itself out today. The wife is off work tomorrow and can keep an eye on the kids so I can hit the yard.

Hey, Jimbo! I will definitely start my own thread. We have our system up and running, and we took photos, so I have something tangible to post!

I have a question that I have tried to search, but not sure I understand. I always planned to return water to the FT in a nice, gushing, oxygen-filled downpour so that I wouldn't need extra air pumps. Since the system is CF and the water enters the FT submerged low down (though we have put a pipe in so it is nearer the surface, but still, hardly any movement on the top of the water) does this mean we need an extra air source? We don't have any fish in yet, only plants, so I can't use dead fish as a gauge ha ha.

I am so excited about this. I know we could have done a lot more experimentation, but we really wanted to start growing our own greens. We live off-grid, no fridge at the moment, only an esky, and we are constantly throwing out sludgy greens which have gotten too hot or too old. Parsley and silverbeet plants seedlings looking happy at three days old (I would have expected that from the parlsey, but silverbeet can wilt fast, so optimistic!).

My plan was to have the return pipe plumbed up right to the surface in the FT. Maybe a little below or even above after I get it running to see what kind of surface disturbance I get. You'll get some oxygenation in the airlift, but the water's surface is where most oxygenation is going to occur. Once I'm put together and moving water, I'm gonna get another air pump (same one) and do some more experimenting with the pipe sizes, etc. and may eventually hook it up in the return or some airstones in the tank corners if crud tries to collect.

Silver beet and baby spinach are great because they grow well, and you can repeat harvest just by picking leaves fresh when you need them. We repeat harvest coz lettuce as well. Eventually the coz lettuce goes bitter as it gets nearer to going to seed, but it works for quite a while. It's also a good way to start getting lettuce early. We planted a stack really close together, repeat harvested every second one to within inches of their lives, and then pulled them up to let the untouched ones have the space to grow. That way we were eating lettuce much sooner.

Can you see or feel a flow at all?

If you extend that re-entry pipe up higher so it's nearly at the top, and put your air lift in their rather than in the outlet, you might see more turnover of the top water.

Or just make sure you are taking water from the bottom and returning it to the top.

Sorry for not remembering your system layout, but if you are using big pipes, the flow wont look very strong even though it's there. In a 90mm PVC pipe, you only need to shift a few cm of water per second to get a 1000LPH flow rate. That's never going to look like a tap flowing flat out (also around 1000LPH)

As mentioned, the main thing is to make sure you are not leaving a thin slice of water sitting undisturbed on the surface. In a still pond, you get only one or two millimetres of nicely oxygenated water on the surface and the rest is lacking.

When you start a system thread, can you drop us a link so we can see what you're doing.

Hey I just realised something. All this low energy system stuff resulted in a bit of a competitive spirit as to who could be first to make a system.

http://backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=11704&p=318682#p318682

I think Blythe just won.

Weather man be damned! Predicted thunderstorms for today, but I've got the sunburn to prove that work got done under sunny skies. Finished setting pavers and sanded them. Built the frame for the growbeds and got the plumbing set for chcking leaks. So far just a small drip where the bolts I'm holding the toilet flanges together sandwiching the IBC are at. I'll have to ponder that in my dreams tonight. Maybe just a matter of putting silicone in the holes with them to fill the threads or coming up with some extra washers and rubber o-rings. Once I get that solved, I'm nervous about the drains coming out of the growbeds. We'll see.
Planning to get some chicks this week, too. Peep-peep!
Will post a couple of pics of today's progress, later.

Where are the pics Jimbo? Sounds like there is some real progress to be seen.

There was not a comprehensive pictorial documentation of yesterday's work because I was too busy working and that continued into the dark of night.
Here are a few pics of the progress. I now have time to post them because it has decided to rain again today. We need it-droughts been on for a year plus now with no real hurricanes last year.
Here is what happens when you put over a ton of pavers in a half-ton truck:

She's ok. There were two loads like this. The site to setup has an electrical outlet over there on the wall, although I'll probably run a new electrical line over there from the electrical panel later.

One of the flanges mounted inside the tank, an opposite on the outside. Need to seal the bolts when it stops raining.

One more pic with all the pavers down and sanded in and the framework in place.

I'll get some more pics of the plumbing and such when I get some more work done.

Everybody else's systems look like they are built to last, and don't use milk crates for grow bed supports.

I wonder if everyone is trying to tell me something.

I tend to over-engineer. Being that I am the main child care, I don't have time for HSMs.
If this rain would ever take a break, I could get back at it while wifey has a 4 day weekend. At least I'm getting my tanks filled for free.

speaking of milk crates.. how sturdy are yours? i have a bunch of them and am planning on using them for my gb's in the basement...

Got the plumbing sorted out. Filled one growbed with charcoal and started the other-30 bags was not enough.
Got some baby chooks. Looking forward to eggs later this year, enjoying all the crazy little personalities now.