Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Towers - the good news and the bad news

First, the good news



Now for the bad news...
The gunk in the tower header pipe is beginning to block the 13 mm outlets to the towers . So now everyday, as well as checking for stray leaks out corners of the planter holes, I have to stick my finger in each tower to make sure the netting is wet. If blocked, I climb up and stick my finger in the access hole above each outlet and give it a swirl, then turn the outlet tap on full to flush the dislodged gunk, then adjust it back to a reasonable flow.

I think you are in need of a filter!

I thought my growbeds were the filter for the fish waste from the FT via the SLO... I'm not sure whether it is biological growth in the pipe itself or solids being pumped up from the sump . The sump only receives water from the two GBs which appears to come out clean, and there is very little crud in there (yes, I know, maybe it all gets pumped up to the towers ). I did have the original pump up on bricks off the floor of the ST, but the new one is on the floor. I suppose I could give the header pipe a flush out with the hose and put the pump back up on bricks to see what happens. I can't work out how I would incorporate a filter between the ST and the towers with the way my system is configured ST>>towers>>FT>>GBs>>ST


On a more exciting note, we a looking at a rural property that has a disused herringbone dairy - it has a large concrete pit in the cowshed that the milkers would stand in to milk the cows, and a sunny north facing concreted cow yard. Imagine what I could do with that...

It could be algal growth if it is exposed to a fair bit of light, or perhaps being deposited there from somewhere where it is growing in sunlight.

I have 50mm holes cut in the tower header pipe above each outlet so that I could put in the top hat grommets and 13mm taps, so it could be algal growth. I was thinking of cutting some strips of 90mm PVC pipe to place over the holes and easily remove to do any maintenance. Got a fright the other day - I climbed up on the bench seat, reached up and stuck my fingers in one of the holes where the tower flow had stopped and felt 'something' large and squishy . Didn't leave my fingers in long enough to feel if it moved. The yelp of fright in the front yard was somewhat embarrassing . Could have been a frog sitting over an outlet . I will get the ladder out so I can see what I am sticking my fingers in, flush out the pipe and cover the holes.

Thank you for your thoughts on my thread, Joc. I have been watching the development of your system - impressed by your handiwork, and particularly curious on how your towers would go. I had written off the idea of using zip growers because of expense and have seen home made designs on youtube that look cheaper. I had it pointed out to me that there is often a problem with blocking with tower designs.

Your towers were looking good... and then you mentioned the soft thing you poked in the top of your tower. I feel I can handle some squeegy things but reading your description of your surprise discovery in your tower had me having sympathy yuks

I'm looking forward to the photo's of what you find, I think. Good luck. You may have the privilege of naming it and having it published in some scientific journal.

Thanks for your kind words TCK

I will be most interested to see how my towers go too, especially in summer in peak growing season and when it gets hot! They are on the west side of the house so will cop blistering afternoon sun. Hopefully there will be enough plant growth to shade them Looking forward to getting temperature probes in to monitor air temp, FT temp and tower temp.

I have done several large water changes over the last week or so to try to get nitrates down to something reasonable. The plant growth has already improved after being stalled for some time - I think the extreme nitrates were inhibiting growth. The leaves on lettuce and watercress were looking 'wrong', sort of too green & glossy and slightly deformed.

On the weekend, had a lovely stirfry with some coriander, chives and spinach from the GB & towers and some vietnamese hot mint and regular mint that thrives on drips from the AP system. Also toasted sandwiches with watercress, spring onion, curly parsley, spinach and rocket from the AP system. The dirt garden is supplying slow burn halapeno chilies and lots of italian parsley, japanese mustard greens and tuscan kale (Australia is a multicultural country after all ). Today the chooks got some of the bolted lettuce that were getting aphids and crowding out the GB.

Test results today were as follows
pH 6.4 (I monitor daily and adjust with liquor from wood ashes which has a reasonable ratio of calcium, potassium & magnesium as well as carbonates and phosphates)
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0-0.25ppm (closer to 0)
Nitrate ~80ppm
So I did another water change bucketing out the ST down to the top of the pump then filling from the rainwater tank. The fish water goes on the front garden, which is loving it. I added 2 caps of liquid seaweed and more wood ash liquor (lye). Tomorrow, I should add another 500g salt - don't want to add too much as I have strawberries in the towers. Must chase up someone with an EC meter to check where I am at with all the water changes and dilutions and additions of salt. I am aiming for 1 ppt which only slightly impacts strawberries.

The 25 rainbow trout are growing very fast . A week ago I upped the feeding rate to around 70-90g per day across 2 feeds from the 50g single feed I had been giving them. I plugged their length and water temp into the fish food calculator and got between 70 - 105g for 25 to 30cm trout. Some of them are 30cm long now and looking solid. I will be out of pellets soon, so must locate some more. I could solve my nitrate problem by eating some fish

Hi JoC. Just finished going through your thread after your help on mine... and I'm blown away with your system.

As you noted, I have towers too... but I'm much less handy (and artistic) than you. So mine are the commercial Zipgrow ones. But I have the same problems with inlet pipes blocking. I have to flush the pipes by turning taps right up once a week or so... bit of a pain re-tuning things afterward.

I haven't used a header tower like you - but I was considering putting one in to fix my problem... I'm so glad I read your post first.

I have 25 mm pvc pipe up to a manifold then 15 mm pvc, including a tap, across to the tubes before very short lengths of 16 mm (external diameter with internal much less) plastic (pex) pipes releasing the water. Have considered larger diameter pipes but I'm thinking it won't make much difference because, in the end, I'll still have to use a tap somewhere along the line to reduce water flow - which is where the blockage presumably occurs.

Will consider how I can put a filter between my pump and the towers... having seen the comment above. Like you, I was hoping the grow beds would do the trick.

I'll be watching your thread with interest.

Thanks for your kind words Dave.
I think its just biofilm &/or algae which builds up and causes blockages. After some investigation, I don't believe it is solids from the ST. It may be one of those maintenance things to regularly check and flush.the tower inlets
Food n Fish is building a strawberry tower autofilling wicking bed in a blue barrel. Looks great and its seems more robust than towers.

Just added 3/4 kg of salt to make up for the multiple water changes over the last week or so. Tried to get some underwater video of the trout. Holy cow that water is so cold it made my hand and wrist HURT. It still tingles now. Nights have been 0 and days only 11-13C. My bro is in Canberra where it has been below 0 for more hours than above this week. 17C forecast for Saturday, yay

How big are your dinner plates, JoC? Seems like 25-30 cm is almost "plate size" on this side of the Pacific!

Yup - they are! Just had our first 2 AP rainbow trout for dinner tonight







Two down, 23 to go over the next few months
Was very chuffed to kick off the 2015 Trout Appreciation Thread with this delicious dinner

@joc - Looking good.............

Hate the harvesting, love the feasting.

They're some luverly looking fish you had there. I have some friends who would tell you you've left the best part of the fish on your plate. I can't bring myself to go there - bad enough the things are still looking at you as you enjoy their nethers.

Consider smoking some of them. Very moresome and deceptively easy to do.

Thanks guys Yeah, I've eaten a lot of things including snakes, grubs and bugs, and happily crunch through whole fried whitebait, but I can't quite get over the shudders to eat eyes.

Today's AP jobs - top up ST, and pull down tower 9 to figure out why it was overflowing from the top and what to do about it . I have a bad feeling that I stuffed the bird netting a bit tight in some towers, and now with biofilm and strawberry roots its too much for the water to get through.

And the nitrates are back over 200ppm, so I need to eat some more fish.