Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

This pics titled,Its the little things that mean the most,this is my very first Strawberry plant,this one has been germinated from seeds i collected from our strawberries we grew earlier this year. They were cleaned,dried and then after putting them in a Zip lock bag were put in the freezer,i placed them in foam cubes three weeks ago and this is the first one,lets hope not the only one....

Charlie thanks for the link,i had seen it before but its good to read it again,
OP lab testing is not so easy here,but i have googled it and found a lab in Bangkok,i might get the good lady to give them a call.
thajkits,i like the ideal of ebb and flow DWCs,but i have no where to store the water drained from the troughs,i did think about trying it and i might work out volumes and maybe try it on one trough for comparison....

The detail question is, what EXACTLY is it the air bubbles DO in a regular DWC??

Oxygenate the water,the UVI claimed the water leaving there troughs had a higher DO than what was entering.
Forms counter flows,there is the main flow end to end,the air stones in the centre draw water from the sides of the trough as it bubbles to the surface.These counter flows ensure oxygenated water is flowing around,over and through the root systems,it also promotes the abundance of nitrifying bacteria within the water column,also ensuring that oxygenated water is passing over as much of the surface within the trough,again for the benefit of nitrifying bacteria. Again from the UVI there claim was each sqm of grow area was capable of dealing with 180g of fish feed per day,this in part due to the amount of air they were injecting within there troughs,the UVI used no other form of nitrification.

I've just joined the site, and this is the first build I'm looking over! I've only seen page 1, so I'm sure there's been plenty of progress! I can't wait to have a look through, but it looks incredible, awesome job .

"Oxygenate the water,the UVI claimed the water leaving there troughs had a higher DO than what was entering.
Forms counter flows,there is the main flow end to end,the air stones in the centre draw water from the sides of the trough as it bubbles to the surface.These counter flows ensure oxygenated water is flowing around,over and through the root systems,it also promotes the abundance of nitrifying bacteria within the water column,also ensuring that oxygenated water is passing over as much of the surface within the trough,again for the benefit of nitrifying bacteria. Again from the UVI there claim was each sqm of grow area was capable of dealing with 180g of fish feed per day,this in part due to the amount of air they were injecting within there troughs,the UVI used no other form of nitrification."


THANKS!!

Obviously ebb/flood for YOU would only add root-stretch to the game - you probably can get away with 2"of drain for that....

For you it really doesn't make much sense as you already eliminated "parallel" systems by going to AIRLIFT as a means to pump your water around.

So a test adding ebb/flood is only that - does it add root stretch and HOW much better is growth and quality compared to no ebb/flood...


However for all who use a regular water pump, the question is if ebb/flood - probably with a little more movement 4-8"(?) - can provide the same advantages as air pumped into the DWC....

UVI is obviously somewhat different to most systems presented on this forum - I still need to find one other, that does NOT have some form of nitrification BEFORE the DWC.
Most either use Growbeds filled with gravel, rock, expanded clay or drums full of "bacteria settlement media". I understand UVI only filters for solids......


Maybe you should leave your pools alone and instead play with some 1/2 IBCs or even just stack some 50gallon barrels.....you could incorporate the drain sump right there without affecting the water levels in your Main-system....


Let's see: WHAT ELSE can we cajole you into trying out while you are at it! ??
[...might as well - if you are building a trial and test row of drums! ]


thjakits

After successful negotiations here comes the next 18sqm of grow space,i am going forward a little and slightly more at the back,green house will be replaced with a purpose built NV tunnel,it will have open mesh to the sides and a large ventilated roof,its going to be an ongoing process as funds present themselves.
Lettuce roots getting better,this is a young Grand Rapids with reasonable roots,i have altered the way i am dosing the system and it might be working...

Awesome [SMILING FACE WITH SMILING EYES][SMILING FACE WITH SMILING EYES][PERSON RAISING BOTH HANDS IN CELEBRATION][PERSON RAISING BOTH HANDS IN CELEBRATION]. Waiting to see your magic - building professional


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Going through the system after Long time , quite a lot of progress . Sorry for your grow bed disaster .

Happy that you found solution, hope your new grow bed design will be more robust .


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Andreas,

What size air pump do you recommend for a 55 gal Vortex MT? I have an elemental 1744 now for the 32' trough. Trying to figure out if thats enough for both or if I need to add another.

Thanks.

Nevermind, I think I found your answer. 100LPM The Elemental 1744 gph is 110 lpm. Guess I need to splurge on a second 1744 elemental.

In the 200 l barrel 100 Lpm is adequate for operation,but as the solids build up within the barrel the viscosity goes up and the vortex starts getting smaller,my MT was switched on Dec 14th and it's been cleaned once and then the solids were reduced not removed. In an effort to keep costs down ( Hhahahahahahah) sorry don't know where that came from,I would swap the 40 for another 60, at 120 lpm the vortex gets nice and big and the running costs are not going through the roof.

Any reason not to just get another 1744 gph (110LPM) elemental and split the flow to the two risers? I was thinking on adding the extra pump in the pump house and just adding it to the air manifold. Then just T off the manifold to the vortex MT risers with valved to each riser.

I had a problem when i plumbed like this,one lift would run then the other would stop,if i put my hand over the one that was running the other side would kick in then this side would stop,i think fitting taps into each line would have cured it,but i went the route of two pumps each feeding its own lift.

I'm unclear how the air was supplied when it did not work properly. Did you have a T for each riser to supply air or one air line comming off air supply split into two two each risor?

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This was on the 350l MT for the big system,I had two 200lpm air pumps,which were plumbed into a manifold and then split between the DWCs and the MT,the MT airline split from a T at the tank into each riser but it would not run both risers in that plumbing configuration, so the owner bought another 80 or 100 lpm pump. and I plumbed this into one side and ran from the manifold into the other.

Thanks for the tip.

Andreas, do you have a media guard for the inlet to the Static filters or just the outlets?