Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

And, some pics of the siphon design copied from Affnan's blog:


Recycle, reduce, REUSE!

And now the little powerhead I'm using is sloooowing down. Doesn't flow enough to start a siphon, so I now have two continuous flow growbeds. 3 female guppies and one Oto catfish have moved in from the big aquarium.
Also, I brought some green onions in from a pot outside and planted them in the growbeds. Now, I have something to stare at!

shit!

Try smaller diemater pipes and reducers!

This litte powerhead just doesn't like pumping "up". Its really meant to circulate in an aquarium.
I'll just have to pick up a small pond pump someday and really get this thing humming. As it is, the fish seem happy, the onions have already perked up over night, and the SLO definitely works. You gotta stare real hard...guppies make tiny turds.
Also have some hot pepper seeds to try out soon.

Noooooooooooo!

There has to be a way.

Uranium is heavy. Clagg up the backs with uranium and a little silicon or something.

I WANT TO SEE LEGO AQUAPONICS!

It'll never work... everyone knows that Lego's periodically run off and hide under the fridge...

Oof. Radioactive plastic bricks under my fridge-that doesn't seem to fit my eco-friendly, sustainable lifestyle plans.

That's true.

Maybe Sandy Claws will bring you a hot melt glue gun and a sack of river pebbles. That'll sink the little buggers.

how about casting a lego net over it to stop the lego floating!

http://www.findmybrick.com/images/P1030707.JPG

I was thinking of dropping some gutter guard over a GB full of plastic soft drink bottle caps to keep them under water.. Gutter guard is just a plastic net for keeping leaves out of your roof gutters. It would work.

THERE IS STILL HOPE!

Got a new fountian pump yesterday and it flows too much for the SLO to keep up. So, the guppies and cat go back to the big tank for a day or so. Got some 3/4" pipe and fittings to make a bigger SLO out the side of the tank and we'll be back up and running in a day or two when the silicone is fully cured.
In the meantime...

Up and running!
The new pump is a Danner 120 picked up from the LFS. A great place called Tideline Aquatics in North Charleston, SC. Saltwater, freshwater and ponds-very helpful folks.

Here is the whole setup. Notice the new 3/4" piping from FT to GBs:

After much fiddling with flow of the pump and different elbows, the solution proved to be using the 1/2-3/4 adapters originally intended to be the funnels at the top of the siphons at the bottom. They have a slight restriction which seems to be the key in starting and breaking the siphon.


More pictures to follow!

And just for fun:




Enjoy all! I'm happy to report the system is flooding and draining and again and again!
A great deal of satisfaction this evening as I feel I've finally conquered my first system and I can start growing some little veggies. I think I'll reward myself with a glass of sangria.