Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hey Vela, I don't know if that pressure is going to go at full depth, but I'm not concerned with the numbers in the middle as much as the end results which I'm happy with.

holy airlift, batman!

that's a wonderful development. I bet that you can play with submergence and pipe diameter to improve the numbers a bit, making it work fine for a 800 L system (a bit smaller than IBC).

how does that rate compare to what you calculated?

really good job, Jimbo, thanks for sharing those results!

What its flowing now should work for an 800l system. I can fiddle with it, but a 20% increase would be optimistic. Really getting the head down some more would give the most improvement. But its speculation without testing. I'll have to dig into more variables next week.
I will probably run this system with a pair of these for a failsafe anyhow. It will only be 10 watts. I'm not planning to do solar myself, I just wanted to see if we could get to some realistic parameters. I would love to do go solar for the whole home eventually.

As I work towards the drain side of this system, I wonder what to use to get through the bottom and side of the tanks. I can just use sink drains to drain the growbeds. But, going into the side of the fish tank and having another pipe attached inside to turn up towards the top will require something else. I saw some threaded pvc fittings at the hardware store that I could try to fashion up some flanges to sandwich a rubber gasket in between. But you would think I could scrounge up something better. Maybe at Tractor Supply. I've seen uniseals discussed and they seem a pain. I'll keep looking and would love to hear suggestions.

OK, here is the video of the flow test. Not terribly interesting. Noisy kids, water pumping into buckets, pipes getting knocked loose.


The board on top of the buckets kept the pipe from levering the airlift up and increasing the head. I filled those buggers right on up to the tops and around 4 minutes the pipe came loose from the airlift while switching buckets. So, we're real close to 20 gallons in 5 minutes.
You can actually see th whole airlift getting swung at an angle and the bell at the bottom coming off the floor. I'll have to figure out a bracket to hold the whole thing in place.

Hey Jimbo great work..

What size pipe have you used for the airlift.. It looks to be about 40mm

Looks Good..
To drill the hole in a pipe use a small dill..
It does work..
If you read Kents post they don't actually seem to be using air-stones they use manifolds that they make with small holes in them..


With the feed line to the grow-beds I'm not sure if a "T" will work, it might not have even flow..
- Try having 2 air lifts one for each GB..
- the returns might be better off having a standpipe on it.. even it has a few drain holes in it..

Juergen

Psst for testing flow.. Try using a plastic bag that has a volume of X and have that sitting in the Ft with the air-lift.. and start the test that way..
J

Hi Juergen.
The airlift pipe is 1 1/4" 32mm. The tee up top dumps into a 2" pipe-about 50mm.
I intended to do the drilled sleeve instead of the airstones. I think I saw that in one of Kent's drawings, but the pump came with the airstones so I went with them for a quick mock-up.
Drilling pipes I'm familiar with. I make my own spraybars in my aquariums with cpvc for my canister filters.
Gotta figure out sealing through bulkheads next. I like the sink drains for the growbeds but have a big perforated sleeve around it to have access to the drains. A sleeve big enough to fit my hand in.

Thats great work. Your efforts will be appreciated by many here. Looking forward to making decent sized very low energy systems one day...

I'm just working off the ideas of these other guys. Bullwinkle and Vela really got me thinking along this line and Dave has been real helpful. But, I have been excited the last day or so thinking about the possibilities this presents for off the grid power and making use of readily available stuff.
Last night we went to a meeting at a charter school near us that will start its first classes this fall. It has to abide by the standard state curriculum but they will do so with an environmental viewpoint and get classes out in the marshes and forests, so I'm really excited about getting my kids in there. I started talking aquaponics with them and about this idea I've been bouncing around with people in Mexico and Australia and the school board members were very interested. Felt good.

Good flow!

Jimbo one thing..

Not a complaint just a sugestion..

Notch out a few sections of the bottom flange so you can sit it hard on the bottom of the tank and not obstruct the water flow.. Do something to what F&F has done for his SLO design..

that should give you a solid base/seat..

Juergen

I used a puddle flange for my mega growbed and felt very confident about the seal. It's the thing that sits around the drain on your shower. and is a standard size to have PVC pipes connect.

Cracking effort all round. This low energy stuff is going to work.

nice