Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Yesterday, I made some test cuts with the holes saws to get the Uniseal to seat properly in the ply wood. I'm using a 3" drain with a 3" uniseal. First I drilled thru 1-2 plys with an over size hole saw to thin the plywood so the unseal has a "lip" protruding the the plywood. Next I drilled the final hole with a 4" hole saw. Then I chipped away the initial partial cut.








Since the above went well, the grow bed got the same treatment.



[img]https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-FB05bNWjEDQ/VXpN8Xeu7tI/AAAAAAAABNw/Dbw4Rt5D2fw/s1024-Ut/15%2B-%2B3/[img]



Next, we measured out the Dura scrim liner and cut to length. We smoothed out the liner as best as we could while partially filling it. No picture of fill.





Today while waiting for the bed to drain (siphon to the dirt plants in the yard), we plumbed in the intake with preparations for the future DWC bed. My kids were a BIG help!!






Next the drain gets plumbed and media put in.

The drain in and works great.


Pictures later.


Filled with 6 yards of media ( top half river pebbles, bottom medium size river stones. Transplanted all the plants from the barrels to the new GB and they have all been dying slowly. Don't know why at all. Next step is reding the filters for ease of maintenance and better solids removal to prepare for the next build, DWC bed.

Right now I have a net tank and a cloth tank. It sucks cleaning the tanks and solids still slip by. I'm thinking of building a sieve.

What do you all think?

Great looking bed!

Sometimes transplant shock can knock the plants around when they are moved, especially when they are taken from heavy gravel (damaged roots).

In full sun in South Florida, things shock easily if not getting enough water. You may need to add some shade, and/or use a mister to keep the leaves hydrated and stop transpirational loss until the roots develop.

Thanks for the replies Colum and CC.

I planted seeds for kale, swiss chard, marigold, culantro, and a few others a week ago. The marigold sprouted last night. So I guess the other mature plants are in shock. I had to 8" mangos growing and the leaves all dried up on them as well. Not happy about those as I have had ZERO success growing a mango tree at my house now for 5 years!! The AP mango was growing slowly but growing at least.

I looked at striders dual loop system and it looks like he is doing really well with it. Since I'm in the middle of a redesign, I'm considering converting to dual loop. Do you have any thoughts on dual loop?

Like in landscape, the best results are from putting the right plant in the right place. In your case, trying to grow winter veggies during 90-100F won't work. Peppers, Eggplant, and maybe malibar spinach. Wait till fall for the others. This is just a very hard time to grow veggies. If you look at local farms, you'll see a bunch of tilled fields waiting until September. I don't have any first hand experience with duel loop, but it seems to work. I don't think it's needed, but if you want to give it a go.

Sorry your loops are not having a gunfight.

Video update...



http://youtu.be/l7_FPnGXL0A

Here are some parameters on the system as of today.

6-28-15 7:56am

TDS 275
PH 7.0
Temp 86.8
FT 2 DO 4.0
FT 1 DO 6.2
Net Tank DO 6.1
Cloth Tank DO 4.3
GB exit DO 2.5
Offline MT DO 0.1 (no aeration)
Offline MT TDS 375

Water flow:

Sump -> FT 1, FT 2-> Net Tank -> Cloth Tank-> Sump

GB receives flow from sump then back to sump. (temporarily until I move the fish tanks)

I'm concerned about the GB EXIT DO of 2.5?

So I timed/measured the water outlet from the GB. 150 GPH.

I have NO IDEA EXACTLY how much water the GB holds. Today the sump is 250 GAL sump is only 2-3 in full. So I pulled the GB standpipe and it filled the sump leaving only about an 1-1.5 inch in GB. I'm estimating about 300GAL.

So the GB is turing over only once every 2 hours.

I ran siphons before and they turned over 5-7 times an hour on half barrel GBs.

What is the ideal CONSTANT FLOOD water turn over rate?

I pulled out many of the dyeing/dead plants from the transplant. I noticed the roots were sticky and dark as if they were rotting. Some had new nice white clean roots at the top. Perhaps I planted them too deep for a constant flood bed?

I don't know that there is an ideal CF turnover, most beds are smaller than yours and have faster turnover but try to maintain as much aeration along the bed as you can. The exit DO does seem a bit low to me but nitrification can still occur. Do you have only one inflow along the bed or are there multiple? For a bed this size I would have multiple inlets or some sort of distribution grid and this might help some with the DO. You might also be able to add aeration in the sump to help all areas that come off of this.

edit: I see looking at your video that you have a grid below the top of the media - I have mixed thoughts on this because it might not add much aeration this way but it keeps algae down and distributes the nutrients.

Scotty,

Yes, I have a distribution grid. I have made some major changes as planned at the end of the last video. Now the it's all water goes through FT then filters, then grow bed. Flow through the FT, filters and GB is 360 gallons per hour. All excess water is diverted via a valve above the pump in sump back to the sump (doubles as aeration). There is an O2 Elmental 1744 GPH air pumping hooked to five 4 inch round air stones in sump.

At the current flow rate, the water level of the fish tank is about 1.5 inches from overflowing. So I can't pump anything faster through FT. FT and filter is at the same height. The differential height of filters and GB inlet is 12 inches. GB is 12 inches deep. GB drain is 14" above sump. All pipping is 2 inches except the GB drain which is 3 inches.

Any ideas on how to increase the flow through the system? I plan to add a 1000 gallon DWC next. It will fill using the pipe feeding media GB. Will this help increase the flow out of filter?

Video update coming soon...

Hi Lmannyr,
First I want to tell you it looks great! You put a lot of work into this build I can tell. However I have some thoughts..
My main concern with this build (I watched the other guys videos too) is it not going to bow? What if those screws and the glue that's holding the 2x4 to the plywood starts giving way, the screws heads might start coming through the plywood? Have you noticed any bowing so far? Anyway I am no builder.. Just been pondering the best way to build it myself. Still haven't decided yet.