VB's Aquaponics System - Silver Perch & Jade Perch

Dave Donley

Real men use siphons.

aquamad

so true - let nature suck it dry for you ... :mrgreen:

Aussieponic

veggie boy wrote:

One day I will have to list the reasons why I will be going siphons in my big system. I think they outweigh the disadvantage - of which there are a few.

VB for the sake of a learning before I finish my system, Please list your reasons for autosiphons.

AP

aquamad

Aussie - I think the biggest reason is: 'because he can'

Seriously, for me its a case of pump on... and no moving parts - it also allows for a small pump to fill a large bed which will effectively drain itself

... the only drawback being that small pumps do not suck up as much muck

earthbound

For me the proof is in the pudding.. I had the auto siphon on my barrelponics system for maybe a couple of years. In that time, once I got it all going, I think I have had 3-4 times when things have stopped working and I've had to stuff with it..

My big system with the standpipes and intermittant pumping has been running for over 3 years without any issues in the piping/irrigation/drainage side of things. So it works and it's very reliable.. I spend a lot of time talking with people that don;t have many skills when it comes to sorting out problems and they just want simple things that will work without any problems, so for me, the best suggestion I can give to most of these people is standpipes.. Siphons certainly have a place in things, and I'd like to experiment further with them myself, but at the moment they are generally untested in large systems...

veggie boy

I agree with you EB that siphons are probably not the way to go for people who are not willing to play with them till they get them right and that your standpipe system is by far the most reliable.

I think that a little bit more work is needed to identify the best design for the bell siphon in aquaponics and to identify the parametes within which they must be operated (dependant upon their size, the setup of the pipe going to the sump etc etc.)

I will persist with them in the interests of those that come after me :lol:

and I'm sure in time I will ensure my siphons are foolproof and can be replicated in any system.

I don't want people to go with an autsiphon and then spend the rest of their life cursing me for it.

I will however list the pros for an autosiphon again a bit later. I'm kinda dreading the thought that you might go with the autosiphons AP - in case they don't work out for you. My name will be mud then. Go the standpipe :lol:

Aussieponic

VB EB. I think standpipes for my first system will be better for me. I do like things simple. thanks

AP

Food&Fish

I have been running stand pipes ever since i started 9 months i think have never had a problem fish tanks allways clean and seeing pump runs 3 min in the hr costs about $30.00 a year to run

veggie boy

Time for an update - haven't done one in ages:

Everything is chugging along. Plants are growing well. The tomatoes are starting to ripen. I have included a picture below of today's harvest. They will finish ripening over the next few days in the fruit bowl. Chillies are also ripening.

Eggplant has several fruit on it as does my single bean plant. I have included a picture of the beans and eggplant. You will have to look closely to spot the biggest eggplant fruit. Trellis makes shot a bit crap.

I guess the most exciting thing is that last weekend I started harvested my first fish. I removed 4 Jade Perch from the system. 3 of these went into a purging tank that I set up and the other was eaten that night. As it turned out, the fish did not need purging because I had not fed the fish for nearly a week because of low temperatures.

The fish that I ate weighed 550 grams when gilled and gutted. At least 1 of the 3 that are in the purging tank is a substantially bigger fish. I prepared the fish simply by adding some coriander, parsley and a small slice of lime, wrapping in alfoil and cooking under the grill. The taste was lovely and the meal was very filling because there is heaps of flesh on the fish.

The other vaguely interesting thing to report is that a few days ago I put a 200 watt heater into my tank. A run of cold days and nights meant that the water was just getting too cold. The 200 watt heater (which in the scheme of things is not that big) has done a good job of heating the tank. Temperature at mid day today was 21 degrees Celsius after having been 17 this morning (sun and heater will have contributed to that rise). This is much better than the 12 degree temps I had before adding the heater. The fish are again feeding and will do throughout winter if I keep the heater in.

The 3 fish in the purging tank have been there a week now and are not long for this world.

Enjoy the pics - I will have to do them over a couple of posts.