Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

If you saw off the IBC cage to the right height and then use rope support like I do then you can make the ropes long enough that the top DWC part hangs into the bottom sump part.

I need to think about that!
Thanks!

thjakits

Some more pictures.

Getting excited... water will be flowing before too much longer!

Hey guys,

I just had a few really crazy weeks at work, so haven't gotten very much done.

Here are a few pics of the barrel beds being completed with piping and all.

Now I'm working on the siphon design. It's a little hard to get it properly working because I have a pretty large diameter pipe for the flow rate I have and there's not much drop from the media beds to the fish tank outlets.

I have filled half the beds with the bottom layer of blue granite. On top will be 3 - 4 inches of Hydroton.

So water is flowing now and I'm just refinning the setup before I encase it all in my polytunnel greenhouse.


I was so fortunate that the 50 mm pipes' bevelling is a snut fit into the bung holes of the barrels. Just added some aquarium silicone aroung the edge and then hammered them in. Lastly they got a good sealing on the inside and they are all perfectly watertight.





So, one of the days this week I should have all the beds filled and the siphon going correctly.

Then it's time to wrap the tanks in weed mat to minimize light (and algae) and get the styrfoam plates on and get this sucker covered in a greenhouse!


Cheers - Jens

Got a lot of work done today!

Filled the rest of the barrels with the granite bottom layer.
Getting the Hydroton tomorrow.

I cleaned out the four small media beds I had in the small greenhouse and moved all the media into the first 3 beds in the new system and planted some baby plants which I have all grown from seed.
The media should help get the bacteria cultures started. I'll also add a few of my goldfish to provide some ammonia.










I've figured out that when I run the pump on a timer with 30 mins on 30 mins off it works well for the siphon. The beds fill up in about 15 mins and the siphon kicks in, however the drain capacity of the siphon is too low to really pull away from the filling volume, so the beds drain reeeeeeally slowly.
But when I shut off the pump they drain in around 10 mins.
Next up is an electronic timer which can do shorter time spans than 30 mins, so I can get it dialed in with the siphon.

Next week I'm taking a road trip to Sweden to purchase extruded foam boards for the DWC. For some reason Danish builders only use the expanded type, which has an annoying tendency to shed lots of little styrfoam balls when you cut them.


Cheers - Jens

Looking good!

+1 - all in all very neat and looks good . Not surprised that it takes a while to drain the beds with the siphon.

Yeah Scotty, I was expecting that too. After all, 8 half barrels is a lot of capacity to empty through one siphon. But with a timer on the pump it actually works well. I reckon I will get around 2½ fill and empty cycles per hour.

Speaking of neatness, I want to put some top boards around the edges as the last touch and of course I'll snip off all the excess on the zip ties all around.


Cheers - Jens

OK guys, so a somewhat tired man here with the latest news.


I got the polytunnel and it turned out the measurements they advertize are not correct.

The darn thing is around 5" shorter and narrower than they say, and I even called their customer support and asked if the measurements were inside or outside measures. Turns out they're neither nor. More like a declaration of intent.....

As a result I've had to get creative in some areas and just plain move stuff in other areas.
The less than amusing part is that I had to move all of the media beds to fit inside the actual footprint of the polytunnel.
So - Granite out - move the entire media bed assembly 4" in and re-level. Tomorrow the granite and Hydroton will go back in.
To boot we had some very sunny days before I could finish the covering of the tanks and DWCs - result is opaque green water from algae.
UVC filter ordered and is arriving tomorrow.



On a more positive note I got a lot of work done today!
Tons of little things in place. Tie stripping the shade cloth in, securing the polytunnel frame to the wood frame, stripping all the DWCs around the tops to prevent bulging, Installing a proper rizer tube on the pump and finalizing the plumbing, Cutting the blue boards and installing them all.







Tomorrow will see the last levelling of the media beds and reloading the media and then installing the roof section of the polytunnel frame. If the winds die down we will probably also install the poly by the end of the day.

Cheers - Jens

I agree with the others, nice and neat system allright' well done Jens. Must have been a pain having to move just 5"!
And pea soup to boot! uv filters aren't really required it will clear up never to return, all part of the patience game.
One thing I Ng I would advise would be for isolation points at all components. Being able to isolate a ft for example can help with fish treatments like salting and fish catching. Just a suggestion.
Can you adjust the water level in the gbs?
Looking forward to seeing the tunnel go up.

Thanks Skeg,

Actually it was a physical pain! I was so furious that I emptied out all that gravel in 1 hour.
Shoveling it out of the barrels sitting at around 3' high it's not easy on the shoulders.

I can isolate each fish tank with these small caps that fit over the pipe end inside the tank.
I opted out on the valves as they are just stupid expensive here and I would need a lot of them.

I want the uvc for another reason than the pea soup. The system has been standing uncovered for nigh on 2 months now and who knows what can have ended up in the water. So just to be safe and eradicate any pathogens etc.

I'll be sure to post pictures of the tunnel!

Cheers - Jens

Oh, and yes by twisting the siphon I can change the water level in the media beds.

Tunnel is up!



I actually managed to put the roof frame together, lift it into place and pull the poly over by myself.

All I need on the outside now is a gutter to collect rain water for the system.

Here's a short picture series of the system as of today.
The water has cleared up and it seems that the system is cycling fine. NO3 is 10 ppm and NO2 is 7 ppm.
All the goldfish have moved in and look happy enough.
I'm now contemplating holding out on the trout until late summer.
That way I can see how high the water temp will go over summer without risking to cook the fingerlings.
Over winter they will be just fine.

The tanks........










Cheers - Jens