Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

No doubt - it is very interesting reading. It reminds me of a saying "You know how you can tell the pioneers? They are the ones with the arrows in their backs."

Perhaps in Aguaponics it is the ones who smell of dead fish?

shhhhhhhhhh....pretend you didnt see it

no sleepies at ur place either bundy?

no...lol left u a post on "hows ya weather"....that should explain it all

Spent most of the day redoing my temporary pump control sys.
Ditched that bank of timers and replaced them with the new Picaxe based controller.

Fitted smugly in the builders meter box, sourced from FF warehouse.

Still need to make it insect proof and to do the Power B/Up sys.

Also want to change my Zero Pressure Valve.
It works, but sometimes a piece of leaf or other inpurity prevents it to shut properly.

got one already, Netafim Aquanet DC Latching Valve
but have to make a controller for it.

A latching beauty, a short pulse opens it an a reversed pulse shuts it off.

G'day Steve, nice to hear from you again...been wondering how the actuator valve was going

Just had a look at the Aquanet latching valve, I was always trying to get something around 40-50mm, like to hear how you go with it tho

Took me a while to get back on the forum, too many ppl.

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more than 'max_user_connections' active connections in /home/bac8844/public_html/forum/db/mysql4.php on line 48"

EllKayBee, the actuator valve is working great, except that I am using it
for watering my orchids, only once a day, in the morning and sometimes
a detritus (s**t) gets caught in as the foot valve is shutting and continues
leaking water from the header tanks.

Would be no problem if it were on AP sys. turning on-off every hour.

It is only 1" foot valve but there are bigger available.

Today I pulled down box housing its timer/power supply to accommodate
the new 6 pumps controller so will have to use the manual bypass for now.

I am sure, the Duralirrigation had also 1.5" Aquanet DC Latching Valve,
more expensive tho, but couldn't find it now.

Oh, I 'm not using Google but Copernic Agent, that's how I found it.

Steve do you have pics and details of that actuator? I haven't seen it yet. How much did it cost? you said it worked fine, but I'd love to see it.

Sure KP, just put it up for you at
Zero Pressure Solenoid Valve

A brief update, nothing really new.

Two weeks ago have put a floating seed tray with duckweed in the goldies barrel
for them to nibble on the protruding roots and and yesterday have found
one of the goldies inside splashing in 1 inch of water and not a bit of
duckweed left.

Wander if she gobbled it all by herself or threw it over to the others.

Have just one struggling tomy in a GB but have great success with cuttings.

Semi-hardwood cuttings dipped in honey, planted in cocopeat in tubes
and buried in the cocopeat GBs.

Today went for a pre-admission appointment and on Monday morning
will go for the second Total Knee Replacement.

Asked also for a Total Brain Replacement because its not as sharp as used to be,
but had no luck.

Hey Steve S.... good to hear from you.... wish you the best for Monday and your subsequent recovery.

How have you found the first replacement?

Rather disappointed with it, works well but reduces the water flow by nearly a third.

Have made a simple controller for it that works a treat.
And it works also with a slave car door actuator.

Because I needed it to turn on only once a day, based it on a mechanical timer
and a 12VDC adapter.

If based on a 14pin or higher Picaxe insted on a 08M, could be expanded
to replace the mechanical or digital timer needed.

Because of the simple way the program is structured,
each flash on Settime represent a 1minute window and depending
on the position of the trimpot wiper within that window the Runtime may bee
a fraction of a minute to over a minute.
p.e. 17 flashes may be anything between 16'30" to 17'45".

Great, been back to work since last week.

Not much happening till yesterday when the panic (HSM) light came up flashing.

Found one of the goldies swimming upright near the surface half dead
with a third of her body covered in white [s]fluff[/s] fungus.

Isolated her in a small tank and dosed with about 60 grm of Epsom salt
that I had on hand, (3 grm per litre).

Today she is still alive with the fluff turning gray but still only half alive
and don't hold much hope.

Couldn't detect it earlier because they do like to keep to the murky bottom.
Have half of the GB filled with cocopeat and it keeps staining the water.

Would like to dose the rest of the system but couldn't find any cooking salt
without anti caking aditive .

Can I use it or would you recommend a better one?

Still not allowed to drive after the operation, so only at the mercy of my DW goodwill.

On another note, found two berries on one of the Goji berry plants I raised from seeds.
One berry was totally shriveled and fell to the ground,
the other, only half shriveled tasted really nice sweet.
Sweeter than the dry ones bought that I used extract the seeds from.

Do have two other, different varieties of those bushes, bought localy,
one with rounded leaves, the other similar to mine but thornless and both suffer mildew
while mine, in pots, crowded nearby without a spot.

Next Thursday have appointment with my surgeon to review the operation
and hopefully will be cleared to drive.

Need to get few things to finish the BackUp sys. before ordering SP.