Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I don't disagree with you. Certain things are definitely more profitable. Lettuce has the benefit of being a steady and fairly quick crop that grows really easy in Rafts.
I am in the process of adding more media beds because so far my experience with my systems is that they are the way to go for growing the more demanding crops. And well suited to growing more variety for a CSA style market.
Luckily I'm not hoping to get rich, only to make Enough.

Back to that topic of the Aquaforce or Laguna pump.

The pumps came in and I installed the Aquaforce 2700 pump into the duck system a couple days ago. That pump says it uses about 147 watts and has a max head of about 14 feet and max flow just under 2700 gph.
Too much flow for the set up, when it is pumping up to the waterfall into the duck pond tank it is splashing out of the waterfall bin and threatening to overflow the duck pond.

So today I worked out an adapter to get the Laguna hooked into the PVC plumbing.
Got the Laguna 2400 hooked up. That is supposed to give a max flow about 2400 gph and has a max head of about 12 feet and uses 100 watts according to the box.
Looks like it may still be overkill for the waterfall bin so I might have to bypass a bit of the flow.

I'm thinking that after sanitizing the Aquaforce 2700 pump from the contact with duck water I will actually see if it can handle running the Media bed system for me since it looks like I should still get 2000 gph at 10 foot of head with it which beats out the Danner pumps I'm currently running on that system. I could almost cut the electric usage on that system in half.

The cook picked up the rest of the Bunk Feeders Yesterday and the order of pipe and plumbing came in this morning.

Unfortunately, it's raining today which will make cutting the grass in the expansion are problematic and leveling the feeders and digging the trenches would really be best done AFTER the weeds are cut down.

Some of the Bunk feeders have the hole over the cross brace and need to have both those holes patches while other feeders have the hole closer to the end of the feeder. I'm actually thinking about running the inlet to those beds right up through the bottom of the feeder instead of having to patch the hole. I would extend the inlet pipe above the media and stick an elbow on it because I like to be able to see the water flowing into the beds.

Will try to post some pictures later if the rain eases up enough for me to take the camera outside.

Had my 31 week Doctor's appointment yesterday and everything seems to be right on track and pretty darn normal (if there is such a thing.) Still expecting the Baby mid March.

My Uncle and Aunt are expected to arrive in FL this week so need to be ready with some projects for my Uncle to work on and my Mom/Aunt Sharron will be off thrift shopping a bunch I'm sure.

It is supposed to get down in the 50's here in the next few days but our plants and fish should be OK. I guess the rain you are having is the front on its way down?
Glad to hear that all is well with baby and with you.

Yea supposed to get cold again. Not looking forward to harvesting tomorrow morning in the cold or going to market Thursday in the cold but all should be well.

If you have Tilapia or are growing warm weather crops then you may want to take some steps to protect things a bit but most of my stuff will survive a bit of cold.

Been chilly a fair bit lately then it got hot again now it's chilly and rainy again for today/tomorrow then it will warm up, possibly get almost hot again over the weekend.

Hate to complain cause I know the rest of the country has it way worse but this weather this year is a bit NUTS.

Hey..this is why we live in FLA right? It sure isn't July or August

And I'm certainly glad I happen to be pregnant through the cooler months.

my wife was about 2 weeks over due in Feburary during a massive heat wave,

that's when we got the air conditioning installed!

Oh I can see that.
Today was a bit warm and oh my.

But we did finish the Drain plumbing on the bunk bed system expansion between farm tours today. I'm definitely lucky to have had the cook around to help me with it since the Combined drain for all these new beds is 4" pipe and I just Can't hold/twist when gluing larger pipes. And With this baby making me look like I'm about to POP already I'm not getting up and down quite as easily as I used to.

So anyway, 12 new bunk feeder beds layed out and drains plumbed. I guess I gotta go ordering the Media now. We have enough to get two of them filled up right away but I think I'm gonna need a dump truck load more, Just gotta figure out where we will have it dumped for the washing operations.

While the cook any any other volunteers deal with moving/washing media, I'll be working on plumbing in the feed lines to the beds. This expansion will require it's own pump, diversion valve and two 6 zone indexing valves.

Have you gad luck with arugula? I know they grow it in Palm Beach north of us, but the last warm days did my second attempt in and I am not sure that there us enough time for a third.

TC, thought about using those bunk feeders myself last time I was at Rural King. Are they strong enough to use volcanic rock, or will you have to use the clay pebbles? For $65.00 on sale, hard to beat the vessel with a stand. Did you have to use bulkheads or did uniseals work? can't wait to see the new pictures. I'm thinking about adding a few outside the current GH for cukes, zucchini, and eggplants.

I haven't tended to plant much arugula in the aquaponics (I don't eat it much myself) but it should be able to grow even in warmer weather through I hear it gets even stronger with heat. I've grown lettuce year round in aquaponics so I would think it may have more to do with choosing the right variety and getting it to germinate before planting out.

the plastic of the bunk feeders is really thin so I have had a little bit of issue with the uniseals in them (I'm cheating using 1 1/2" couplers in a 2" uniseal so it doesn't fit quite as tight as using a pipe directly in the uniseal which is probably part of the problem. On my drains that isn't such a big deal though since I just run a 3" or 4" pipe up under the bed which will catch small drips around the uniseal as well as what comes through the 1 1/2" pipe or coupler.

Some of the beds though, since the pre-existing drain holes were not over the braces, I actually plumbed the feed plumbing to come up through the bottom of the bed (to over the media height) and where those keep leaking I'm gonna have to figure out some means to seal them up. Some I've used some Butyl tape around the uniseal which I suspect with some time and bio-slime will take care of the problem but I'll probably also try some flexi seal around the uniseal under the beds if they keep seeping. So maybe a bulkhead fitting or using a piece of liner inside the bed (just a little square) to pretend the thin bed material is actually the plastic backing would tighten things up enough.

The first one I filled I put Expanded Shale in it and it seems to be holding up (a month later). I expect the expanded shale and lava rock are of similar weight. Granted the bunk feeders I'm using might be a different make than the ones you can get for $65. Mine are the 10' long ones that are about knee high and I got them on sale for about $100 each. I think I would be willing to try even the Brown river rock in them.

Beware, if you have to patch drain holes, if you fill the beds with water the plastic will flex some over the braces and my plastic covers for over the drain holes didn't flex down with the feeder plastic (since silicone doesn't positively bond with HDPE.) I expect they will still be fine as I think the silicone has plugged the holes and on some of them I even added a little ball of butyl tape and once the media is in it will hold the plastic covers down over the hole as well for protection but perhaps epoxi that would bond with HDPE would have been a better choice.

Thanks TC. This is the one they had on sale for 65.00 http://www.ruralking.com/tarter-10ft-he ... 1pb10.html
Seemed like it would work, but like you said the liners are a bit thin.

I know of other people who have been using such feeders as beds for a while. I only have a month of experience with my first one so far.

That said, I'm in the process of installing 12 of them right now. I can't personally make any guarantees about them so it is up to you if you want to wait and see how mine hold up for the next year or so.