Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi all. Thanks to all your ideas I have started to put together my system and plans etc.

My workshop and tinkering area is 600 metres square and has an area that used to house the shower amenities so we are going to use this area to house the tanks. It means I can hopefully cut down on expenses in regards to keeping the tanks warm/cool etc.

I am an electrician by trade and have spent most of my working life as a break down tech. It has taught me that all things thanks to Murphy stop or fail every now and then. If they didn't, I would be out of a job. So I decided to build a backup pump. Smaller than my main ones but it will be plumbed in with them and coupled with check valves, will allow it to be run if needed. I thought you might be interested. Its a 240 volt pump and I coupled it up to a 24 volt DC motor as well so it can run on either.
Also for those interested (as I saw another thread somewhere on it) I have included the main controller in the picture.

As work happens, more photos will follow

Sheesh - that's some shed space you got there!

Looking forward to seeing what you have in store!

Good luck with 2011 - 'The Year of Aquaponics'!


BTx

600 square metres!! That is half my building block. Unfair.

Really look forward to the progress of your system. That pump setup looks really serious especially when I was so proud of putting together a kit to control the speed of a DC motor. Yours kind of makes that insignificant

That is my whole block!

Yeah but you guys probably have a life Currently I work 7 days on in the mines and then have 7 off. So my weekends are 7 days long. I have tinkered all my life and don't drink or smoke etc, don't play golf but love my toys.

"He who dies with most toys wins" and I am making a charge for the top of the leader board

I have welders, lathes, electronics benches, full data room with servers etc. I have always hated mowing lawns and doing that sort of thing so I have a shed. Its an old factory area and I love it. I had no use for the old amenities area so the tanks will go in there which will make it a bit easier to climate control the area

As for the system, its just something I am playing with. I have previously for both a hobby and some real projects used PIC micros but whilst the programming is easy, the making of the boards and getting everything to work so it doesn't hang etc is the challenge. I use these controllers for various jobs and just wanted to play with them so thought this might be a project to see what it will do. You program them in Ladder Logic and also can use basic to do stuff. 24 I/O's, anolog and digital, can control stepper motos, Ethernet on board, can send emails etc so lets see what we can achieve

Sounds like a nice area to work in. Whats the pump made from.

That's the bit that worries me. Its a brass housing with a stainless steel impeller. I am not sure if brass reacts with the water to cause problems to the fish. I may not be able to use it after all

Now I think about it, it may be cast with stainless impeller.........

Had some help to start cleaning the room out to put the tanks in. Used to be showers as on the right hand side of the photo but we removed the dividers on the left.

Are you putting lights in for your plants? or continue the wrecking and put a hole / holes in the roof? could replace some of the roof with clear sheeting.

The growbeds are going outside under clear sheeting in various locations. I have a sump tank being dug into the ground. Some beds will be in a hot house, some in the open (with covering) and various other bits an peces

T o have a shower that big what was the area previousley used for do you have photos

Its the amenities block of an old abatoirs. I have that part of the area (the whole building) for my projects and playing :-)