Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Saw quite interesting experiment today at 9.30 on Le Journal, (SBS).

A pontoon with some solar panels and a steel cage underneath, anchored
over a dead corral reef, bleached by rising sea temperature.

Pieces of live corral were attached to the cage with a low current flowing through it.
That corral was growing four times faster that would in normal condition.

The above water shot was very brief and distant to notice any details.
Three different but similar size solar panels.
That’s all I could see, but assume also a battery pack with charge regulator
and a monitoring station, maybe with satellite tx, but didn’t see any antenna.

I have one solar panel, not used at the moment similar size to each of the three
on the pontoon and it can push 4 amps into a truck battery,
so “low current” may be rather relative.

Under the surface, a luxuriant floating underwater island,
full of corral, mollusks and fish above a dead reef.
What a contrast.

Would there be any application for it in AP?
Maybe supercharged (not electrocuted) living rocks?

steve there is also an article on that in todays herald sun.

i think it is some how related to the seament (for want of a better discription, cement grows around steel bars with an electrical current flowing though it)

speed at which it grows is directly proportional to the current, but the strength is inversly proportional

Interesting....run a trickle charge off one of the actuators and see it it can up the growth in an AP system

How is your experiment with the actuator and zero pressure valve going SS

Just came across it, page 47, "Shock treatment for reefs".

Talk about coincidence.

Seems to be from a different site.
The French News report had a sturdy cage from tubular steel
under a pontoon, not a mesh structure.

I know nothing about the theory behind it and it wasn't explained.

Thanks Steve, hoped somebody would have an idea how it works.

Technically works sweet, but sometimes a gum leave or some other mater
gets stuck within the (foot) valve, causing a leak.

Keep at it....we need a few more working designs to improve on the sequential GB feed theory

sounds like an astrophysics unit at uni

sorry Steve, forestry and water management, not astrophysics or astrology



my first idea was to adapt manual ball or butterfly valve to open/close
by the actuator but do not have the tools to do something reliable enough.

Understand what you mean SS, I tried to keep to factory bought stuff and not modify too much - makes it easier to return if the bits become faulty.

Also easier to do a direct swap quickly without having to rebuild the whole shamozzle (swings and roundabouts I suppose)