Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

We are planning shifting houses soon and that means dismantling and then rebuilding a larger system.
But laying awake at night the old brain kicks in

thinking about the tumbler style compost bins as pictured, if 2 extra bars were added so that the drum also rested on them and then the axle pipe was stronger and had holes drilled through.

OK so this is how I see it working the axle has a hose attached to it squirting water into the drum, the drum has many small holes ( smaller than your gravel/scoria drilled into it.The drum also has a number of decent handles or even motorised for turning.
scoria is placed into drum, water turned on, drum turns until no or little dirt flows out. then scoria emptied into wheel barrow.

I have snotty cold, brain is working working correctly ( rarely does) but I hope you get the idea.

Would this work or am I just dreaming and blowing hot air out my lower orrifice.

these have nothing to do with thread but I like them.

i like the idea, but because of the weight would need to use metal drums, that stand would need redseigning if you want a wheel barrow underneath, it would need to be motorised with gears because turning by hand would be very hard.

all of that is assuming you are more than quarter filling with each load, if only quarter filling then im not sure it would be worth the effort for a once off cleaning.

ive filled 2 black pickle barrels with unused, dry expanded clay and it weights an absolute ton, takes 2 people to roll them along the ground on their sides.

Maybe something more like this?

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Electrical-C ... 2261568914

Axle through the middle will be problematic with the weight.

to handle the weight a better option would be to have two bars with wheels or rollers on them.
then rest the barrel on them.

i doubt the flap would hold, so may have to have end access.
so have to resolve in/and out.

better option might be the drum out of an old washing machine.

a thread around has a tilting steel 44 gallon drum with mesh attached to bottom..
(welded would be good)


[edit] here viewtopic.php?f=18&t=26541

p.s. "Would this work or am I just dreaming and blowing hot air out my lower orrifice."

Is that where the inspiration for the painting came from ?

Ok Ok brain wave...goigle is your friend etc etc TROMMELthey are your answer there was one put here Sept last year.
A little big then we downsize and youtube haha good ones and bad ones Iam ona roll ....grian excuse the pun. But wow the concept...most of the ones on YTube are for compost but the principle is there. off for dinner and recharge the brain with a good red then back with ideas.

only if that trommel is sitting in a bed of water, mostly because spraying onto scoria is extremely wasteful, but in a more enclosed drum with fewer holes the water wont escape and be wasted as easily.

Further research....what ?? yes I did some googling last nite and found stack of stuff. so my proposal is
make a cylinder out of strong thick metal mesh, cut the ribbed end off 2 blue barrels and screw these to the cylinder, sit this on rollers as per Brians ebay (but make them yourself far cheaper).on an angle, so that the scoria keeps moving forward out out the far end into wheelbarrow etc
I have a large plastic tray 1800 x 1200 x 300, put this under the drum have a small pump in and cover with used foam/ insulation batts (anything you can lay your hands on that will act as a filter.
Water is sprayed onto scoria as it enters the revolving drum, the silty sandy stuff falls through the mesh into the large 'filter' and the pump recycles the water.

The drum could be turned by hand or have a small cog/pulley that could be turned by electric/petrol motor.

Yes it sounds a big exercise for what it is, but there are a lot of groans about cleaning gravel/scoria. I am prepared to make up something and it couls stay in Adelaide and be hired for a small fee.
Iam not completely stupid..... or am I?

Look up trommel on Youtube there are lots of ideas, most are used for gold prospecting but the priniple would be the same.

Having thought about what was the best way for me to clean 1.6 m3 of scoria, I decided to put a bread crate over a wheel barrow, place 7 shovel fulls, spread then hose through. I then carried the crate to the bed - repeat. The fines that went through were cleaned later with a smaller sieve, I was thinking I may be able to use them to start seeds. Easy peasy. (see pics in "Scoria ain't Scoria")

The fines are very abrasive an so wouldn't recommend using a pump unless it was designed for it. I did consider using a holey concrete mixer but felt there would be more mixing than extraction. It makes sense that the thinner the layer the less time it takes to blow the fines through with high pressure spray so a balance must be found between quality, ease of use and set up capital.
Perhaps you could mount your tray so the top is at waist level fill with water put some spacers to half height, get two bread trays fill and spread them with 7 shovels of scoria agitate them in the water lift them out and your done.

a bed of water and a sieve is still by far the easiest and most effective way.

flow through systems waste water and wont wash as effectively as a bath system.

I keep coming back to a cement mixer with a perforated drum

Shovel your media in, let it spin whilst you squirt it, then tip it into a wheel barrow

Cement mixers can be quite cheap, especially if the drum has a few holes in it - it's not much good for mixing cement any more then!

If you were super keen you could cut sections out and weld in some heavy mesh

it sounds like a lot of effort to go to, especially when most people have multiple beds and you can use one bed to clean the media that goes into all of the others.