Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Im going to make some venturi to airate my water that plugs inline with my system.

seems like a popular option for a 3d printer.... we are working on one now as well and will put it up for people to use when we have it working properly. With printing costs of about 50 cents what isn't there to love?!

you are right, you can PM me if you want, what program are you doing your modelling in?

Ill get some designs together when i get my vernier callipers back from work..

done, have printed something that probably costs 50c.

Second iteration i have a venturi that will plug in to a normal say 20mm outlet pipe and when submerged in the pond/tank blows A LOT of bubbles

ok well i have one that runs in line and will aerate the water as its pumped through.




This is a photo of it running then with me blocking the hole off.



And with it open.



Here is also a video of it, ignore the water running out of the hole as i took the breather pipe off when i was videoing.




4th iteration. This costs me a dollar or so to make.

Kewl....

Now... can you print me a working 3D printer...

That is great Ferozaj... it looks really similar to ones that you can buy commercially but which cost a ridiculous amount of money for what they are.

This is exactly the type of use for 3d printing that I was thinking about... now to look at constant design improvements! I should be able to post another version up soon I think - catching up with my 3D printing friend tomorrow and will share whatever we come up with

Here is a bubble-head adapter dreamed up to add even more aeration into the FT from the siphon:

good idea, i can put something similar on the end of my return pipes.

Good to get every ounce of usefulness out of the water flow without disrupting it too much or making the pump work any harder!

You could also use the venturi adapter to introduce medicine into the system if it is sick. pH down, chelated iron etc. Venturi's work well to mix up different liquids and so could be a nice idea... set up a little hospital-style saline-type drip with your favourite aquaponics medicine in!

i would make parts for an automatic fish food dispenser.

for when im on holiday or... forget

...apparently yes!:

http://inhabitat.com/scientists-create-worlds-first-3d-printed-3d-printer/

Thought this is interesting. Maybe a shape like this will have very large surface area for bacteria to colonize on.

I didn't watch the whole thing, but suspect it would take forever to print enough of these for media.

And home made printer have poor resolution.

And yes, by definition a fractal has infinite surface area, so anything you can form that is fractal like and self replicating across smaller and small scales will have A LOT of surface area.

Although in theory a fractal's replication will go smaller than the scale of bacteria.

yeah my printer is 0.2mm resolution.

also to print something like that may take say an hour each. for something about the size of a tennis ball

I think that it would be difficult, and not efficient to print small things like this for the media or the biologica filtration - easier and cheaper to make using standard techniques... but could see 3d printing being used in bespoke circumstances where the right fitting might not be available... or you really want a connector that has a specific angle that is impossible to buy... or just for 3d printing totally radical ideas to test out and see if they work!