Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

hello everyone!

i've brought home 1000L square fish tank + 9 250l plastic barrels!! so now the building begins, i'll catch u soon with some photo updates, have been a little busy and stressed lately

i have a question regarding feed lines, is the pressure loss with flexible tubing too big? or why do you all use pvc pipes? is it cheaper?
how much ~ did you pay for your system's piping(just the feeding lines)?

much apriciated!

have a lovely day

It gets difficult to have big diameter piping in flexible pipes, and the big diameter flexible pipes are usually crenelated (like the electric girdles) and you have then a very high loss of pressure due to turbulence in the pipe.

yeah i know what you mean, i had problems with the 1" hosing in my AP aquarium, very unpleasant to work with and not very cost/efficient

guess that answears my question, thank you amacafish!

p.s.

can you give me the ~ cost of ur piping?

hello

a question regarding chelated Fe

i have a 3% organic Fe, so that's 3 ppm with 100mg in one liter of water

i want to add 1 ppm to 100L of water
so

100mg(of chelated agent)....3mgFe
x ..............................1mg/l

x= 33,3mg/l

33,3mg/l * 100L = 3330 mg = 3.3 g


am i correct?
thank you for checking me up!
i suddenly realized while i was learning for an exam that i'm not giving them enough Fe, i looked at some calculations and the yellow underwater plant and i kind off put 1+1 togheter, and i double checked my calculations

thank you for your time and good day!

I'm ok with your calculation.
I don't know the price for the piping since i take from the place i work at.
How does your aquaponic system work?
I've seen that the roots in water all the time, how do you oxygenate the roots? Or are you doing aeroponics or a high pressure dripping system?
Wouldn't mind trying a system on the same base as yours to do a few different systems on fish tanks: ebb and flood, NFT, dripping in expanded clay and yours.
Thanks

cool! at least i know what's the problem now
it's a deep water culture, the roots are always submerged, O2 is provided via water circulation(external water pump) not aeroponic system, low pressure one

bacteria bedding is located in the fish tank as an aquarium bottom
i think i'll use DWC further but with more rocks or hydroton, although hydroton is far more expencive, i don't know, maybe if i get a good deal i'll take it as it is lightweight

thank you man, much appriciated!

Where would you be putting the hydroton? in the fish tank or in the DWC or in the plant pots?
Why do you do DWC,is it better than NFT?
Sort of the same system: water trought the roots, but NFT is lighter.
Wouldn't mind knowing why you didn't start with NFT, it is what i want to put on my big aquarium under a CFL lamp, and I wouldn't like to have to do it again because I notice something is wrong.

Hi molj, the pipes don't cost much but the fittings do! If you can reduce the number of fittings you'll save money that way.

amaca. i prefere dwc over ntf because the roots stay submerged and so the fungus gnats can stay away untill the flow is proper + i get a little more water volume this way(a more stable system), and you can easily pull out the dead or ill plant(untill the whole dwc bucket is FULL with roots), while in ntf roots are all over eachother and u can do much once the channel is overgrown with roots

i'll be using dwc + rocks in my bigger ap system

dave: i saw something like fusion welding, u don't use the mechanical T or L fittings but plastic ones that you weld with the pipe togheter
we call Totra those pipes, do you have any experience using them?welding them? is heat(propane burner) enough or is that "fusion" done some other way?
http://www.totraplastika.si/default.cfm ... at=02&ID=2

I've never heard of those pipes, but the PVC pipes are cemented together which is like welding them but with glue. The elbows and tees are also made from PVC. The cementing process melts the plastic together.

I will look forward to seeing your DWC AP and seeing what you have in mind! I know that my hydroponic DWC out preformed every other method I tried.


I have a plastic welder that can weld PVC and most other plastics.

i've been to the store and i've seen some prices and it's not so bad, 2-10$ a piece(T or L or --)
dan: how is that welder made? welds with heat or smth. else? is it expencive?
and my DWC with rocks is nothing else than what you guys already use, beds filled with gravel and flowing water
i agree, recirculating dwc with mineral nutes gives out awsome speed growth and quality, although i prefere the nutrients to have a more organic orign, that's why i'm doing AP
but i still use rec.DWC for my propagators(cloners) and for mother plants, i'll switch those with AP too once i'm convinced in the AP speed growths, else i'll continue using them as mother keepers and cloners

dave yes i've seen those, but i'd like to avoid welding if i can, to reduce the cost if i ever move the system. and welded joints tend to leak if you move around things(rearranging the GBs)

thanks a lot guys!

Welding pipes are usually made of a metal ring inside the plastic of the pipe. You plug a big electrical cable on the two plugs of the metallic ring and it heats up the plastic and weldes it on site. We use this system on tubing for air bubblers, but king size bubblers and pipes (diam 100 mm).
Stops the pipes of leaking in case of a bad glueing.
Thanks for the advice on DWC.

The plastic welder is just a hot air nozzle. It reuires a compressor. It cost $30 at harbor freight. It welds pvc, vynal, abs, and a couple others.. Its great for things like putting a 3/4" line into a 4" line, just drill a hole and weld in. no glue, no fittings.

hey guys

i decieded to buy mechanical joints, and i gave 200 EUR for pipes, fittings, valves and drainage pipes(for 16GBs)...to my prior experiences a few more $ keeps the energy that is used for glueing things, and fixing leaks etc... i need a more reliable piping since i won't be much around this system, once a week, and if there's a leak i can't aks my parrents to fix it hehe

i'll start putting things togheter pretty soon, spring is almost here, so i gotta be quick to catch this season!

looking forward to update u on my progress