Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hmmmm. Dad has a kiln, a clay extruder and a slab roller. Wonder what trouble I could make...?

clay extruder sound like the go, mix up the coffee grounds and ectrue out some!

Yeah I think small beads rather than balls might be easier. But are they as effective planting wise...

guys honestly what I like about this forum is that its like a gold mine of experiments and learnings I am even now researching on hydro electric power generators hehehe. thanks guys

Jamesto, you have definitely found the right forum.

Download this manual for a PMG (Permanent Magnet Generator) which are do it yourself plans.

http://www.scoraigwind.com/pmgbooklet/itpmg.pdf

It is designed for a wind generator, but there is no reason that you couldn't add a water paddle instead of turbines. I think there is a chapter on it.

http://www.scoraigwind.com/ this is his home page. There is another manual that is for sale that has better plans. I bought that one and have it in my to do box.... its a big box..

have you seen goat dung - nice round balls. How do they do it?

Built in self extrusion module ....

feed the goats clay and bean bag balls, then fire at 1100-1200 deg c

i had a similar idea about terracotta, i can get loads of terracotta roof tile scrap, and thought about putting pieces into a cement mixed and letting it tumble for a while. It would need washing after, and would produce a lot of waste product, but the waste would be clean fill.
I decided it would be too labour intensive here,

I tend to think that terracotta would not be porous enough (expanded) to provide bacterial growing area.

Properly fired terracotta will be fairly porous. There is a fairly big problem with using crushed pots or roof tiles.... Try this at home: Break up a terracotta pot or tile and put it into a bucket... Then dig in it with your hands!!! Its going to be sharp. The cement mixer idea is ok, but you will have a lot of dust after a while and not many bits...

One subject discussed with great concern on this forum is dangerous chemicals in grow media and pipes/tanks etc. A lot of clay products contain lead and I'd say especially cheap clay pots. I looked into this after a recall of clay cookware, that I saw on the news a few nights ago. so it's just a warning.

Just take the general rule that anything coming from china which is glazed has 100% chance of containing lead!!! The rest most likely contains lead... Any darks clays have all sorts of rubbish in them. Plus the pots are not fired hot enough to become clean enough. Who knows what other heavy metals are in the pots...

But they sell it so cheap people don't care... At the same time the last terracotta producer in WA is going out of business...!!!