Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Go for it Frank

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Frank, you posted a proposal for a combination of flouts and chift pist .... in another thread...

Maybe you could draw it up... as you envisage it... or plan to incorporate it into your system....

Might help people understand it better.... and it would be good to have it discussed within your thread ....

Re the flout idea. Having more GB's while using an overflow as a fail safe for both the fist and the plants would be limited if you expanded the Gb's without the FT. Overflowing to 6 GB's would keep things going if the flout fails but overflowing to 10 or more might take a little balancing. I can see how this flout in FT would work for a set system.

And the sequencing aspect has been worked out by the flout people....

http://www.rissyplastics.com/flout/flouttypes.html ...

So the chift pist essentially would just be an overflow standpipe....

Leaves the question of where the flouts are located... and how you lift the solids to them...

Never tried a flout. Are they worth looking into.?

with the flout idea for JT, wouldn't you need to know the exact height of the water level that you need to drain the fishtank (so that the growbeds fill properly) so that you can put the outlet of the flout through the side of the tank?

You couldn't put a flexible hose over the side of the fish tank as the drain as the height differential would affect the functioning of the flout?

Yeah... you're right Jaymie (I think)... was one of the things that I couldn't visualise... unless Frank was thinking of punching a hole through the side of the tank????...

But if you were going to do that... then you might just as well have an overflow pipe(s) to the growbeds.... maybe like a double Chift Pist solids lifter....

may I launch a maybe revolutionary idea I have been brooding on for some time?

based on CHIFT PIST and flout
http://www.rissyplastics.com/flout/index.html
click on "view dosing cycle" to see how it works
more pics:
http://midstateconcrete.com/index.php?p ... uct_id=114

say you would have some spare level in your fish tank

and you would locate a "flout" in that spare level in a cage
with a pipe to the bottom of the FT to suck the settled solids from the bottom.

run the pump continuously (no priming issues, constant aeration of the fish tank by the pump's flow)

water level in the tank rises until the "flout" kicks in
the "flout" Fast Fills your growbeds
the growbeds Slow Drain into the sump
FFSD is achieved

the cage stops the "flout" from dropping past horizontal level so it kicks out

leaves you with CHIFT from there on.
no risk of draining the fish tank below this level

the pump running continuously slowly raises the level back to where the "flout" kicks in
the sequence starts again

this would mean you need a (much) smaller pump
as it must be smaller than the slow drain lest the "float" kicks back in before drain is completed

the greater the difference, the lesser the frequency of Fast Floods

... or am I missing something?

(sh**, I should have patented this idea and become filthy rich )

comments please

frank

PS GIVE ME SOME TIME TO MAKE A DRAWING

Most of us are aware of how the flout "works" Frank.... the head of the company has previously provided lots of detail on the forum....

And TCL has built and incorporated one....

I can visualize the flout in a cage... suspended near the top of the tank (level?).... and OK... could be feed by a pipe to bottom to suck solids up.... and a standpipe for overflow...

But what I'm having trouble understanding is .... why?..... when a Chift Pist overflow standpipe... no working parts.... delivers the water to the growbeds, and sucks the solids up... just as well....??

What do you see as the benefits????.... and conversely... what are the "cons" of the chift pist standpipe???

How many litres will be transfered in an hour/day?

it is an alternative to siphons and timers

frank

Bugger this flout idea looks good but ive already set up!