Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Sleepe
[quote :Curious to see the F&D system in the pipes re the plumbing. [/quote]

Tower system:-
with hole saw cut a 20mm hole, then using heat gun soften pipe, insert a 20mm dowel into hole and push up and create an indention on top side of hole. Cut 20mm poly pipe 160mm long for 90mm pipe. Drill half inch holes through pipe with holes facing top of pipe to allow water to enter. With a number of these in a tower and the water dropping in from the top the splashing should keep all root systems wet. Do not use any media. Just insert seedling plug intact into the 20mm plug.
One problem with towers is to keep the water in the pipe/tower, this should solve that problem.

I have not tried this idea yet but if you give it a go please let me know the result.

Flood & Drain system:-
items required one male and one female threaded 20mm PVC end con's, short length of 20mm PVC pipe

using 90mm up to 150mm pipe cut a 20mm hole in what will be the bottom of the pipe with hole saw.
Drill a hole (to suit your flow rate, if slow rate small hole fast flow at least 8mm hole) at the bottom of the male con (see blue dot) cut approx 50mm of 20mm PVC pipe cut overflow slots in top, insert into male fitting, put silicon around hole in pipe and fit male fitting into hole inside 90/100/150mm pipe. Screw fitting on the out side very tight which brings the hole drilled into the male fitting onto the bottom of the pipe allowing almost every drop of water to drain.
Make sure you clean any excess silicon from near bottom drain hole.
Adjust the flow of water into the pipe to equal the flow out via the slots in the top and the hole in the bottom. Drain back to GB, FT or Sump.
It works very well.
This gives you the general idea of how to go about it but can be changed to suit your system.
Alex

Thanks Alex

Sorry about the late response, shitty day. Don't think I will try the towers, have my own ideas about vertical systems. The stand pipe in pipe is interesting. NFT's, as the name implies use a film, not F&D, and root problems are, a problem , sorry . Pipe F&D could be an interesting alternative as it would seem to be less prone to blockages. Never found root trimming to be a problem although they tend to compensate by putting out more laterals. Fast crops should be easy.
Keep us updated please

Wednesday 14/01/09 a hot 45o, not nice.
The 30o water in the trout tank sent one trout to the frypan and he was very very nice. 350 long and 252grams.
The others have recovered with the help of four bags of ice and four 3lt milk bottles of water frozen solid. We also had very cold water from the bore flowing into the FT. The tank is a 1000lts (approx) round cement stock trough inside a shed and now has fifteen trout in it.
These went into the tank on the 14/07/08 at 150mm long.
We fed the wrong food up until mid Oct when we switched to a higher protein (45%) food and they took off.

Have lost all our cucumber plants to what appears to be a form of rust. Will pull out and replace.
Our tomatoes which were going very well from the start have not continued to do so.
They too will have to come out and be replaced. There does not appear to be anything very wrong with them, just not doing well.
Alex

Cool pic, not like the weather eh?
Yeh think my trout need to come out too
only 5 remaining.
Some of my cuies also had an issue.
But the apple cuies have done really well.
Maybe try Apple cuies

I grow apple cuc's too and they are growing in with the Burp-less and the Lebanese so they all have the rust.
Apple cuc's are by a mile my favorites.
I will be taking the trout out over the next week. I will smoke the small ones.
Very hard to count them but I think that there are four or five under 250mm.
Alex

Hi Alexmac,

my cues are going the same way also. There is a bug that I think is called a cucumber mite/thrip that does something similar to leaves drying out and browning off.

This report has some handy info about cues.
http://www.agric.wa.gov.au/content/HORT ... HYD_07.pdf

Nice Trout well done .

God bless froggo.

It could be that I did not allow enough space between the cuc's. Will replant in fresh area and allow more space.

Dressed three Trout for tonight's dinner and they were great.

Dressed they were 311, 259 and 245 grams.

Dug up a meal of new potatoes from the earth garden to go with the salad.
Our first complete AP grown meal + the earth garden new spuds of course.
Alex

well done ..... Trout are a funny looking fish

they taste good

Trout are now all in the fridge.
One was only an inch longer than he was when he went in. The others were all around the 240gram mark.
Of the 16 live ones we put in we have harvested 11. Two we know jumped out and the other three must have jumped out and disappeared down the cats throat before we found them.
They are very expensive fish.
It would have been far cheaper to go down to the shop and buy a couple of trout for dinner.

The SP's have doubled in size and are eating their heads off.

For those that are having trouble with growing tomatoes. If you are using F&D that maybe the problem. You have to get the water away from the tomatoe's root system quickly. Mine in the F&D no good with the siphon OK so far.
Alex

The trout were indeed an enjoyable meal, four meals in fact for the three of us.

When we started the unit we guessed that each cement stock trough would hold around 1000lts.
Today I emptied and cleaned the FT which had held the trout. There was almost no crud, less than a lt in fact. The yabbies, the swirl motion with the central suction drain back to the sump have kept it very clean.

We have a 1700lt SSmilk vat complete with its dipstick in 10lt increments. I filled the vat and used it to refill the FT measuring the actual amount of water we are using in each tank.
It came to 1200lts in each, filled to 100mm below the lip of the tank.

Now if we have to medicate the water we know exactly how much we are treating. Including the sump we have 3000lts to look after with all GB's empty.
Our unit has an auto level system so we do not know how much water is used and replaced each week.
Alex

Quote[[We have a 1700lt SSmilk vat complete with its dipstick in 10lt increments. ]]dont rub it in i want one but i have been told clean up first and then maybee
Seriousley that ss tank would 70 to 80 trout over the winter growing season just a small pump in the sump and once an hr overflow it to one of the growbeds
P/S whens the big tank coming on line

Congrats on your first complete AP grown meal! Its a great feeling

Thank you DanDman it indeed was very enjoyable.
Had a good time in Houston summer 86. Was supposed to be working, but Texans are very good hosts .
Alex

Update.
Very hot last week av temp 43o started to cool down Sunday. No fish lost but the garden, dirt and AP suffered. All corn in dirt garden (did not have any in AP) gone feeding to sheep. Will start replanting most of the AP unit next week.
The water in the FT's went from a high of 31o down to 16o in three days. This shook the fish up more than the four very hot days.
Alex