Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

G'Day Gang,

Here is my first system construction

The start.


The middle.


The finish (Now the fun starts!!)


Cheers,
Dennis

Hi Curnow,

nice, looks neat and tidy. Those IBC's are handy things.

God bless froggo

Good stuff Curnow.... keep us up to date with further progress

Thanks Guys,

One question I have is what timers are available to control the flood and drain cycle more accurately that the $10 plug in timers.

Cheers,
Dennis

They're a might rare, you'd be best building one yourself
a 555 chip a cap and a resister will do a nice timer, then maybe a transister and a relay and you're away!
to get an on off forever cycling timer, you may need double of everthing above barring the transister and relay
It's 1950's electronics, not terribly difficult

Just what sort of timing cycle are you looking at...

Hi Curnow
hope your better at electronis than i am if your going to build your own
it was on of the reasons that i went for a pump on always and used auto siphons instead

if you run a search for them their is a lot of info here to build your own which are simple if you can get your water flow right but that is what taps are for

have fun with it and you will always enjoy it

At the moment the cheapy timer does 15min on 45min off. I can only change this in 15min steps so I would like to be able to adjust the times ideally by steps of a minute. The grow bed fills in about 1 1/2 mins so I guess any further on time is a waste.

Cheers,
Dennis

Looking good Dennis.

The fence behind the IBC's looks tidy too. I wouldn't want my hand in the water, then bend over a bit far and let my rear end touch that fence.

You can digital timers with 1 min increments... like the Sansai PAD.... about $15...

Or your local hydro store will have heavy duty models.. but they're pricey

I've seen digital timers that can do one minute increments but they can only do like 8 on/off cycles a day.

You might be able to find a timer that can do 5 minute increments (though I'm uncertain of this) all the day round but I'm not sure if it would be able to handle such a large pump.

How many liters per how or per minute does you pump do? If you make sure your stand pipe in the grow bed will keep the grow bed from flooding too deep or overflowing, having the extra water move through the system each hour will provide aeration benefit. As you add grow beds, it will take longer for the beds to fill and perhaps the 15 minute timer will only be twice as long as needed.

Good Luck!

The Sansai PAD-32 does 20 cycles/day

Get a cycle timer! Any on off time; all the time.

Exciting! I'll be keeping an eye on this one. Welcome, Curnow.

Just had a look at the Sansai. It only has 8 on-off cycles per day so falls a little short for AP requirements.
I am hatching a plan to make one using the 555 timer. I'll let you know how it goes.

Specifications:

- 7-day Digital Timer
- 8 ON/OFF per day, 56 ON/OFF per week
- Min.setting time:1 Min., Max. setting time: 7 days
- Summer/Winter time optional
- Random funtion
- AM/PM or 24 hours display
- Rechargeable Ni-MH battery, reserving data for 2 years once power off
- Clamshell Packaging