Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I'll admit it...I love automation. So it takes a day to build something where it normally would take 10 seconds to manually feed the fish....it's well worth it!

My latest creation is a fish feeder. I took a small gear motor and slightly modified an old auger bit that was laying around. Than welded a couple of pieces of black pipe together and stuck a cam and switch on the end. A 7-up or mountain dew bottle makes a great feed holder. I probably could have made it independent and put it on it's own timer, but I have it running off of my computerized controller that runs the rest of the system. The only think I paid for was the gear motor, which was around $12 USD....plus I lost my $0.05 deposit for ripping the label off the bottle.

It works great! NOTHING gets stuck in there and it could easily take off a finger if you stuck in in the feed tube. After all, the bit is made of hardened steel and is designed to drill through wood!




Here it is all up and running. Right now my goldies are small and are still on flakes...and there's some pellets mixed in there.

I like that idea

hey w4d, that is a greay idea and use of materials. You should post it in the equipment section with some diagrams . Im sure a lot of folks would use your design. does the food come out of the emd of the tube? Does the auger bit just turn inside the tube or is it bearing mounted? Does the toothed gear wheel in your pic house the hexagonal shaft of the auger bit? Awesome work!
pete

The gear motor has a little slot in it, so I used a grinder and ground down the shaft of the drill bit to match the shape of the gear motor. Here's where I bought the motor: http://surpluscenter.com/item.asp?UID=2009033107372346&item=5-1683&catname= The drill bit shaft goes all the way through the gear motor and then it can be pinned to keep it from slipping out.

(Sorry, Imperial measurements ) The drill bit is a standard 3/4" auger bit and I got really lucky that 1" black pipe ID is slightly larger than 3/4". This made it a perfect fit! There are no bearings in this...I run the motor with 12 VDC so it's only turning at about 30 RPM. There's enough power where so the bit rubbing on the pipe is nothing to worry about.

If you've ever seen a meat grinder or sausage packer, it works the same way.

i understand cool thanks

Looks good. Hook it up to a 3ltr bottle for a weeks holiday.

I thought then I realised that we chip things out of the bone-dry hardpacked clay here in the middle of summer...

great ideas!

Here's the latest addition to my greenhouse aquaponics. I've made 2 growbeds. One is 3' x 5', the other is 2.5' x 4'.

Since I am somewhat frugal, I welded up a stand and tapered the bottom to aid the drainage. I had some metalic blue paint laying around....makes it look like a pro built it!




I lined the bed with plywood and put in a rubber pond liner. To help with draining, I put in a few channels in the bottom and filled with 3/8" stone. (I'm now debating going to a larger stone on my next bed to help increase the drainage speed)[

oops...I guess only 3 pics at a time!

My last photo is of the finished beds The larger one has a bell siphon in the center, the smaller has an external siphon. Still is a work in progress.....

Some of the plants were transplated...some of the little ones are from seed. It's still a great head-start to our regular garden which some of it I'll get started on next weekend. We still have frost warnings!

Nice work...

Im inpressed with the level of motivation and achievment, way to go

Bree

Nice hot-rodded beds!

I thought I had my bell siphon problems solved with these grow beds, but still they aren't 100% reliable. (http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=5192&st=0&sk=t&sd=a). Somewhere on the Internet....possibly on this site, I saw a system that used a counter weight to lift a toilet flusher. I've adapted this concept to retrofit my bell siphon system. (If someone knows who's idea this was, I'll gladly give credit to them!)

I found this to work far better than the bell siphons since I can "time" it to fully let the beds drain, unlike the bells, that stop when they suck up air, and there is still residual water left in the stone.

I don't know what to call this thing so I'll just call it "The Flusher" or maybe the "Flush-inator"



A) Take a section of aluminum 1/4" rod and thread the last inch or so. I bought a super cheap tap/die set at Harbor Freight. It would have no problem threading alum or brass. Cut a round piece of rubber that's larger than the size of the outlet bulkhead fitting and sandwich it between to nuts. (I tapered the bottom nut so that it would guide itself into the bulkhead fitting easier)

B) Drll a hole in the cap to the rod can stick through the top. This will act as a guide to keep the rod centered in the chamber. Also, I made it long enough so I could stick some counter weights to it.

C) I made a bulkhead fitting by taking a 1/2" male & female threaded PVC couplings. They are the gray ones you can find in the electrical dept. in the HD or Lowes. I made a "O-ring" out of plummer's putty and sandwiched a 4" PVC drain cap between them.

D) Drill a small hole in the rod and connect the linkage rod to it. I used a tiny nut & bolt, but I'm sure a cotter pin or bent nail would do just fine!

E) I tapped a 1/4" NPT hole in the side of the chamber and inserted a 90" elbow fitting to drain into the bottle

F) Take a water bottle and tap a 1/4" NPT hole into the lid, Install a ball valve to use to regulate the flow. You probably could just put in a little hole, but the valve allows you to fine-tune the flow, and if something get's stuck in there, you can open the valve all the way to flush it out.

G) Tap a hole into the drain pipe and connect a section of rubber tubing from the ball valve to the drain. It's important that this is flexable. (We'll see how long this pieces lasts cooking in the sun.....)

H) Take a piece of closed cell foam and cut is just smaller than the diameter of the chamber. Drill a hole in the center bigger than the rod so the foam can float up & down on the rod. This serves 2 purposes: 1) when the water level is low, it will help to guide the road into the bulkhead fitting if the bottom of the rod rises out of the fitting area. 2) If the water level is filling faster than it can escape out of the drain elbow, then the foam should start to push against the top linkage, which will lift the entire road slightly, forcing water to drain out through the bulkhead fitting.

Notes). I added weights to the top to fine tune when the drain would open and close. Once the timing on the ball valve was set, it has worked perfectly...I haven't touched it in the last week!



A special thanks to my daughter for letting me have a pink pipe cleaner for the bottle hanger.

That is quite impressive. You obviously have too much time on hand.

Now what is next
Perhaps a mechanical water diverter.

Challange accepted! I'll post a design here in a few days. It's a good project to do while at work. Stay tuned...