Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I believe water dribbling through the gravel also provides some airation. Around here you can get black PVC - you can order it off the NET for sure. You should at least be able to get the gray stuff locally from the electrical dept. Someone else will have to chime in about the paint. You could also just take some black plastic bags and tie-wrap them around the pipe.

Mark

thanks...

saying the pipe in the bottom of the GB is the drain also is sort of a miss direction....

I will have a no holes siphon going out the top side of one of the GB's... with the output down into the ST.... so it will siphon....

the bottom fill pipes will actually let the water from the last GB to work its way to the GB with the siphon....

so as the GB drains, it should draw air down into the media.......

its an experiment and will be interesting to see how it works.....

each GB is 27 gallons, so I can break one down and check it out every now and then

jT

I was considering bottom fill GB's but decided the risk of roots blocking the pipes was too high, you will have to make some provision to disconnect the pipes from outside so you can clean them out without having to empty the growbed, or fill into a perforated pipe in the growbed so you can keep the roots trimmed back from the top.
John

hey john......

I will be able to pull the T sections off outside the GB's and clean any roots out......

non of the non-pressure pipes will be glued... I may put a little silicone on them
just to hold them a little better....

thanks
jT

Yeah that should work - on one of my hydro units I had joiners of radiator pipe and hose clamps on the pipes as the push on fittings tended to get leaky when they where disconnected a few times and the nut and tail type unions are bloody dear when you need a few.
I notice that iplex are showing rubber "O" ring fittings in their catalogue range as well as solvent weld but I havent actually seen them in the store.
they would be the ideal fitting
John

was a decent day, 50's got the plumbing finished for the parts I have setup...

started building the waterfall outlets..... they look kind of strange without the rest
of the supports....

got the high water overflow in... so when it rains.. the excess water can drain off.....

now thinking about the ST..... how I will install it, where I will install it.....

wondering if I will need more than one siphon for the GB's, eventhough they are all connected... and will fill and drain at the same time....

we shall see...

Lookin good man!

thanks....

got to get it done and cycling by march 6th as I am on the local greenhouse clubs annual GH tour......

last year they had over 300 people visit each GH throughout the day....

so could be 300 possible AP addicts

jT

Nice - to bad you won't have enough AP fish to feed them; what a "hook" that would be!

System looks great man! I'm impressed!
Mark

got an 1 1/2" of rain last night.... as if we need it.... DC got 24"+ of snow...

picked up my ST today.... opted for a new one..... no problems then...

figured out where to put it.....and how to keep rain water from getting into it...

see pics below....

JT

tested out the waterfalls today......

one was starting alittle faster then the other.. so had to make a thin dam
to equal them out...

jT

What are those waterfalls made out of?

AS to the grow beds all being linked. I would definitely put in a mesh stand pipe sort of inspection port on at least the first and last grow bed in the line so you can see down around the water inlet to see what kind of solids build up might be happening.

As to the white PVC SLO drain in the pond, I wouldn't worry too much about painting it, in a few months it should be a nice green color from algae. But if it is too bright for you, ya might see if some of the dark sch 80 pipe is available or maybe you can gets some black ABS plastic pipe. (I don't think the plastic paint is really something I would trust to be safe though a very small amount that is allowed to dry really well might not be too bad if you are only talking about a few gold fish, I'm certain it is not certified as food safe.) Hum, this gets me thinking perhaps there would be a food way to stain the plastic darker (I doubt you will get completely black though) mulberry and blackberry juice is pretty good at staining things. So is coffee. I wonder if you left the pipe sitting in water and coffee grounds for several days if it might make more than a tinge of color change to the plastic?) Hum, might be easier to just get a few water plants to put in front of the pipe

I guess you better get lots of seeds started so you can plant out those grow beds with advanced seedlings once you get everything ready for the tour!!!!!

well had another delay today........

only good thing about it, is its pretty

got 4" (10cm) of SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!

very very rare thing here on the coast..... but its been a cold winter this year.....

will take a couple days then back to normal....

checked my GH and everything is ok so far.. will see when the snow comes off the garage roof



jT

Wow, that is a bit of a challenge JT. What are the highest temps that you get to there?

normal winter mean averages is 38f at night and 50 during the day

normal for february is usally 40ish at night and 55 during the day...

it got down to 28 last night and high today around 40, its 32f right now at 10am

jT