Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Yeah I know I will face problems if I leave the jungle to take over the aisle, i will have to look for that.

More over I will have to move the camera inside, cause now it cant see whats happening there.

Today I woke up from the sound of a big truck stopping in front of the house. The gravel have arrived!



It's ~2 m3 (3,44tonns) of 11-22mm pyroxene-andezit.

My back hurts just thinking about it!

[quote="zsazsa"]Today I woke up from the sound of a big truck stopping in front of the house. The gravel have arrived!quote]
That reminds me of the excitement I felt on my birthday a few years ago. I heard the beeping of a truck reversing out the front of our house, (thinking that someone may have ordered me a truckload of sheep manure or mushroom compost ) I raced to the front door.
Alas it was a delivery for the people accross the road
I do share your excitement though Zsa Zsa and hope that feeling doesn't wear off for you too quickly.

That reminds me of the excitement I felt on my birthday a few years ago. I heard the beeping of a truck reversing out the front of our house, (thinking that someone may have ordered me a truckload of sheep manure or mushroom compost ) I raced to the front door.
Alas it was a delivery for the people accross the road
I do share your excitement though Zsa Zsa and hope that feeling doesn't wear off for you too quickly.

It was a busy weekend so its time for an update!

I was busy shopping on friday. I bought most of the pipes, some more wood material for the gb stands. While I was shopping a thunderstorm arrived and put the GH to the test. In half hour the avereage of a half month fell. When I arrived home I have font the traces of water inside. The water from the roof couldnt get away so it went arround, down the steps, under the doorstep (its not finished) and right into the GH.

I have found a bucket of mud inside, with some small pools of water. So we passed the flooding test and I was pretty delighted with the result. If I had proper rainwater drainage or at leat the doorstep would have been finished the GH sould stay dray even after this huge thunderstorm.

I moved the tanks outside and started to cut up the wood for the GB stands.

Saturday was a hot sunny day. We had 22C outside and I was working inside the GH in the sweet 28-30C-s.


I have finihed the stands on saturday, and even put sumps and the cages in place. I also filled the fishtank with water, which was a stupid mistake, since I forgot to raise it by adding an other plate beneath, so on sunday, I had to get rid of the water to lift up the fishtank.

This is now true aquaponics building and I enjoy it mutch!

Saturday was plumbing and leveling day! Im done with the irrigation line, the drainage line is for today.



On the irrigation line is free flow, there is nopreasure and no taps, instead I use elbows to controll water flow or close GB-s (I saved a lot of money on taps) To do this the irrigation line is leveled. I read a lot about now hard it is to level, and I must say thats a not true! I used 50mm pipes, turned the T-s up and aded some water to the pipe. It was pretty easy to level the whole system, You just have to go around and make shure the water level is the same in each hole. No special tools needed, nothing to measure water will do everithing fo you. If its low, than lower the pipe, if ist high tna raise it. Dead simple.

One more thing I have kept to the make the end sweet, here is my second greehouse tour :


Have a nice day!

Looking really good zsazsa! I would be a bit concerned about having your growbeds only supported by the two beams. Are you planning some extra support in that department?

I am glad your greenhouse stayed reasonably dry in the downpour.

Back to the water wall... When are you going to start filling and stacking? Do you have a plan to tie the containers to the back wall? Reason I ask is I started to stack a few in my greenhouse after being inspired by you but I can see that once you get to the third and fourth level things are going to get quite unstable! Also does tthe colour of the containers matter? Mine are grey... I guess black would be good.

Please can you elaborate on the use of elbows to control the flow to your beds. I am having trouble in this department...

Love the video, can not wait to see it all up and running!

Brian Fanner@
- Im confident about the beams.
- Water wall is missing. I leaved its place empty, because two reasons. Time is short, I have to cycle the syste, before the fish arrive, and I cant cant controll when they breed. So I want to finish the system and add the wall later. Also I spent a little more than planted so those not necessary to start the system suffer a little delay.

I was not concerned about the pump. Molj said these heating pumps are no good for the business, while their data shows they should easily make it. Also on sunday I realized that the ceramic axis of mine is broken, luckily I knew where to go for repair. So yesterday I tried it and I was delighted. The pupm rocks! The lewet it has to raise is abou 1m and it emptied the sump of ~200l in a few minutes, performance should be 3-5m3/hour which is more than enough.

Also built and tried the first siphon, I'll ad some detail later. Its now time to wash the gravel!

Nice nice work zsazsa! Everything is coming into its place, love it.

Regarding the heating systems pump, i have a 22m head (2m lifting height + all the fittings, elbows and valves) that's why heating pumps are out of the question for my system, but as i can see you only have one outtake (into the FT) so things should work.

I would only warn you about the overflow in the FT, because the back pressure of the pipes leading towards GB makes the water level in the FT go higher then you might think before it spills over, hope it works though cos it's a really nice design!

Do you have any new info regarding our fish, are they behaving good?

All the best to you,

Matej

Hey szasza. I am also confident about the beams... It's where the beams aren't that's got me concerned. The gravel is pretty heavy stuff and the plastic ibc does not offer much support... Unless I am missing something there?

Ahh!

I can confirm one thing about gravel: - it hearts to wash it

It was 9 hours netto to wash the gravel and the liaflor (hydroton) but we are done!

Here you go some pictures:

Its mutch easyer to wash hydroton, and its a mutch nicer and easyer to handle material. If you have the money go for it!




I dont have pic but believe it that we have finished.

- I have measured the pump it does 3,5 m3/hour its cool, more than enough, i love it.

- I have tested some Affnan's siphon, I love those too. They start, they brake, they are easy. I have to improve the speed of emptiing, but after some testing the solution is clear. Affnan's instructions are perfect, maximum respect for him! Thx Affnan!


So tomorrow I'll finish plumbing and we are ready to start cycling.

Molj@ I taked to Márk yesterday. Asked about the fish He fish havent breed yet, but its close, and told me to expect for 2nd week of jun.

Brian Fanner@ Yes we misunderstood each other, I added some boards across the beams. I will show tham in the next video tour, also will explain the elbow-taps.

I think thats it for today.

Have a nice day yall.