Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

TC, you may be right. I haven't really investigated sprinkler timers as I am not going to be using them. As a matter of fact, the only reason I even knew that the sprinkler valves use the same voltage is because when I was looking for a transformer to run the actuators the one I found is a replacement power source for an orbit sprinkler timer. My tech guy is flying to Florida tomorrow for a robotics competition at NASA. When he gets back he promises that he will bring the timer out. If it is as easy to code as the website tutorial makes it look, It may prove to be very useful in AP.

Well there are definitely options out there for those technically minded. I've made repeat cycle timers using picaxe chips and electrical parts that can be picedup at radioshack or for me I go visit skycraft for the harder to find parts and relays. Biggest challenge is to keep the electronics from being fried by humidity or bugs when you have them out by an aquaponics system.

Great way to increase sump volume. This is one of those ideas that make me slap myself on the head and say 'why didn't i think of that!'
I read all of TC's system thread but I must of somehow overlooked that or it just didn't register.
[/quote ]

Yeah I had that same feeling when I saw it. It's funny that it doesnt seem very mainstream. Witht he results of the BYAP systems trial it looks like a few constant flood beds might be the go as well. This would mean it doesnt really matter how big your sump is.


I think it was in Useful Aquaponics Diagrams rather than TC's system thread viewtopic.php?f=11&t=5311&start=15&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

BYAP system trials viewtopic.php?f=1&t=8621

another option ios to just cascade your flow from one GB to another.

I think KudaPucat does this viewtopic.php?t=2409

just beware with cascading siphon beds that if for some reason something gets out of whack, you might end up with the sump running dry and all beds flooded and only trickling over so I would still recommend that the sump needs to be big enough to handle the flood and drain of all beds at once even if you are trying to cascade siphons. So probably having several constant flood beds might still be the go.

I've been looking at the BYAP trial thread. I've been having trouble with the siphon in one of my beds so I removed the bell and now it's constant flood. Now I can compare for myself.
With a couple of 'ground level' GB's that will serve as extra sump volume and and a couple of constant flood beds I may be able to dig a small sump and continue to operate the system with a small pump running 24/7...no timers or indexing valves.
Dang! I think I'm starting to see the light!

Now I just need to work out the volume ratios...

Mikey

Yep you just need to make sure you have enough sump volume (plus a little bit) to handle the flood and drain of all the siphon beds.

Keep in mind that grounds level grow beds that their top level is the same as the top of the sump may be rather tricky to get the levels balanced such that those beds properly flood and drain. Depending on how the system balances out they may tend to be more constantly flooded or they might be more of a constantly drained with only some water near the bottom most of the time. This might not be a bad thing but it will take some experimentation to get the right plants in them so they will thrive in whichever situation seems to be the norm in your set up.

Make sure you get enough flow through the constant flood beds to keep them working well. Too little flow and they may become anaerobic.

Also, some plants out there really do best in timed flood and drain and those may suffer in constant flood or even in siphon beds. Some plants seem to do fine just about anywhere and other thrive in a good constant flood bed.

variety, the spice of life.

thats a good point.

perhaps cascading constant flood???

No need to cascade if doing constant flood.

thats true. I havnt slept yet

Bumping an OLD thread here I know but.

I thought perhaps it was time for a bit of an update about those pool diversion valves and actuators.
I have been using them lately. Problem has still been controlling them.
It is really easy to knock together a timer/controller for them if you are handy with electronics but I've still not found a good turn key controller for them for our purposes. (now if some one knew of a 2 zone sprinkler controller that does repeat cycles of just back and forth between the two zones at somewhere between 2 and 20 minute intervals and costs less than $150, let me know.)
However most of those sprinkler controllers are not rated to be installed outdoors so you would still need to make a box for it and the transformer within reach of the actuator wire (about 15 feet of wire there.)

I'm working on an alternative though.

A few things I've learned (yes westside wholesale does suck.)
Also, the cheaper pentair diversion valves start leaking after only a couple weeks of operation (going back and forth every 5 minutes 24/7) I went through so many o rings on the stems and still they would start leaking. Now I always installed them so any minor leaking would just drip down into the sump tank but these were able to leak hard enough to actually get water into the back side of the Intermatic actuator and FAIL the actuators. The first valve/actuator combo I got was Hayward/Goldline and both of those are still working fine. I don't recommend the Pentair diversion valve for any situation with any pressure or where the valve is being turned more than perhaps a couple times a day. I'll still use them as manual diversion valves I suppose but I'm not going to subject any more actuators to them. The Intermatic actuators don't seem to be sealed well enough in back so I'm not buying them anymore either. I would have expected them to be sealed a little better since they are meant for outdoor installs. I have also had one of the intermatic actuators fail in a protected location where it was not getting leaked into.
I don't personally have experience with any of the other brands like Jandy so I don't know how those compare.

Anyway. At the farm I am running a CHIFT PIST set up where the fish tank is elevated enough that I am using the Indexing valves on the gravity flow from the fish tank. I am using an automated diversion valve to alternate (every 10 minutes) between two 6 zone indexing valves (about 1200 gallons of gravel bed.) I am also sending the overflow from the fish tank (that is too much for the diversion valve/indexing valve set up) into a FLOUT tank when then feeds another 4 zone indexing valve by gravity (probably 600 gallons of gravel.) (These are all gravity modified indexing valves.)
Finally that same system has an additional pump in the sump tank which feeds another diversion valve and a pair of indexing valves sequencing the flow among another 12, 100 gallon grow beds.
That system with a total of about 3000 gallons of gravel, 1000 gallon fish tank and 300 gallon sump tank does very well with 100 or less channel catfish.

I have also used those diversion valves to alternate flow between two banks of towers (well that was until all the actuators failed and I haven't been able to get a replacement diversion valve yet which I need to totally re-plumb, this time I'll put it up higher so it isn't getting full pressure from the pump I guess.)
Finally, when we still had ducks, I was using a diversion valve to alternate flow between the duck pond and the indexing valve to the grow beds with bananas in them.

Going to bump this old thread (again) ...

Has anyone had experience with pneumatic-operated valves? I've got a vision in my head of using a central large air compressor, like that would be used in a mechanics shop, to supply compressed air to run a variety of system devices. Compressed air, with an inline filter, and a regulator to drop the pressure to a few PSI could be used to power airstones, and air @ working pressure can run pistons or other actuators. I just don't know if there's readily available valves that are operated by air pressure. I realize you still need a controller and valves to switch the air on/off to the actuators, but pneumatic solenoid valves for switching air flows are a lot cheaper/easier to come by and less prone to problems.

The large high pressure air compressors like are used in mechanics shops are not really appropriate to run air stones. Those compressors are designed to produce small volumes of air at high pressure. Simply regulating that pressure down to a few psi doesn't make more volume to operate the air stones. The compressor would be constantly running which is not energy efficient and really quite noisy.

Solenoid valves for switching air flows might be reasonable but I don't think those same valve will really work on water flows to replace the indexing valves unless you are talking a micro system in which case you are better off just getting a large enough sump.

I realize the question of water proofing controllers is a year old, but since we're bumping this up, I will mention that the WISP I work for, is using these Orbit controller boxes to house small electronics boardshttps://amzn.com/B000VYGMF2