Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

jtf, love your comment , Mon, here we go then:

Some progress:

Pic1 - SP settling down in their new tank and the azolla/duckweed tank, still work in progress as pump needs to be setup properly and a cover to be placed over both tanks.

Pic2 – layout of green house with plastic covering, going to put shade cloth at either end to allow air flow and a door WILL be put in the corner (framework already there)

Pic1 – Grow beds with actuator ready to go, each GB has 2 outlets, one will be an overflow (in case actuators stop actuating) and the other will be connected to “flap” valve

Pic2 – “Valve Mk I” actuator connected to valve flap, the siphon pipes will be replaced with overflow pipe

Pic3 – Actuator, power relay and spoofy terminal connector mounted on the 150mm pipe, the vertical 40 mm pipe will be reversed and feed into the fish tank but is in this position so that water doesn’t flow out until ready to test.

Now that the area is covered from the rain, more work can be done to the serial GB feed device

Look`n good EKB, love the high tech equipment hanging from roof in pic 2.

Les, you should be real proud of all that. A magnificent structure and top marks for putting the actuators to work. Can't wait to see how it progresses. I'm feeling the need for a queensland holiday, there's some ripper system starting to happen upyour way

Must have measuring devices - better put it in the AP tool kit

Excellent work Les. Can't wait to see that garden go boom.

Beautiful!

Thank you for the offer of a Cat Gooser. Can't wait to see how that works.

very nice. les you are the experimenter extreme!

funny bugger, i was looking at that outlet pipe thinking "now how in the bloody hell is that auto syphon going to work?!" Then i read the description

Are the actuators 12V car door central locking actuators?
http://jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=LR8814

That's the slave actuator, I bought the kit (LR8810) so I got a master, slave, power relay, wiring loom, connectors and all the other bits that come with it. The kit worked out cheaper than buying individual actuators and relay.

I am going to put in a master/slave on each GB - master to open/close the GB outlet (as shown) and the slave to close/open the water to the GB.

Info on the actuators are spread on other threads (started out as solenoid/ball valves experiment) - when I get to setting up the actuators, I will post more info on it

No no no, Les. I dub your system "Les's Lagoon", not "Janet's Jungle". (I would have changed it for you, but an Edit button doesn't show for me on your thread. Need more power. )

There you go then

Probably a stupid question les, but using those actuators is there a way you can keep the growbeds full for a set period of time before dumping the water?

oh my!
So glad you got the plastic over it... I've been waiting(like everyone else, I'm sure) to see it! Looks great, really great. I wish I was in a more moderate climate and could pull that off. Alas, if this winter is any indication I just might be able to in a couple more years :/

How are the growbeds? they look good but how are they holding up in person? Are you having to support the entire base or are they just sitting on the besser bricks?
How are the sides going any signs of bending in the wrong direction?
How deep are they in total?

But it looks very good and looks like lots of room for expansion. I am planning mine as we speak.