Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Very nice! flare out on the pipes after the airlift, too.

I was wondering for the inlets to the growbeds, could we do the sleeve thing there, too, kinda like a sump in the growbed, so that we could lower the head a bit, and let the water into the growbeds below the level of the gravel, not at the bottom, but through the side. Would that work?

Even without that, 4" is not a lot of head, though you have to consider the drag of the growbeds, so you're actual head might turn out to be 6" or more (that's a wild guess)

Have you found an airpump?

I have some kind of auto-fill thing that attaches to a garden hose sitting on a shelf in the shed. Its for topping off water tanks for livestock. Since I've already got it, it gets first shot at the job. I figure I'll just hang it on the side of the fish tank.
As far as water going into the growbeds, I figure the outlet from the airlift will slope slightly downward and flow through a sweep 90 into a tee that hangs over both growbeds. I'll have to get a hold of the pipe and fittings to sort it all out once I cut the tanks and build the support frame.

Ok, shopping got done early.
Local fish store had nice Danner air pumps but the smallest they make is a 20 watt. Bigger than I want to try. Grudgingly went over to big box pet store and found:


$30+tax. Not bad. Further research shows that this a re-branded Resun pump. The specs shown are bottom-line for what I think I need, so I'm not getting my hopes up and confirmed a suitable return policy. But, we don't know without trying. Also went by the hardware store and:

Pipes and pieces so I can do some flow testing when I get some time. Might not be soon-traveling this weekend, school thing tonight. Please be patient, I will post results as soon as I get something together.

Why is the no emoticon for impatient?

I could post a picture of my kids and just use that. Impatient they are and the reason I can't go play now.

The fittings were probably as much as the pump?

Within a dollar Dave. I bought a few different sizes to do the experimenting, but if I can come to a working solution, someone would probably be looking at $10-15. This is only the piping on the top end. I'll still have to get stuff for the drains/returns.
I managed a few minutes worth of tinkering. One of the cool things with this pump is that it came with 4 78" pieces of airline, 4 air stones, and 4 check valves so I drilled for holes in the big adaptor/bell and put the airstones through.


and finally, since I get 3 pictures, I would like to share what kind of special bargains can be found at Walmart:

wow, there you go! That's starting to look cool.

Do you have a way to measure actual airflow? how about actual electricity?

I'm assuming that 9lpm figure is if the end of the hose was barely under the top of the water, and not at 2psi, right?

I am eagerly awaiting some test results!

TEASER ALERT!



Sorry, no measurements yet. I got a little reprieve from family time this morning and was able to put this guy together. 1 1/4" pipe and tee with the 4" bell on the bottom. The video was with my phone, so not great, but about 1 1/2" head and was still flowing some water at about 5" of head just lifting the whole assembly up (which lifts the air input also).



I'll get some real measurements with some bucket filling sometime soon I hope. Got to be Daddy for awhile, now.

Looks good, but really hard to tell how much water flow.

can't tell the flow, but there's a decent stream of water there. I am anxious to see how the bucket tests go.

If you can figure out how to do it, it would be nice to see how it performed without the airstones, just the lines to the bell, like in your previous drawing.

i've got a few of those air pumps, they come with 4 hoses and 4 stones... not a bad deal for $26

and at 5 watts, we could afford to use 2 of them!

one questions, though, is that flow on the side of the box (9 lpm) at 2 psi, or is that at 0psi?

Ok, we are close! Using a garden hose to keep the tank topped off(overflowing), and the airlift sitting on the bottom of the tank, with a 2" pipe slipped over the 1 1/4" tee (loose fit-put a rubber band in there to keep it from knocking itself off) I was able to fill 4 5 gallon buckets in less than 5 1/2 minutes at about a 2" head. 5 gallon buckets hold a little more than 5 gallons and I filled to the top, knocking the pipe off the airlift once. So, its really close to 20 gallons in 5 minutes or 240 gph. That's soooooo close to turning over a full IBC every hour.
The video is loading to youtube now and looks like it will take about 4 hours to load a 6 minute video. ?! not that its very interesting, but its documented.
So, I can try making the airlift out of 1 1/2" and see if the extra volume helps or hurts. I can trim down the airlift a little and reduce the head, but 2" gives me a little downward slope and lets me work above the media, so I kind of like it there. Also, I can try the drilled sleeve in the bell instead of the airstones to see if it reduces resistance for the air pump. I was really surprised that the pump worked down at the bottom, but it did just fine.
I'm calling this a start down the road to success because I could build a 2nd airlift, buy a 2nd pump and be moving in excess of 400 gph for 10 watts making it solar viable and safely stockable. Cost for 2 pumps and the piping would be under $100.
I'll post a link for the video when it finishes uploading.