Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Ok so i tried glueing the smallest diameter pipe to the plastic grate. No good either.

So i have just siliconed all round the bottom of it and hopefully this will hold it in place...

I meant enlarging just the bottom half inch.

Another option might just be to drill a hole in a plastic plug.

But there are PVC fittings for almost every occasion. Including a fitting that steps down to each PVC size. and you just cut the steps off you dont need. There will be something at a decent hardware.

But I'd just drill a hole in a plug.

Remember it doesn't matter if it leaks.

You could also just silicone a PVC end cap in place and drill/cut a hole in that.

Thats all very funny coming from someone who spent 3 days buying stuff from two different stores, and returning everything each day and buying different stuff, and who still has to go back one more time and return everything and rebuy it

Given that you put your hand in there every now and again to pull out roots (I' ve done it 3 times in a year) you probably dont want areldite as its not flexible.

If it isnt going to be a really strong join, I would think silicon would be best.

Does your standpipe go all the way through the plug hole?

You need a bit at the other side.

I have no idea if areldite is safe.

Digital dirt.... it looks to be a standard 40mm "plug and waste"....

So just remove the grate... and get one of these reducers.... which will fit perfectly...

viewtopic.php?p=199730#p199730

This example uses an overflow standpipe, rather than a siphon... so it has two holes drilled through the adaptor/standpipe.... which you wont need, although some people running siphons do incorporate them so that the grow bed drains if the power/pump goes out...

Cheers guys.

Gotta run off to work but i will be back at it tmrw!

That reducer does look like the most elegant solution. But perhaps my silicon bodge will hold up lol.

So my silicon bodge did hold up quite well. But it wasnt quite straight so i ripped it all off.

My standpipe is 40mm so i went and got some hole saws. Only problem is they didnt have any 40mm saws by themselves. There was a pack of 7 but it was close to $100.

So i got a pack of 4 with one 38mm. Thought i could trim any excess with something sharp. Turns out not really possible in any neat way so i will get a dremel style attachment for my drill tmrw and grind it down a bit

Hey guys.

Happy to report a fair bit of progress today. I got the drill set but the dremel style grinders were far too smooth to really get into it. So i found a way by improvising with a long metal screw. Using this like a really rough file worked ok. I smoothed it out with the drill so it wasnt a complete waste of $25 (they only had them in a big pack but i got all kinds of stuff for future diy projects)

I also found a bastard file turned on its side did a good job of grinding out that 2mm.

So finally ground it all down for the 40mm pipe and then the rim piece came right off! But this turned out to be good as it helps hold the pipe in place

I also drilled out some holes for my bell and a holder thing.

I siliconed the base in place and will have a go at making it work tmrw. I tried today but didnt start the siphon off properly and drain. Was all a bit sketchy as i had to glue the pipe together as i hadnt factored in the bottom pipe.

What d'ya reckon? Look ok so far with the holes and length of pipe? The rim thing shows where the pipe sits on the plughole.

O yeah and last week i cut a nice fat bit of pvc to rest the drainpipe coming out of the bathtub. That and filling up the car tyre with soil have given the bath good stability.

You have the same problem as me.

Scrounge everything, then end up retooling your entire workshop at great cost so your dodgy task can be completed for probably more than it world have cost to just buy everything brand new

Lol yup sounds about right!

Still its an investment in the future right?

I have some beans, tomatoes, some kind of curcurbit and basil just itching to be repotted... hopefully can get a new battery tmrw and get the siphon to work today... then its business time baby!!!

Well once i can get the bath plug hole sealed up. You would think that would be the easy part!

The easy part is the eating

Couldnt find the battery place in town so i found a good one on ebay. Its 20ah so should do the trick.

Having problems getting the siphon to trigger. I will take some snaps tmrw.

37C tmrw!

Not triggering tends to mean not enough flow.

Either add a funnel to the top, or drop in a sleeve to make the standpipe more narrow.

O hey mate quick reply!

Yeah i tried an improvised funnel but no joy. Will try a sleeve tmrw cheers! Before the sun is right out...

Also remember that the rate the water rises in the growbed is much much faster when there is media in the grow bed.

I suspect a lot of people get stuck because of this. If you set it up without media and then fill it, the entire dynamic changes.

If there is no media in at the moment, fill it up and test again. You might find it will work just fine.