Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

and this...

sorry I cant remember if I've already posted this...

http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=7430&hilit=charcoal

on charcoal and pH from some tests I did a zillion years ago

Making progress...


And the high-tech waterproof housing for the pump:

Screwed the lid to the ibc frame upside down, drilled some holes for the airlines and ventilation and then dropped the bucket down over it with an audible click. So hopefully the bucket won't blow away with the charcoal when we get a good gust. Even have room to put a shelf in there for a 2nd or 3rd pump later if desired.
Next, a top-off tank and FT lid and maybe even some planting...one of these days...

The kids took long naps today and the extra daylight from the time change=work got done! I had to go with the gravel over net over charcoal plan since the charcoal kept wanting to float up with the slightest water level change but what goes up did not come back down. Removed a couple inches of charcoal and put the net down.

Then rinsed and put the gravel on top. Filled the system up and started the pump.


I'm actually down to running barely 900 liters/250 gallons in the FT but only about 25mm/1" of head so the water is flowing very nicely. The return pipe is just under the surface of the water, maybe 1mm, and disturbs nicely as the video shows.
So, I grabbed my water test kit from the aquarium stand and...chemicals depleted. I knew my ammonia, nitrite, nitrate test chemicals were low or gone, but so is my pH test kit. Will pick up this week. But since, I'm not the patient sort...


Tomatoes, peppers, hot peppers, and strawberries. I'll build a trellis along the back and right side to support the toms and the strawberries can hang over the front(some already are-wilty). No fish, yet-I want to do a little water testing first, but I did throw some old turtle feed pellets in to start the ammonia process.

looking good!

The wilting strawberry plants perked right up and the other ones blossomed new flowers. Its getting warm here-hit the palindromatic convergence of celsius and farfenheit today 82=28 or 28=82 whichever order you prefer-so water temps ought to come up. I want some fish! Maybe this weekend.

Was in town with the family today for a dentist appt which just happened to be across the street from a pet store ::):
They had a bottle of bacteria starter for cycling new tanks on a clearance shelf ($25 for $6) and grabbed it as well as 5 Comet Goldfish and 45 Rosy Red minnows. Fish and bacteria starter for $13 total! 2 minnows were dead by the time we got home and may have been so at the store? They don't put alot of effort into feeder fish. Everybody else is doing fine in their new home. Not a great picture since those guys are really small. Some of the rotting turtle food and charcoal dust that I have since cleaned out.

The bacteria starter was a Hagen product under their Nutrafin product line. I've used similar products for jump-starting aquariums before with good results.

And one of those little moments that makes me smile. The 2 IBC caps that were going to be recycled have been repurposed:

It will be interesting to see how the mesh separation works. Do you know of a thread where someone has done it that you could point me to?

I'm keen to know what happens when you pull up a tomato or something with a big root ball.

I was thinking of trying it with soft drink bottle caps as the base media in half an IBC, and then 10cm of hydroton as the top.

[quote="BullwinkleII"I was thinking of trying it with soft drink bottle caps as the base media in half an IBC, and then 10cm of hydroton as the top.[/quote]

i like your idea bullwinkle... i can just see the cola wars now. "this episode of aquaponics has been brought to you by Pepsi!"
On a serious note, will the good bacteria be able to attach itself to plastics?

The good bacteria will attach itself to practically anything, but plastic isn't very porous, so the charcoal should work better.
I figure there will be some roots left behind whenever something with a big root ball gets yanked. I'll worry about it later. Some people say you have to clean growbeds every year or two. Some folks say they tear apart a 3 year old growbed and there's no build-up. Added worms today. they're supposed to help with keeping a growbed clean. And these beds are about 15" deep instead of just 12". Some have said the deeper growbeds are less prone to clog, but we will see. This is an experiment.

I was thinking soft drink lids for their lightweightness. I live in a rental, and may have to move at the drop of a hat. Last move involved a 3 1/2 ton grow bed, so I'm a little paranoid

But charcoal seems pretty lightweight.

I cant help thinking that the roots will break it up though.

The roots might do just that. I also worry that it might crumble under the weight of the gravel eventually. Dave has been using charcoal for a few years now, I think and moving and reusing it but in smaller quantities than a big flooded growbed. I probably should have used gravel and probably would have cost less, but I wanted to try something a little different and it sure was a lot lighter!

It will break down into smaller sizes but not turn to powdery debris at all. Hardwood charcoal is very sturdy, I have been re-using it from system to system. It never goes away either, like I never expect it to be consumed. It is not at all like using something like a mulch or whatnot, very stable.

Here's a picture of some roots, this planter turned into half roots half charcoal:
http://backyardaquaponics.com/forum/vie ... 94#p274194

I am liking the stacked liner troughs to go a little vertical, which is one of the reasons I'm not using gravel. If stuff were on the ground I would consider using it again, but I would look at expanded shale before gravel.

Ive noticed that in all other ailift 2 inch diameter was the top you can go

also read in some articles about the multi pvc pipe but hard to build

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=11703&p=319641&hilit=airlift#p319641

so I was going to do this:

first: I was going to try it on a 2 inch with 6 poly hoses inside

second: go bigger with a 3 inch and 6 3/4 inch poly hoses

this way you wont get too much resistance or back flow



I know that this works

any one that can get this project working please name it: juit airlift

I had it made in a salt water set up with a blue 200 liter tank in tha back as an over flow set up, but it was a smaller diameter hoses but very strong powerful flow I could lift it over a foot with constant flow

Figured I would post some more detail pictures since I wasn't able to take as many while I was building. Return plumbing and one of the drains with the access pipe around it. And a few marbles-some of this gravel came from the micro lego system.



The fish are eating and swimming and seem to be doing good. I'll be picking up a test kit today to check the water and maybe a pleco catfish or 2. They'll be indoors for now until the water warms up a little more. Its dropping down to about 65 at night and up to 72 during the day. A few degrees more and the plecos will be ready to chow down the algae that I'm sure is coming soon with no lid on the tank. I have a 16 gallon top-off tank ready to be mounted and will grab the plumbing for it today, also.

And, a teaser for the future.



This is out in the woods toward the back end of my property. I have an old co-worker with a skid loader/backhoe that haas done a little work for me in his downtime. This project started even before I was exploring AP to help with drainage and to clear a little spot for dirt farming. And of course just to have some pretty areas to wander around . Lots of trees left of course-mostly with the underbrush intact for the native critters.
The dozer work is finally done and now its time for me to start the landscaping side. This will be a long-term project. Probably a year or two to get the bulk of the planting and seeding/sodding done.
I always figured on throwing some native fish in there(bream, bass, catfish)but now that I have cut my teeth on AP, I figure I have to incorporate some growbeds or troughs or something. I was able to score about 400 feet of 1 1/4" pvc for $30 from somebody on craigslist. Woohoo! So it will be easy to circulate some water with an airlift setup. I'll actually be running the whole creek at 2 different heights using a waterfall about halfway down where the channel widens. The top half, shown from both directions in the first 2 pics, averages about 3' wide and over 4' deep. It runs about 120 feet long so that should be in the 10,000-12,000 gallon range. This will be the "managed" section of the creek with the lower part in the 3rd pic being an overflow area that drains into a 130 acre pond my property backs up to.
I plan to keep the top part topped off by making it my greywater runoff. I'll plumb into some growbed/troughs with some trees and/or shrubs in them and then let that run into the top creek.
If I can develop this step-airlift idea or just a high head airlift then I'll pump some water up from the bottom level to keep the water fall flowing pretty and help dilute the stocked portion. And, I'll want to get this running on solar, so the low energy airlift will be crucial.
All this is down the road thinking as I really need to get the area around the creek sodded so that the water will clear up some.