Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I got some more done on the system last night.

I figured out I can fit two 5-gallon buckets and a 5-gallon aquarium underneath the tank, if I put a bucket at each end and the aquarium in the middle. One of the buckets will have the pump in it, and probably the heater. The other could be used for wet/dry filtration, if I need more filtration than I can get from the grow beds. Or I could use it, and the small aquarium, for growing aquatic plants and mosses.* I'm still working out how to plumb them together; in the meantime, one of the buckets is serving as the sump and pump container, and I got the overflow moved to its permanent location. I still need to mount grow lights above the grow beds, and do a fair amount of plumbing, but here's my progress so far:

To come up with this, I spent several hours browsing the local hardware and farm supply stores (one of each) yesterday for ideas for mounting lights and grow beds that would be aesthetically unoffensive. (I'm not sure I can hope to achieve "pleasing," due to my rather primitive carpentry skills, but I think I can successfully aspire to "unoffensive.")

The shelf-mounting brackets I could find that looked sturdy enough were all aesthetically offensive to me. To get a 12" shelf-width, you have to get a bracket with a 12" down-brace too. And they're all ugly. (Keep in mind my shopping options were limited due to not wanting to drive to a larger town to find them.) But then I wandered into the patio section and found some nicer-looking curly ones. They're meant to hold hanging baskets, but those can be pretty hefty, with all the soil and water in them, and since I had stumbled across bags of Hydroton in the hardware store (!!!) I figured my planter box grow beds wouldn't weigh any more than good-sized hanging planters, so I bought them. Along with a stud finder.

The first shelf holds two planter boxes and has the aquarium lighting mounted underneath. I bought two under-cabinet T5 fluorescent fixtures for that, not thinking about the complication posed by the curly brackets, but with a little bit of luck and careful engineering, I got it to work.

I still need to either paint the underside white, or line it with foil, or something. And eventually I may even find an aesthetically pleasing way to mount a skirt along the front edge to block out the view of the lights. But one thing at a time. Hubs has already agreed that the current iteration meets the standard for "unoffensive," so that's something. I don't know whether to mount a second shelf above this one, with lights underneath it too, with the thought that I could eventually add another set of grow beds on top, or just call it good and hang some lights up there. Hmmm.


* I'm intrigued at all the aquatic mosses selling by the square inch on the aquatic forums. Many of them look suspiciously similar to some of the dozens of sorts of mosses that seem to coat everything that holds still for a minute in our damp climate, which I can collect by the square FOOT without ever leaving my own yard. So I've decided to do some experimentation and see which ones might actually be viable in an underwater environment. An under-tank aquarium with its own little light fixture and plenty of fish-waste nutrients flowing through might be just the spot for this.

The lighting, by the way, is regular household T5 fluorescents for the fish tank, because with Henry in there I don't have any hope of growing plants, and he's probably happier with dim lighting anyway. But I'll probably swap them out for full-spectrum bulbs in the future, just because.

For lighting the plants, I bought CFL bulbs -- the spirally ones that screw into a regular light bulb holder. I found some rated at 6500K and 1600 lumens, which seemed pretty good for plant-growing purposes. The challenge will be mounting them in an aesthetically unoffensive manner. I'm a little worried about how I'll achieve that part.

Henry looks like a Hypostomus plecostomus (Common Pleco) to me

I am glad that Henry gets to hang around. While my plecos are nowhere near the size of yours, I found that if I could get my plants established they would go OK.

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Yeah, I think so too. I think the forum I read that thing on must have been wrong about the number of fin ridges. Imagine that. Wrong information! On the INTARWEBS! *sigh*


Henry has a battering ram tail, just like the great Dane I used to have. Even if he tried to be gentle, I think he'd still destroy anything I put in there! When I get enough growth in my other tank to take some cuttings, though, I'll try a few things. I'm thinking of building a background of rock and foam, and maybe putting some pockets in it that things could grow in, where they'd be a little more protected. I need to finish the AP part of the tank first, though. The bedroom is looking like a war zone with all the PVC and tools right now, and I'm not sure how long my longsuffering husband will be willing to keep suffering.

I actually found a bag of Hydroton at Ace Hardware yesterday. In Battle Ground, Washington, of all places. I was SO excited. They said there was more coming in today. So I made big plans for using it in my aquarium system.

But they didn't get any more in, and I'll need at least 2 more bags. I'm afraid to use anything heavier, though, since I built stuff thinking I'd have Hydroton, so I'll just have to find some, now.

*sigh*

Still, I got some more done today. I put foil on the shelf where the aquarium lights are mounted, to act as a reflector.

I got Uniseals in both the grow boxes, and got the drains and inlets plumbed.

I still have to work out the standpipes and gravel guards, though. I had them all drilled with 1/4" holes, but then I suddenly remembered Bullwinkle's comment about round holes and spherical media, and got a little sweaty thinking about the HSM that could have caused. Problem is I don't have any way to drill any other shape of holes, or the proper sort of cutting instrument to make slots.

I have some leftover gutter guard out in the goat shed. I'm thinking I'm going to go get that in the morning and find a way to make gravel guards out of it. Maybe I'll use my neon zip ties.

Meanwhile, here's the whole thing so far. Water is now circulating from the sump to the (empty) grow boxes and draining from there into the fish tank. It's hard to see, but both grow boxes drain into a common 1" pipe that in turn drains into the fish tank (over on the left) via two 1" x 1/2" Tees.

Hopefully tomorrow I can get the sump parts plumbed together and the lights up above the grow boxes. I'm getting tired of the mess in the bedroom, need to get this done!

Poor Henry. I keep mucking up his water with all my fiddling. I dumped in some duckweed and zucchini to make up for it. As I type this he's attacking the zucchini, so that was apparently a good choice. I hope he likes duckweed as much, or I'm going to be picking it out of parts of the system for months. There really wasn't any other way to find out, though.

I finally got lights up above the grow boxes. I was going to wire up sockets and use compact fluorescents, but I wimped out and bought a couple of T5 fixtures instead. I still need to get the proper bulbs for them; for now they just have the ones they came with.

Also, because of the way the brackets curve around, the only way I could mount the lights was facing front. So until I can figure out something more permanent to block the glare, there's an old towel draped across the front of the shelf.

I was making some adjustments to the overflow, and got to looking at the gravel I put in to weigh it down, and it looked just like a miniature constant flood grow bed to me. So I grabbed some hoya cuttings I had rooting (for what, I don't know, because I'm already overrun with the stuff) and stuck them in, and draped them around a little bit. It's helping to make up for not being able to put anything in the grow boxes yet, since I haven't found any more Hydroton. I'm probably gonna have to drive down to Portland for it.

Here's a lengthwise shot. The 2" pipe sitting under the inlet to the near grow box is just to quiet the splashing until I get media in there. The other grow box isn't as full of media as it looks; it's just all floating.

I still haven't finished plumbing the sump; I ran out of teflon tape and wasn't ready to commit to gluing anything yet. Actually, I haven't had any leaks using the teflon tape; maybe I'll just use that from now on and forget the whole prime/glue thing.

Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny, so it has been declared "girls' day," and my daughter and granddaughter and I are going to go explore our new little town and see what's in all the little stores we've been driving past for 5 months. So I guess old Henry will get a break for a bit.

I don't think Henry will eat the duckweed, but he will enjoy the cover it provides. It is in there forever now though...

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Argh. Well, the more nitrate-sucking plants the better, I guess. I've just gotta dream up a way to keep it out of the overflow that won't impede the flow. Hmmmmm...


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And blocking up your GB

I think the duckweed will use the ammonia too. You may well be able to feed it too the IBC fish

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If I ever GET IBC fish... *sigh* Can't seem to find channel cats anywhere. Maybe it's the wrong time of year.

I was really bummed about not having enough media for my pleco system grow boxes, so this morning before our girls' day outing, I smooshed all the Hydroton over to one end of one box, and stuck in some African violets to make myself feel better.

Then, while I was out enjoying the sunshine with my DD and GD, my awesome hubs found a hydroponics store in Portland that had Hydroton and stopped by after he got off work to get me some. They're not actually the brand name; these are called "clay pebbles," and instead of being red and spherical they're brown and look more like tiny clay potatoes. But other than that, same stuff. Yay!

The guy in the store asked if I was doing a flood and drain system in the bedroom, and my hubs told him no, it's constant flood. The boy's been listening!

I kinda do want F&D, though...not just because I like bell siphons, although I do, but also because I think the plants would like it better. I'm thinking maybe I'll compromise and make it flood and drain in the daytime, and then just pull the bells at night and let it be constant flood while we sleep.

G2N, some potential fish sources for you.... http://hmsc.oregonstate.edu/projects/msap/contacts.html

Thanks! I'll see if there's anybody on this list not on the state-distributed list. Fish-raisers in Oregon appear to be very bad at returning phone calls. Or maybe they're just not excited about doing small-time business with aquaponeers.

Still deciding what else to plant... Maybe some spinach for Henry.

Incidentally...

Hydroton, with its perfectly spherical shape, has an annoying habit of rolling and bouncing its way through the system and ending up in the fish tank.

Plant!t, the irregularly-shaped Hydroton alternative (not sure what countries it's available in, sorry!), is not only cheaper, but NOT spherical, and stays where you put it. Also you can have round holes in your gravel guards and stuff.

I highly recommend going with the cheaper alternative, especially since it works better.