Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Has anyone got any idea what this is? I got it on impulse because it looked a bit aquaculturish
The ailift? venturi pump went down the triangular bit.

Sleepe, do you think it may have been devised as a means of mixing chemical nutrients as part of a fertigation system?

I was thinking it may have been a biofilter but the design is a little odd. It appears to have a ledge for a screen to go at the bottom in one side and a rounded bottom on the other, with a hole going through to the outer skin where the air/venturi lift was, got me stuffed atm.

I also acquired some other interesting things.

Although I will have use of them in a future build it got me to thinking atm about mini wicking beds.

Schematic attached, if you don't understand it, ask a question, otherwise?

Ok the new test system ran into a problem, the spa has developed a leak at or near the bottom (bummer) so I keep having to top up the pond.
As far as the rest went I am fed up eating Chard; the wombocks produced a lot but then had an attack of snails and caterpillars so I let them get on with it and now I should have more seeds. The snow peas are indifferent as they had to roam around, no support and the parsley seems anemic.
The wicking beds were a failure, not the design just what I put in instead of soil

On the up side I now have an excuse to ditch the lot and go with test design 2, which is really neat

Last pics I shall be dismantling it in a couple of weeks.

holy cow - I thought I had a silverbeet problem!

Please assure us that you aren't planning to ditch all those lovely little bottle tops, Sleepe!

Sorry I meant reuse rather than ditch; the spa will be patched and end up as ? and the bottlecaps will go into a few surplus garbage bins as I have plans for them . I will have to give away some (possibly a lot) of the chard/silverbeet and freeze some and eat whatever else is left.

That is truly amazing, Sleepe.

This was a useful test and I look forward to following the development of your next project, Sleepe.

BTW, is that some kind of Tree Spinach in the centre of the GB in your last pic?

No it had started to bolt, I cut the top off, its a persistent little bugger so it just grows upwards. the leaves are ok but the stem is tough.

Sleepe,

Did you ever calculate the BSA of a bottle cap? I have just inherited about 50k of them from work (maybe more). I was thinking of using them in a large MBBR. And maybe even a static filter also. That stat would come in handy.

Sorry I never did.
I found that I could not get them to move around on one of my filter designs because of their shape and size (possibly also not sufficient water velocity) however as an upflow static filter they worked quite well.

Sleepe,

Thanks for the fast reply. In your filter design did you drill a hole in them, to let air escape. Or just leave them whole? Also I see you like to experiment so I have to ask this one caveat. Was your up flow filter together long enough to tell if it had the tendency to go anaerobic?