Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Looks well built Tom. This falls into what I'd think of as AP related topics and it's always good to see what others are doing, best way to get new ideas

Tom the Dehydrator looks a treat, well made I see a tradesman there, all nicely arised I'm tipping a cabinet maker.

Tom - that looks fantastic.
So what I can see: the bottom is black aluminium, the top corrigated iron and the middle is the fly screen?

Hi Jo,

Thanks, but I'm actually a graphic designer, so I spend all my time clicking on mouse buttons... wish I did do something more hands on for a living though!

Hi Jay,

Actually it is the opposite... the layers are: 1) clear polycarbonate, 2) aluminium sheeting paint black (the black side facing the sun), 3) screens from flyscreen which the fruit/veges are placed on to dry, 4) corrugated roofing (to add some thermal mass and prevent dripping onto the timber and to direct airflow from bottom to top of box.
Basically the top half of the box (containing clear polycarbonate and black painted aluminium sheeting) folds onto the other part that contains the drying screens and corrugated roofing.

I thought I would share the website that I got the basic idea from in case anyone wants to read a bit about it
http://www.geopathfinder.com/9473.html

Tom you've got all the skills of a cabinet maker very nice work for a non tradesman. I was a wood machinist by trade and then entered the film industry as a set builder and became a "Gaffer" the head lighting guy on films for 30 years while I dabbled in the sign industry part time.

So I have made a radial flow filter.. now that it is summer I am feeding the fish a lot more and wanted to reduce some of the larger particles from going to the grow beds.. but don't worry they are being used on the wicking bed so they won't be going to waste

My setup is in a very confined space so fitting it in was like level 1 billion on Tetris and the pipe work looks like something from that pipe screen saver that used to run on PCs 10 years ago but i fit it in somehow using a 70 litre barrel and bulk head fittings.

Because I wanted to be able to turn off the filter in winter so that I don't lack nutrients when the fish arn't feeding as much I have inserted ball valves on the inlet and outlet from the filter. Also I am using a separate SLO that is about 100mm below the other SLO.. this means when I turn the flow on via the 40mm ball valve to the filter the fish tank level drops and the water ceases to flow through the higher up SLO and only flows through the filter. When the filter is turned off the water level returns to the height of the other SLO without a filter and the water runs directly to the grow beds again.

I have also made some changes to my backup system but I will post some images of that tomorrow!

In this image you can see the two SLOs

The green mesh above them is to stop the fish splashing the food out all the time and attracting rats!

Pipe screen saver it is!
Your

Neat idea - but isn't the lower one going to get crud in its pipe work in the winter?

Trout in winter make a lot of mess - not sure if you grow them.

I have jade perch.. And yes it will get some crud in it but since it's not moving water I don't think it will be too much and it is just a turn of two ball valves to flush it every month or so if needed

I am going to try these filters in my strawberry towers instead of the expanded clay as media... the expanded clay is very difficult to remove once the strawberry plants become root bound. These filters i bought happen to be 130mm diameter abd i use 100 mm pipe so i figure they will fit in nice and snug. I will cut a slit for the the strawberry runner plant to slide in. Also these will provide further filtration to my system (the water to the strawberry plants does however come from my sump which is after my radial flow filter and grow beds so the water should be too dirty anyhow but will help remove some of the remaining fine particles) I plan on placing one of these without a strawberry plant in the top of the tower which i will check occasionally to see if it is gathering a lot of gunk.

So my original backup was in a bit of trouble.. I was using an AC/DC backup air pump (you know the ones that switch over when the power fails and has a small battery inside of it) which only delivered about 4 or 5 L/m i believe. Also I had a bilge pump connected to a 70 Ah car battery which was activated when the power failed through a auto switch (this also turned on a strobe light on top of my green house to alert us to the power failure)

However the battery I was using was old and wouldn't hold a charge enough to really run the bilge pump anymore AND my little AC/DC pump broke and would only run of the battery power and not the mains power...

So Now I have bought a new 125 Ah deep cycle battery which will power a new 12v 18 watt 38 L/m air pump (and I have a 12V brushless water pump which I am yet to install which will be on a 12V timer so it circulates perhaps a little water for 15 mins out of every hour so it doesn't use too much power).

In the future I will add a 200W or more solar panel with a charge controller so that the system may be able to handle a slightly more prolonged outage (I will aim for 2- 3 days with the aim to mostly keep fish alive but also curculate the occasional water to grow beds.. The NFT and strawberry towers may have to sacrificed though although I am contemplating 2 more of these 12V water pumps if this one survives a while.. it may as it is only for backup) this may require a battery upgrade but if I go that far I may just go straight to completely solar as that is the long term goal (and no it won't be economically logical.. but fun and closer to self sufficient)

If anyone is in Brisbane and need deep cycle batteries I bought this sealed 125aH deep cycle battery for $239 from Peter at http://www.batteryvalue.com.au/ (the website isn't fancy but he was great to deal with and seems like he has good prices) he also had some solar stuff like charge controllers etc.

Have a friend who is graphic designer, he makes the nicest things. He converted two old, mistreated sailing boats into real beauties. For some, clicking mouse buttons turns them into master craftsman.

Tom, just see your update about the battery backup you have. Be aware it is a VRLA-AGM battery, they don't like overcharging. Make sure your charger is suitable for this type of battery. It would be a shame if the system got damaged and not able to provide you with the needed backup power. Please check with the guy you got the battery from.