Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi ICS, neat job mate looks great.
If your intake on your SLO is 40-50mm off the bottom then yes i think it is too far to work effectively at removing the solids. You want the intake right on the bottom where the crap settles.

Kitacooch,
I made some adjustments And checked my SLO is on the bottom. Still not much luck though in drawing up solids.

ICS


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I think i might have made some comments on 1 of your other threads re this? If not sucking up solids then need to restrict the intake maybe by capping the horizontals on the bottom then drilling holes, being care fill not to drill too many but also drill enough.

Hiya ics, you want to see the water level in the ft rise in the pumping cycle which shows suction in the slo inlet increasing. My ft level rises about 40mm using a 90mm slo and works great. If the ft level remains the same then try closing some of the slo inlets.

Hey Skeg, thanks for that info. I never knew an SLO could be adjusted.

Regards, Martin.

Hi Skeggley,

Is that for a timed flood and drain or continuous flow with siphon setup?

Ics


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Another point to consider is your flow to your bed will need to be altered again once filled with media so dont waste too much time messing with it at this stage to get your syphon working properly.

Charlie, I thought as much but wasn't too sure. It seems everything is operational at the moment except the SLO. At least I have a much better idea now I've had the chance to play around with it.

ICS


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Yes. The bed will fill a lot faster once filled. I had to make adjustments to my siphon to make it start.

After what seems like an eternity, we finally got our system up and running on Saturday, we even managed to plant some seeds and transplant some seedlings today as well.

Saturday we went out and picked up the expanded clay as well as a larger capacity pump. Spent the afternoon with my wife washing the clay while I finished off the pipework.

Today I tested the water to see if any of the feeding and deceased fish had impacted the ammonia levels, ammonia is reading .5ppm - Is this a reasonable reading for 3 days with the feeder fish?. I also raided the two very small bags with ceramic filter media in them from my son's 16 litre guppy tank (I wasn't sure if this would help with the cycling) and hung them inside the fish tank.

This afternoon, we spent some time planting some seeds and transplanting seedlings and a couple of other plants from our vege patch.

A few more images

That's a great looking system ics. Very impressive. Hope the growth takes off.

Martin.

Disregard this post..


Juergen

Thanks Martin,
Hopefully I can get my afternoons and weekends back from the build and see some home grown produce soon. The kids are really interested and love the planting and harvesting with our vege patch but it's hard to keep them entertained with saws, glue and other tools scattered everywhere. The fish tank should only add to the entertainment.

ICS


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Looks like you've still got room down the side there. Build another trough the same as the first one and line it with plastic. If you're already paying for the pump, you may as well make the most out of it.

Very neat looking system though.