Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I tried to find a thread here related to garden gnomes and statues and that sort of thing, but no luck. We have some over sized rubber insects (from the science museum) that we toss in our dirt garden beds for fun. We need a thread of just gnomes statues and garden art. I feel like AP gardens lack that in a lot of the photos I look at.

I hate gnomes.lol Seriously, from a landscape design aspect, most statues detract from a well designed landscape. My wife insists on a few figurines in the garden, but I try and let the ground covers "eat" them until they disappear. lol "Hey, what happened to my little frog?" Don't know dear.

Full Monte "No I never liked the gnomes, Gerald."

That is what toes are for.

lol AP people are too much science and not enough art sometimes. Chris that is funny and terrible at the same time. All work and no play...

I had friends that used to sneak into people's yards at night and move the gnomes around. The idea was that the people would wonder if the gnomes came alive at night. This was Washington State, so there was a good chance that the gnome owners ate some amanita muscaria and would have thought that they had I fact been a part of the adventures the gnomes had had that night...

I haven't been doing anything on the AP system this week and I had a crazy dream last night. The mountains in the background were made of giant toes. There were Pirates a Sasquatch and people who talked upside down. There was even an advanced alien named Stuart who could analyze structures with a pop up HUD display that displayed long equations. Off in the distance people were playing cow bell. Anyway today I woke up inspired and produced the final version of my media guards made for ribbed surfaces.




It also has holes for aeration inspired by Squatch.



Still need more media. This stuff takes likes 6 times longer to do each thing, when you have 6 media beds.

The girlfriend asked me, did you really dream that... no I was just being silly. She already thinks I'm obsessed so I guess it was easy to believe. Anyway, there will be fish!

Trying to understand air pump size verses system volume... let me know if I miss anything...

My system including sump, ft, dwc... excluding the GBs = 2,500LT
I want aeration for 100% of that volume each hour
So I can divide the total volume by 60(minutes) = 41.7
And now I know I need an air pump that can produce 40-50LPM (Liters per minute) or better

Linear piston air pumps seem to be most commonly used when pumping to multiple tanks like AP systems. From here it seems like I can just get on ebay and start shopping but I'm trying to figure out if any of these pumps are known to be especially quiet.

They advertise how much power they draw but not how much noise it is going to be making 24/7.

We didn't give up... we are still playing with rocks.



There will be fish!

Too late now, but when you get rock, tell them to scoop out of the middle of pile. You will minimize the dust, and small stuff that settles to the bottom. Thanks for the link on military immersion heater. It looks like a minor oil slick in the video, but if your using that as a transfer tank and running piping through it, I don't think it would matter. I was thinking about a coil 100- 200' of poly pipe. By varying the length and pressure going through, I could vary the temperature. Then add the water back into the sump to mix with the other water before pumping back to FT's. Stuarts idea was great. Simply, not too expensive, and pretty easy to construct. Great guy.

This design would bypass SLO and opt for higher flow rate, but do I need a siphon break?

Enjoy the Christmas colors

Also please don't ask about the giant bulkhead seal on the side, I used the wrong size drill bit and was forced to use another massive bulkhead where I had intended to use a 3" uniseal. That was a $34 mistake!

From the way I see it...

You don't need a siphon break at the point indicated since the water outlet is apparently the top of the stand pipe in the RFF? If so, the water will only drain to the point of the top of that stand pipe. Looking at the RFF, it seems the exit from the barrel is near the bottom through the pipe with the valve? That would not be my choice. I would use that only for solids collection. Exit from the RFF should be nearer the top of the water level but not at the top water level. Also, you're going to need some type of screen or guard over the exit from the FT to keep unwanted hitch-hikers from taking a ride through your pipes.

PS, I found barrels for $10.00 this week. Not fancy painted ones, but still 3.5 of them for your bulkhead "mistake". Going to pick up 3 more IBC's tomorrow for RAS system in Tampa. Found food grade glycerin ones for $120.00 for the three.

Coach,
Your welcome on the immersion heater links. If your connection for the IBCs falls through check this guy out. http://tampa.craigslist.org/hil/grd/4803062082.html