Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

haha cooling towers. seems like you're doing it right

Hi Titus,

When in User control panel/profile/signatures, click the URL button, add a = after the first 'l' in 'url' and paste in the link to your system thread after the '=' like this..

[u r l=http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=21619][/url]

I put some spaces between the first 'url' otherwise it would create the link.

You then type in what you want the link to read in between the last brackets like this..

[u r l=http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=21619]Titus system[/url]

And when I remove the spaces in the first section of url it looks like this..

Titus system

Hi Charlie
Erm. 'Homer Simpson' moment DOH! I copied and pasted and thought it worked?

No
What i meant to say was thank you!
I think I got there by another road!

I have had a couple of days off and the weather has been kind. Cold but bright and dry.
The Trickle Tower ( cooling tower, I hope) was made from 110 mm pipe.
This will be filled with plastic bottle tops. There is a media guard in place at the bottom.
I have continued with this 110 mm pipe. The bend has an access point built in. Slightly below this I have placed another media guard. The remaining 1.4 mtrs are filled with K1 bio media. A final media guard holds this in place. This then flows onto the , ‘sump with the pumps’
In front of this I have laid the 225 ltr olive barrel on its side. Water flows from FT1 through the RFF and into this tank. It then joins the line to the,’ sump with the pumps.’
Thanks Guys for the tips in sealing this. Not a drip.
Once it has settled down I intend to ‘box it’ Make it look a bit prettier.
All that remains then is to install the second pump and the lines to the NFT system.
Oh! and then the new airlines. That is another story.

More Photos

Slowly things are taking shape. The 10mm pipe arrived and I was able to connect it to the 22mm manifold. I will cable tie them into place later. There will also be a sheet of acrylic behind them. The second photo is of the end caps. The third shows how they join up to the ‘Trickle Tower.

I have been doing a bit of tweaking to my RFF. Managed to cut down a 45* bend and add to the outflow. This has raised the outlet by about 8 cms. Not much but as a % of the height of a water cooler significant. As I said before cleaning is easy peasy! I love that you can see its clean afterwards.. Removable cover now in place to reduce light and reduce possible algae growth.

Just before I picked some spinach for tonights dinner I took this photo.
Early last November I picked up a variety of plant plugs in the reduced section at the local Garden Centre. Very cheap. I washed the roots and put them in.
The grow bed is outside with simple drop down plastic curtains.
Admittedly they didn’t do much over the winter. The last few weeks of warmer weather has seem them really grow.
This will be our first harvest of the year.
The other photo is of my seeds germinating. This was a cheap LED fixture. It works great for germination. Not sure if it has enough power for full growing.

The small plant in the fore ground is Grelos. Grelos de Santiago.
I bought it on E bay Espana.
It is grown all over northern Spain and is a key ingredient in Caldo de Galicia.
This is a rich stew of pork, beans and potatoes.
Grelos is a member of the turnip family. However it is grown for it’s leaves not the tubar. They add a Kale type strength and bitterness to this stew.
When I have cooked this stew here in the UK I have substituted kale.
I am impatient to try this, once again but with the real thing.
To the English eye Grelos looks like Brussell sprouts.
A thick central stem, but instead of the, baby cabbages, broad leaves.
It is a pick and come again vegetable.
On the,” Camino”
A pilgrimage to the cathedral in Santiago it was a common sight. The thick stem, sometimes three centimeters wide with the broad dark green leaves flanked our journey.
At night in soup or stew a staple.
Roast beef? London.
Pasta? Roma.
Grelos? Galica the Camino!

Your system is really coming along Titusville, seriously impressive

My system has about 1300 liters of water. About 2.5 M2 surface area of media. This runs 15/45 Additionally I have 8 meters of NFT tubes (50 holes) on 24/7 at an average of 360 liters per hour. Daytime temperature hitting upper teens, even into the lower twenties!
Planting density about 50 % mature leafy plants. 50 % seedlings
Tonight I had to add 40 liters of water!
Would you consider this normal evaporation? Or have I got unseen leaks? No visible signs!

Hi Titus, nice setup, It´s incredible how your AP system grows and how you improve it.

I´m starting, but it is very helpful to see how works other systems. I´m not an expert, but I read some ( a lot I mean) documents to understand how Ap works, the requirements, and what is better for me, and one important thing is the water necessary. Aproximately a 4% of the water is loss every 10 days at 24*C ir the stocking is right and you don´t have surfaces where the water could evaporate easily. I hope it helps, and i will search for the document where I read, it was so helpful.

Thank you Flow_pow
Your kind words have prompted me to do an update.
I am working on a full post on the NFT system so this is just a small review.
The aim was to use household plumbing consumables available here in the UK.
I have a very small suburban garden in a terraced house built in 1830 . My granddaughter, who lives in Malaga calls terraced housing old tired apartments lying on their side. So you get the picture.
NFT will allow vertical expansion so is vital for me.
6 cm square line tubes are the basis. I have solved water input, control and flow rate,
The idea was the square line tubes would flow into the 110mm pipe.
This is where I have had all the problems! Leaks drips and drizzles.
As you can imagine one constant drip twenty four hours a day loses; a lot of water.
I have a temporary solution with pre-glued shrouds. Now working on Plan D
I also put in a couple of small DWC troughs just for variety.
However despite all the problems I am having fun.
Good luck with your project

I have a very small garden, so space is limited.
A reliable NFT system was therefore high on my priority list.
Vertical expansion would also allow me to maximize on summer crops.
Some things fell into place immediately. NFT requires constant flow so an additional dedicated pump was essential. Flow rates of one to two liters per minute so only a small pump required.
One condition I set myself was to use only readily available UK household plumbing parts.
Just to recap. NFT or near film technique requires just that a, “Film” of water. Say 1 to 3mm deep.
This means, ‘round pipes are NOT suitable’
Using round pipes of various diameters is a tried and tested method that works BUT I think it is better called, ‘Shallow DWC’
So the choice of 6 cm square line drain pipes was easy. 5cm holes cut at suitable interval perfect fit for net cups and a one centimeter gap at the bottom.
I use 22mm pipe for water supply. This will connect to a readily available four way manifold. Each of the four outputs are standard 10mm push fit. 10mm push fit ball valves on each allows individual control.
You can seal the open ends with a standard 90* bend glued into place. I found push fit end caps on E bay which with a little bit of silicone work well. Cheaper too.
The next step is the water outlet. Here I used 20mm electrical conduit bulk head fittings. The standard 22 mm bulkhead profile is just too high.
Plastic washer cut from old milk bottle seals it well.
NFT requires super clean water so, in addition to the system filtration, I slip a plastic pan scourer under the water inlet. Ten for a £1. They also act as a spreader and help reduce pooling.
This is Plan H. So far so good.