Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Good morning, I'm going to force my mind to speak metric. I should not let my laziness make my posts difficult for you all to decipher. Sorry about that. I'll round the numbers to the nearest decimal place.

I'm beginning the plumbing phase of my build.
I've got a few issues to work around as my FT-pond is concrete and rock and I've already installed a few of the pipes using slightly mis-sized diameters. The first is the SLO bulkhead, which is 38 mm instead of 51 mm.
The top end (bulkhead) is 254mm below the 101mm diameter outflow pipe which will set the FT water level.

I've been working on my media bed plans, as well as figuring the plumbing especially the back side around the SLO - RFF and biofilter. Indeed with the outflow from the SLO being 101mm below the water line solids and liquids will naturally rise to the water level, which is a relief of course because I do not want to have to boost the outflow of the filters up and over the ST wall. First thing yesterday I broke away enough not-fully-cured concrete in the ST wall to get a 38mm pipe set in just below the 101mm FT outflow. I know this would so much clearer to everyone if I could master Google Sketchup. I just don't have the time nor patience to learn new software right now. around the edges of my napkin drawing are the modifications as I was explaining to my wife last night.

FYI, I've super simplified this plan after only one day of researching materials on hand. Let's see if I can explain...
We have space constraints in the greenhouse because the FT is so big.
Possibly in the near future I'll use the same 38 mm square steel tubing to build a massive media grow bed which spans the top of the pond creating a safety guard next to the boardwalk. This will return a great deal of greenhouse floor space to plants and cover more FT.
That being said, I'll turn my attention back to the largest space in the greenhouse, the west walls. Still it is only 533 mm wide by 2007 mm long, by 305 mm deep. We'll stack two of these narrow beds with 610 mm between them. I know that's not a lot of space for sunlight, but it is what we can fit and still get 326 liters of media. FYI, metric makes so much more sense than our stupid imperial system of measure

Okay on to the weight, in kilograms feel free to correct this: one liter of water weighs one kilogram (at sea level) OMG I like your system. As such my 326 liter media bed will weigh 326 kilos or less if I take into account that the clay or lava rock weighs less than water.

bottom line: media beds weigh a lot in metric or US's archaic imperial system.
Anyhow, as I've mentioned I've spent the day yesterday figuring out how to build the grow bed with less steel and more heavy duty wood which I have more of, after-all there's a metric crap-load of Ponderosa Pines here at my disposal.

If I can toot my own horn once more, I have a lot of experience building structures and generally over-engineer things. So today, I'll build the structure I came up with yesterday, and you'll just have to trust that I know what I'm doing, because this is already more talk and less doing than is my normal.

First-irrigation-day-in-years
Good Morning

As I’ve just come back from the pasture where I opened the floodgates for our first irrigation water in the years since the drought began, I don’t have a lot of time to write.

Nell and I decided to put up the insulation and wall boards in the greenhouse before we build the grow-beds. I’ve got a couple pieces of OSB set in for measurement purposes. With my grow-bed design the wall has been reinforced to carry the weight of the media and water.

First-media-grow-beds-frames-going-here2

First-media-grow-beds-frames-going-here

First-media-grow-beds-frames-New-Abrasive-blade-saw

First-media-grow-beds-frames-Muddy-guys

First-media-grow-beds-frames
I’ve really got to shower and get ready for work. Here we go, Monday again.

Brian Busy Busy Rodgers

Looking good Rodgers. That's what we're doing today also...welding on a trailer and putting a new aluminum floor in.

Looking good Rodgers. That's what we're doing today also...welding on a trailer and putting a new aluminum floor in.

my beds seems so small though. Why is it so difficult to shift gears. I'm getting to be a decent mason one day and now I have to remember how to weld, sheesh

I'm more comfortable with a saw/hammer, then with a welder, but I can get by. My welds aren't going to be featured in a "how to" book, but they are strong and hold up. Looking at investing in a wire feed...my buddy has one, and they're just so easy for fabricating. I have an old, beat up arc machine, and it's a lot harder to get dialed in and get running nice beads. Considering I spend time regularly doing carpentry and masonry for work, and never do any welding unless I have to fix something, it makes sense that I'm a bit slower on the learning curve. That last sentence was to convince myself that my ugly welds are not really my fault.

I too do a lot of good old rationalizing when it comes to the cosmetics of my welds. It is tough to justify (to the wife) the cost of a good wire feed welder, for the occasional welding I do, that doesn't stop me from lusting after a Hobart Cheepie

BIN Second Irrigation Day

Acequia-2015-view-up-to-our-home
Good Morning.

Again, I’ve been irrigating so I’ve no time to write. I did size and label all the pictures so I hope this explains what is going on in each.

Acequia-2015-Irrigator-Selfie

Pretty view Brian.

thanks. Can you spot my axial flux wind turbine up by our house on the left? I just had a long chat with Dan Bartman of OtherPower and he is thinking of coming by for our 43rd Memorial Day camp and have a look at my turbine to see what we can do to get it running again

Now that you decided to write in metric, the rest of us imperial guys are left out

Did I convince you of the cut off saw? It's great for cutting metal.

With the MIG welder, check out craigslist, the older ones will last for ages, and most don't get enough use when the end up there:
http://albuquerque.craigslist.org/tls/4952735816.html

Congratulations on your conversion!!!
Metric really is easier & more logical.

Thanks you are 100% right, now I just need a metric tape measure and get manufacturers to show both so I can shop in metric. I mean they post everything in both English and Spanish, why not both measures?

ha ha, we all should switch and never look back. There really in no reason, Imperial is totally lame in comparison, with many being one to one ratios, metric is so much easier. We're stubborn, what else can I say?

Yep you did. I had a metal cutting bad saw like picured below. Don't get me started on buying a new wire-feed-welder, my wife will have your head Anywh, my old crackle-box still works good enough for the occasional welding I do

however the bearings gave out and the band kept coming off, so I ditched it
This new abrasive blade saw has 305mm blade wow, gotta wear ear and eye protection, but heck yeah, it works great.


sizes rounded down. It is 1 inch id as per instructions sent over by Joe Blow, thank you man, I appreciate it all.




more stuff came in. things are coming together ...

Check out uniseals Brian. They're usually 40-50% less then bulkheads. I used bulkheads on the bottom drain fitting only, all other's were uniseals. On my project, it was a few hundred cheaper.