Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Today I finished all the wood work and stained and stained a varnished all the traffic side stuff.
Next week it will be metal work built and set up the fence to keep the kids out.

The Ladies from the garden seeded the grow beds

One more thing I have to figure out is a filter system. But that can wait till the fish get into the tank.
Water got seasoned with Amonia and a 3 Gallons from my FT

Today is my day of, so I did a few things in the school again.
Built the fence
We seeded the GBs last Thursday and they are already sprouting.
I added more Amonia to the water, tested it befor, jump starting the system with my fish water did the trick.
There was hardly any ammonia and nitrite, but a huge amount of nitrate.
If that holds than we can start with the fish next week.

Very impressive! though I am wondering what that pipe is on the floor. I didn't see it connecting anywhere in particular once it leaves the hall side beds. Or is that the really the sump connection line, and you just didn't post a pic of how it is connected?

the pipe on the floor is the drain pipe from the hallside GBs and drains into the sump under the other GBs

The system has cycled. The last 2 days nitrite and nitrate went just through the roof, 5.0 and 80.
Today poof ammonia, nitrite 0 and nitrate solid 80.
PH is still 8.2, which is standard for our water.
I will leave the PH as is and introduce the first fish to system today, once all fish are in the FT we can start lowering the PH some.
The lights for the alley GBs came in. If have nearly all the mounting brackets built, just 2 more are needed and I am nearly finished with the entrance gate. I should have all that done by Friday.

Looks great. Will there be enough light from the windows or will you supplement with artificial light?

The alley side has lights. I built the brakets for them this week, they do double duty, hold the lights and support the wooden alley fence.
Built the gate, wide enough for a wheel chair, milled the clasp from a piece of aluminum and got it all painted and installed.
Ready for the school start.

Next thing is filter for solids and a rack for the 3 tower pipes.

I have now 16 Tilapia in the tank. It seams I scrubed the barrels and tank good enough.
None have keeled over.

With my fish water added, the system cycled within 2 weeks, that was a surprise.

The plants are growing rather well.

A well planned and beautifully constructed system you should be very proud,a well deserved pat on the back from me.

Thank you very much

How is the system going? Can you give some details of how it's used in classes?

Gnoib, nice work. Being new to this I am trying to understand your plumbing. I take it the line going into the top of the tank w/ the ball valve is your supply from your pump via your sump tank. The line to the right of that coming out of the fish tank with the bulk head fitting is an emergency overflow, and your supply line to the grow bed is coming out of the bottom of your FT. Correct? Any reason you did not use a SLO? And also what size pipe is that 1" to 3"? Thanks

The system is going rather well. I added 3 verticals to it, forgot my camera.

The School went through a very rough transion over the summer. The middle school principal that was my maine support got fired. Him and his wife came by and we had a chat. He was very pleased what he saw and I thanked him for making it possible.
Our supervisor is behind it and the school board.
I put a paper together concerning the science and how it could help in the education.
Biologie :
How is it possible that nothing grows in dirt.
How do differant fish, water and temps and their waste influence germination and growth
Since it is indoors, which light frequencies do different plants need, from the leave stuff to the fruit bearing stuff.
Bio chemistry.
How does the process of cycling work. I know how to do it, drink a lot of beer and pee in the water every day.
But what is the science behind it, how does ammonia and nitrate get transformed into nitrate.
Why is the built up so slow and suddenly over night, poof the magic dragon.
PH what is the science, I remember those thingies about base and acids, those grit drawings the math and so on.
Physics
Lights, how do the T5 work, what is in the tubes, what gases, how does gas 1, when its electrons get pushed, produce frequency x and how does gas 2 produce y, what happens when you have a mix.
Gravity feed, pipe size, how do you calculate that, what changes does a 45 or a ninety make. Two inch more water level in the Tank. Same for pumps, does it help tp go from a 1 inch pump outlet to 1.5 inch pipe and so on.

It will take time, but the response has been terrific, the teachers have to get introduced to this new opportunity of a real live labotoray.
At the present it is a od ball, that hardly anybody understands.
I have to let everybody to settle down into the new school year, 2 new principals and 15 new teachers.
But well in a month or two I would like to meet with the teachers and principals and present them with the opportunities. I have to depend heavily on the ladies from the Garden, because I am a bolts and screw guy and don't know scrap about power point and that modern stuff, which would be required, modern times I guess.

But if the science teachers in this school are not able to ask the questions and use the system for their educational purposes, I would see my effort as a failure, a waste of money and time.

So the next step of this program and I see this as my greatest challenge, make it a great teaching tool.
That is the real challenge for me.
I am a builder but not a teacher, by no means. Lets see if a old horse can learn a nother trick.

Absolutely correct.
The line from the FT, the size of the valve of the tank is 2 inch, which I reduced later to 1 1/2 and than 1.
I would have liked several more inches in the tank hights, after the fact so to speak. Should have had the tank 8 inches higher. Than I could have used bells as reducers, instead of slip ins.
Les friction and les places for mug to pile up.
The return lines are all 1 1/2.
Since it is a continues supply system I did not screw around with siphons, I used floor drain grates as gravel gates.
As a filtration system, at the present I do it the simple way.
Got a car wash brush, brush the tank once a week, and than a sump pump with a large household filter.
Brush the tank, dump the pump and let it run for 30 minutes, or till the water is clean again, while I do other stuff on the system

A short up date.
The system has been running now since end of August. No problems at all.
After 3 harvests, the garden folks re-seed the lettuce, The cucumber is going bonkers and has produced female and male flowers and the 7th graders have been taught how to pollinate.
We had to move the peppers the zucchini has taken over that barrel, only female flowers as of now.
The peppers got over the transplanting and are now starting to grow.
I installed a tower rack, with 3 towers. They are filled with rock wool and watered from the sump.
The two outside towers are seeded with various stuff, the center with strawberries. The strawberries got over the root cleaning and transplanting and are sprouting new leaves.
The fish are growing well, no loses. 26 White Nile.
I brush clean the tank walls once a week and add 35 gallons a week. After brushing the walls I use a sump pump with a household filter attached to it and circulate the water for 30 minutes through the filter, it cleans the water very nicely.
Nitrite and Amonia are 0, PH went down from 8.2 to 8, Nitrate is steady at 80, water temp is between 68 and 72 F.
Lights are on for 8 hours during the day.
I plan to put a 4 feet single tube T5 on the right hand side of the grow towers.

Wellllllll, now comes the hard part for me. I am a very private person.
The Montezuma School to Farm organization has an annual fundraiser dinner and they have made me their guest of honor. I honestly do not like the idea, but I guess I do not have a choice, stuck my head out and now it will get chopped of.
But I have the attitude to look at the bright side of things. The City of Cortez has just joined the program and will apply for a grant, so that all its school will get their own school garden, around 25K US
We just built a brand new and rather fantastic High School. I took a look at it, because I will pay with my increase of my property tax for it.
I have to say they did it right and went all the way to built a state of the art 21. century school and I feel good about the tax raise,even that it cuts quiet a bit into my beer money.

Naturally it needs its school garden and if I can get a foot in that door, this time not as the sponsor, but as an unpaied advisor or so, and get them to add, with some grand money, a aquaponic green house. Than having to do that dinner, would make it less painfull.
No matter what I hate it.

Thanks for the info. The school is lucky to have you. Here's a clip on an AP system is another US school. They've managed to involve just about every subject, it's worth a look https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4IVkrjvC6Y