Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Thanks Gunagulla! I figured that there had to be a reason people weren't doing it!

Started insulating the shed today. I'm using this bubble foil insulation stuff held on with adhesive Velcro - then hoping to layer EPS panels on top.... But that will depend on wether I can convince hubby to drive out west to pick some up for me.

I bought some 100mm ring air-stones.. a nice fit around 50mm pipe .... have them atop the fish excluder grill , around the. SLO, at the bottom of the tank..
It creates a significant mushroom flow, which obviously helps to get solids into the centre..

It seems like you are making some progress, Sophia..
..
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Glad to hear this BuiDoi! I stumbled across ring stones in my research and had the same thought as what you have done... But since I was unsure of what size pipe I needed for the SLO I decided to go with the flexible air hose.

bless my hubby who drove 1 hour each way to pick up our sump tank IBCs from Prestons NSW.

I guess I better get my A into G and finish digging the sump hole!

Hole is dug. It's a bit bigger than it needs to be because I wanted some wiggle room to make the sump tanks sit nicely.

I'm also hoping there will be enough space to the right so that I can have a super narrow walkway between the grow beds and the dirt veggie garden.Will make gardening much easier.

Any ideas on how to best ensure the sump tanks are sitting level?

Stupid idea I know (maybe) do you have a kids wade pool or similar, what sort of grow beds.....anyway something about same size only shallow... even heavy duty plastic ... put in hole add water and find high points, remove plastic leaving water in hole (to soften dirt) then remove those pesky high points and repeat.
hells bells that sounds complicated or not enough coffee this morning... its an idea anyway.

A spirit level is always handy for making things level! I use my digitial one all the time for leveling GBs, just make the ground level then plonk the GB in.
The digital level gives various readings, including fall in mm per metre, so you know how much dirt you have to remove from the high side.

Hey thanks for the idea Tonzz! I'm going to try using strings per an idea that I found online. Basically you use sticks/pegs and string to create a grid of sorts on the ground to be leveled. You use a sprit level to make sure the string is level- then you pick a measurement to measure down from the string to the ground.
You then work your way around the grid ensuring that the ground is a consistent distance from the level string.

Hopefully this won't take me all day. So sick of digging!

I just did the stomp and scrape method, lol. When I couldn't be bothered to scrape a tiny bit off to get it level I just stomped it down with my boot.

Everything is looking really good though, don't worry you're almost there!

Well. I've only done about 25% of the leveling so far but the string technique is working well.Such a b-tard of a job digging the white clay though! As you can see from the photo, the side of the hole on the high side of our sloping land is going to be about Twice as deep as the low side.... Depressing to think there's still so much work to do before I can even put the tanks in the ground...

But as they say: "In for a penny, in for a pound."

Clay soil is awful to dig in! But it does provide a nice solid foundation under the tanks so there is that, lol. I kept putting water in the hole then let it soak in so I could scrape the clay away. That was until I reached critical mass and the water wouldn't soak in any more, so I had to shovel out water AND the clay, lol.

Nearly there! Are you listening to music while you dig? It helps distract and motivate "Ok I'll keep digging until this song finishes" or "I'll keep digging until the next news report" Or just put an album of totally silly music to listen and dig along to, TISM I have found was very helpful for when I was painting kilometres of pickets for my front fence, lol.

Well. The hole is more or less level. I've decided no more digging. I'll get some sand to totally level out the last remaining bumps.

So tired my arms are shaking. I think it's going to be an early night tonight! Hole is 45cm deep on the high side and 30cm on the low side.



Started rinsing out the sump tanks. They had been used for Hydrochloric Acid so I attempted to be very cautious. Filled them with a little water through the top cap then screwed the cap back on and tumbled the plastic bladder to rinse all sides.

Did this twice and then tested for acid by sprinkling the tank with BiCarb Soda.

No fizzing so I think we're good.

Tipped the water out into the handy sewer outlet in the backyard. Got to love old houses!



So tired. Need dinner and some alcohol...

A hot bath and some booze works wonders for aching muscles!

Doesn't help that the baby is sick..