Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Might want to check on the potential for an overflow to lower the fish tank water level too far. If it's possible for this to happen then add a higher water bypass in case the outlet gets clogged.

? it is constant height in fish tank so no worries there. If outlet were to get blocked, the issue would be that the can would overflow, spilling the media into the stock tank where it might manage to flow trough the pipes down to the sump.
At the moment my problem is for cleaning, I have to bypass flow and in draining down the filter plus the lack of flow through the fish tank/pipes, I'm seeing the sump overflow a little bit.
I have a 100 gallon stock tank handy that I can send some water into to avoid the overflow situation but it is kinda makes the whole cleaning process a bit more complicated (read as in future I wouldn't design a system with quite such narrow margins.) Hind sight being 20/20 and all.

Oh, and by the way, cleaning process is happening daily.

I think on the bucket in the Min tank, I need to add two more net pots into the bottom since the net pots are tending to clog up.

Sounds like yours is set up like mine - I've no problem with losing a couple hundred gallons, which should be about the most mine could pump before the fish tank would stop overflowing (it's different for some people though).

Would you be able to get away with lowering the sump level so it gives you more time to clean the filter without it overflowing or avoid the problem entirely?

If that doesn't work divert the flow into the stock tank that you have the filter in, before it gets to the filter (maybe this is what you were talking about using?). Or have a second upflow and alternate between the two.

I have a second stock tank right next to the one where the filter is in but I don't have 4" valves to divert the flow after the fish tank so I was diverting the flow before it goes to the fish tank which means there is quite a bit of water in the pipes and fish tank that drains down before I can get the filter drained down far enough for cleaning without gunk flowing out the wrong way.
By using that OTHER stock tank this morning I was able to do the cleaning without the sump overflowing. Unfortunately the sump is not that big so I don't have that much leeway to skip the diversion.

The idea about having a second filter to divert to is nice, might be a challenge to manage the large plumbing to carry out such an idea in the already cluttered up space.

I'm thinking I probably DO need to implement the second filter idea on the mineralization tank because it is SO gunky in there. Once I sort out some flexible hose hopefully cleaning that one will be easier.

Well the flexible hose has good points and bad points.

It tends to float up and get air locked-that would be a bad point!

good point is it is easy to lift the bucket out for cleaning.

I think I need to add a couple more net pots in the bottom to create more surface area to let water into the bucket before clogging becomes an issue.

We did have the issue of airlock in the hose and tank overfilling to the point of washing media out of the bucket so now there is loose media floating around in the min tank. Sigh, since it is now mostly neutrally bouant ?sp? it is hard to net out completely.

I might dig in a can next to the min tank to put a filter but then cleaning will likely be more of a pain having to depend on airlift to remove gunk from the bottom.

On a positive note, diverting flow through the stock tank next to the main tank filter allows me to do the main tank filter cleaning without overflowing the sump tank.

TCL! So good to see you trucking along at speed. Hope the little one and the large on are both doing well :]

Yep still plugging along.
And the little farmer is doing great and Helping (he loves picking tomatoes.)
And the Cook is well and busy too.

Last night the dining table cracked apart. The poor old thing was an antique long before I was born, heck it had a crack in it that was old before my parents got married. So the cook had to go out and get a substitue from the thrift shop while my uncle tries to mend (at least make functional) the antique. He discovered that the hinges on it (it is one of those wing tables that the sides fold down) were hand forged. We don't actually know how old that table actually is.

Today we had an order with the yalaha.locallygrown.net so I figured it is now time to set up the "market stand" for that. Got the old market trailer moved around to the driveway side of the building. Will be moving the cooler (chest freezer with the plug in thermostat so I can run it as a fridge) and the cover onto a small platform so we can re-claim the trailer for utility purposes.

I'm thinking that the raft/tower system should really be turned into a decoupled system but I need to find some budget in order to set up a MMBR and fish sump with a separate pump. And then Tie the Fish side to the top up valve of the Plant side and give the Fresh water top up line to the fish side. I expect with the towers and tomatoes on the system the plant side easily uses/looses to the air more than enough water to keep up with what the fish would need changed out. Then fine tuning or tinkering with the nutrients on the plant side won't have a negative impact on fish.

The media bed system I would leave as a fully recirculating aquaponic system since it seems to have been doing fine that way.

Still haven't made progress (other than the static upflow filter) on the possibility of decoupling the AP. Just don't have the budget to spend much on it at this point though I suppose I have enough media to manage about 2 cubic feet of MMBR which is probably enough to handle the fish load I've been running lately but I don't have the budget to get big enough tanks to really expand that way so I'm not sure it is worth it to mess with right now. The Upflow filter seems to be doing a good job of filtering the water and isn't too hard to tend on a daily basis.

I'm probably better off spending my effort on growing more produce since sales have been good and the new market is starting to get going now finally.

Been a bit chilly lately. But this farm definitely seems to be a little protected from frost/freeze. I didn't go look closely this morning when doing my regular checks but I expect the tomato plants are all still fine. Water temp in the Raft/tower system was at 48 F this morning and I didn't feed last night as the water was at 54 F.
I need to do some water tests today to see what supplementing I need to do.
I got a meter to test for potassium ions and I think I want to get some more (as budget allows) to test for calcium, magnesium, and some others since sending samples off to the lab at $40 a pop plus shipping and having to wait a week or two for results makes it hard to really fine tune results.

I got a meter to test for potassium ions.

Interesting TC,i was reading up on these in conjunction with Sap testing,when the budget allows i was considering the PH meter in the same design,that way i have a quality meter that will multi task as such,how are you getting on with your meter ?

I don't think I would buy ANY more meters right now if I were you; I honestly think this SCIO thing is going to make almost all of them obsolete,,, one test tells you everything: https://www.consumerphysics.com/myscio/

I would never buy a 1.0 version of something like that. It is very complex and there's a good chance it would have a multitude of bugs. I would first wait for it to be proven and be on a good production line. At this stage it's still all pie in the sky.

Regards, Martin.

Interesting.
I wonder if they are likely to produce the first one anywhere near their current listed date of May 2016?