Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hey Hex:

Is that diagram a big box, like are the plates so big that you don't see the corrugations?

I guess some corrugated iron plate, set down in the box on end to make the water stream flow left and right in a wave shape would transfer heat pretty well, the curves would help the heat transfer and keeping it clean. There may be a lot of fittings on the end of it though.

I guess the designs allow you some flexibility in whether you want high flows or long paths. Parallel plates could give you higher flow but you'd need a long box to extend the path length.

I made some pesto sauce. Got two cups of basil leaves. It was pretty good, but it had a slight grassy aftertaste, maybe because I used a mix of small, medium, and large old leaves. Next time it will just be mediums.

The dremel isn't cutting easily through the couple pieces of wood I've tried, you have to really fight it to follow the path you want. I am thinking of getting a few thick plastic cutting boards because they would be easier to cut, plus they are definitely food-safe.

Hi Dave
Maybe a router would be better (more grunt) you should be able to make a spiral jig pretty easily.

The big box acts like a duct to house the 2 HE blocks in.
The correx sheets are orientated so they alternate between open flutes and closed ends across the width of the block. (ie: turned 90 degrees)

Correx doesn`t have much of a wall thickness so even though its double thick where the sheets meet, it isn`t that great an insulator.

A 1ft cube made from correx 10mm thick would have about 29 sq ft of contact area.
Thinner correx (4mm) could be used to pack even more area (74 sq ft) into the same sized cube (more sheets) but it presents a lot more resistance to the flow.

All things being equal the spiral will be more efficient but a sandwich is easier to make than a swiss roll

DD, i always get that grassy taste too..................it ony appears when i've really blended the hell outta the basil...............anyone know more about this?

I see Hex, that makes sense.

Maybe the basil is getting heated by the food processor? I tasted a pine nut and they have some bitterness to them, maybe that is it? If I keep making it I may get a mortar and pestle to do it properly. I'm not an expert; I have had it maybe once before in some restaurant sometime? The plan is to give some to a friend from work who likes it and he can tell me what to adjust.

Get a mortar and pestle would be the traditional way of doing it, it's gotta be worth a try... I've never tried making pesto, must give it a bash because I do like it, and I tend to throw a lot of basil to the chooks coz I can't eat it all...

No personal experience myself but alledgedly.. Pesto

Pounding in a mortar releases more of the essential oils without cutting through the cell walls of the ingredients, yielding a silky, chunky texture with a refined flavor.

Using the food processor creates a pesto where the oils are not as intensely released because the cell walls are cut through.

While the texture is more uniform, the flavor is not balanced and may be too sharp.

Pesto made with a mortar and pestle also will yield a brighter color from the crushed herbs.

i reckon you might be onto it hex!

I've not used any other ingredients other than basil, oilve oil and salt, and it is exactly as you say, the fragrance of the basil that you get when you bruise the leaves seems to dissapear, leaving a "green" flavour if that makes sense!

will use the mortar next time......still have LOTS left just gotta get a decent mortar & pestle......... i got one as a gift, but the bowl is glazed doesn't work to my satisfaction, things get pushed around instead of ground!

Colour is true also, when i blend them it turns out darker than i expect.

It might be a good plan to do a batch in the processor and one in the mortar and pestle.
Then you could do a blind taste test comparison.. just find a handy volunteer/victim

Mmmmm, pesto. :eying my copious basil plants: . They are doing very well for me. I have only done pesto as a coarse-chopped thing. Crushing sounds nice.

Hey DD: Didn't know you were coming to FL. You were only about 50 miles from us. We could have done lunch and talked AP. I sort of get envious of all our Australian friends that get together and share their thoughts, fish, plants, etc.
Sure like the looks of your plans. I think last year was a great start for alot of us and now we're hooked and will be seeking bigger and better.

Any body ever thought of google probly 20.000 hits and go from there

Hey F&F that's where I got the recipe I used. I may get a mortar and pestle somewhere if I keep making the stuff, it sounds like a better sauce that way.

Hex, thanks a lot for the heat exchanger info. I finally got the corrugated idea sorted out in my head after looking at some images again the other day. It gets too humid in the basement if I don't have a fan running and I want to look into an air-to-air heat exchanger to help with that. This also helped me think about the water heat exchanger too. I could make one using plates and square tubing for support, with screw holes all the way down through the corners, and a threaded rod to hold the pack together. This could go into a box (rotated 45 degrees inside the box so the pack corners touch the box sides is the key thing), or I though it would be cool to place it inside something like a big bucket with vertical sides. Maybe some squashed rubber tubing to seal the corners against the walls of the bucket.

That is how I would do the air exchanger, but I think the spiral would be better for the water exchanger, because I need more temperature gradient from the water exchanger and with a not-high volume at all. The plate design would be good if the flow I needed was high.

The jelly roll comment is exactly how I would do it now. I had been thinking about routing slots to guide the PVC sheet, but then I thought it would be easier to wrap tubing in a spiral, and glue the tubing spiral to the bottom plate to guide the sheet to where it needs to be. Then I thought it would be even better to use a foam strip glued to the sheet at the top and bottom edges and just roll the thing up just like a jelly roll. I shouldn't have to route anything at all now!

Dave, I made it this week for the first time and it came out great. I used the blender and like I said...real good.

I first blended the pine nuts, extra virgin olive oil, and garlic cloves.
Then I chopped up the leaves by hand and added them to the mix. Then I blended the whole thing....added salt and freshly grated romano cheese. Came out great.

Water comes in from pipes in the top, goes around and around and around then drains form the outlets in the floor.

MF, I'm not sure if our blender still works but I'll try that!!