Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

is that an extra GH hoop in the background - not gonna use it (or is it for the future AP extension )

Got 7 in the purchase Les. Originally the 7 hoops comprised a 48foot GH. The guy i got it off said 6 foot spacings would stop film from billowing and would be heaps enough. Just 2 less holes, screws etc, would have been overkill to have 7 hoops in a 23-24 foot setup. They are in pretty good nick considering they are 18 years old.

...so build a bigger AP setup

The lemon tree on the south west corner was my limiting factor, stupid, mumble, lemon tree mumble. Coulda shifted it but neither of the kids wanted to give up their bedroom.

Use the chainsaw in the AP toolkit

Nah, gunna give FF a run for best AP lemon tree.
Saving my chainsaw for when the northern property fence comes down and i can run a 6m by 30m GH north south. Just don't tell my neighbor.

Onya, really enjoying watching the progress. We couldn't get outside today as storms have brought down 3 very large branches on my garden. Keep up the good work.

Thanks Faye. Been crap here today too but was determined to get a bit done. Hope ya weather settles down. Places in Gippsland here this week have had between 2-300mm of rain, which is huge for this part of the world. Gippsland is underwater having also been ravaged by bushfire in summer just gone. Ya can't fight mother nature!

It's one extreme to the other across the world at present. Brings new meaning to go woth the flow doesn't it?

Couple plumbing alternatives have been put to me and need some byap advice.
First setup is fairly traditional: 50mm pipe from tank, along GBs, 25mm tees, pipes, taps, standpipe, siphons etc. Pain in the butt bc the tanks are small, have 30 and need lots of bits per GB, $700 all up.

The second setup interests me but quote not in yet.
Basically, tanks are connected in line underneath in rows. If there are 4 tanks in the row, one tank is ur fill point and drains beneath to fill others in the row at the same time, like a manifold setup. So if i had 7 rows of 4 beds for eg there would be only 7 fill points, with the beds (all level) filling from underneath. Adjust taps for diff filling times further u get away from pump so all blocks fill at same time. This would need to be fairly precise but could be done. Time how long it takes to fill whole system this way, have a solenoid on last filled bed that is kicked in at the end of filling cycle and all water dumps to ur sump where ball float kicks in to start pumping back to ur fishtank.
It's not a sequential fill as such per Les's system, but the solenoid is timed to dump all water at the end of ur pump cycle. It seems an interesting concept and if the pricing was similar, would save a fair bit of plumbing. I understand how it would work but it seems a little different to anything else i have read.
What do people think?

Not sure I'm with you TT... can you sketch it?

no good at google sketch up yet Rupe.
Basically you have an interconnected grid under your barrels. There is one fill tap per row, that barrel drains to level in it's row, so all barrels in that row are filling at the same rate. If u get ur tap flow right and each row fills at the same rate, all barrels should be full at the same time, providing u are working on a level surface. Solenoid on drain pipe in line prior to sump, that is timer activated to open, draining all GBs to sump. I kinda get it without understanding the electrical solenoid intricacies.
It sounds a reasonable if somewhat different way to go. I just don't have the plumbing or electrical background but i get the concept. Just dunno if there are particular reasons why it will/won't work.

If 4 GB’s are linked together with say 50mm pipe you could treat the 4 beds as one.
One fill point & one drain point at opposite ends to ensure even nutrient dispersion across all 4 bed’s using auto siphon or stand pipe, your choice. Can’t see the reason for the solenoid it may just complicate ever thing for no reason.

don't see why not, and the in and out wouldn't have to be on opposite ends becasue its flood and drian.

I think the main reason why people are talking sequential is becasue if you have 4x200lt beds (fill of approx 400lts) and something like a 500Lt fish tank, then you're going to be removing 4 5ths of the water every cycle!

is this something like youare talking about only multiply by 7....and now a word from our sponsors