Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

2 new pics for today

the new autosiphon is in place , shadecloth around the bottom to stop the media getting in . ive tested this one out & it works fine , but for interest I capped the top of the outer pipe with a circle of acrylic , so I can look inside and atch the magic suction bit happen . its gonna get algae on the inside of the window pretty quick so Ive got an old 40mm end cap that fits right over the top , as the 40mm pipe I used , even though its got 40mm written on it , is a wierd size

top bed back in place & all plumbed ready , the medias still wet from the other day so Im expecting if there was any bacteria already in there ,it'll be dead by now , so maybe that'll mess with the water

now to try and wait patiently while the acrylic dries and resist the urge to start pumping back into the top bed .

oh - and that clear tube is just a water level indicator , or I can use it to slowly drain if I need to for some reason

The top one Ive filled with one and a bit bags of hydrotron & the rest perlite - I think I read somewhere in some research paper that they were getting +30% yields on capsicums with a bit of perlite in the mix ( yeah , getting ahead of myself a *little* here , but once the system looks stable I'll just take some capsicum & chilli seedlings from the dirt vegie garden ). Ive gone overkill with more than half , but it was cheaper than a second bag of hydrotron

does insomnia cause aquaponics , or does aquaponics cause insomnia ? Im stuck with both - 2 hours a night sleep is killin me

So you've solved your autosiphon problems? that's great. Now that it's working, never touch it again! :-) It'll work forever (unless you get a blockage)

Boris is that the wall??

That makes sense that the other had a minimized air volume. One thing you might try with your elbow one would be to fill in the top half of the elbows with silicone, to restrict the volume in the bend. The one septic siphon site shows that their siphons have u-bends with specially molded flat tops rather than your typical circular cross sections, so that the air "burp" is bigger.

glad you got it solved so quickly Boris

yeah the insomnia~ I spend lots of time with my system even though most of the time I do nothing to it. Sit and watch the fish, look at all the plants, drink another busch light or rum n coke, watch the fish, check the BYAP website see how everyone else is faring, look at the plants, drink another rum n coke. Sometimes I hafta sleep...drat it

thats what I was doing last night , I think it cost me my liver .

yeah C1 - thats the wall , extends 8 metres or so to the right of that growbed in the pic

I want to see how much of a system I can get going with as minimal florr space as possible .

the walls gonna have racks on it like the one on my test system , plus the ponds going to be long and thin

But while Im nutting out the pond / bricklaying / sealing / building frames .....

all thats is gonna take me a good 6 months - I need to lay 4 courses for the front of the pond , then save up for some pondsealer & GBs , so in the meantime :

My next system , should be a cheapie apart from the main fish bucket , heres a little photoshopping I did to see how ugly it would look .

the GB & sump are kiddie shell-pools , I can either nick my daughters old ones ( ones got a big crack in it ) or buy some new ones , I think theyre only 50 bucks .

One pump ,in the sump , main gb floods straight down into it

above the main tank I'll put a second flood&drain GB for a passionfruit plant that Ive been TRYING to grow in soil , on the other side of that fence , for months . I want it there to stop morons from spraypainting their names on my fence

the pillar to the left of the main tank is the patio , I could run some black piping up & onto the tin roof , that gets pretty hot in the day . Thats my only problem there - the sump has to be raised off the ground a little too , that paving gets pretty cold at night . I think heating is going to be my main problem with this one . apart from that I think it'll be pretty cheap to set up

kiddie pool - $50
pump - $50
top GB - $40
plumbing - $50
hydrotron if I feel like spending that much - $100
big fish tank - ??

Is there a public walkway behind the fence? If not then I noticed just the thing for stopping those buggers yesterday at the local pet store. It was a motion activated sprinkler. It shoots a quick stream of water when motion is detected. This one was quite expensive 80$US. good luck on getting rid of those human pests I just hate destruction of property like that.

I was thinking of building a sentry gun that shoots water with pink dye in it , but that would invariably get stolen , hehheh

better off if you get one that shoots a lead pill then a door opens up and they fall in to a freezer unit to supply food for your yabbies...hehehe

My old man had serious problems with his factory being broken into, and then being trashed cos there was no money inside.

He solved this problem by planting (or allowing to grow) blackberries all down the 'hidden' side of the factory, where the easy access points were.
It worked a treat.

Before I get shouted down, you can get blackberries that do not send runners, and as long as you pick the fruit (yummy) then they will not spread.

hehe

i like your idea of the acrilic window on the siphon ill have to try that oneday

Love the design, GBs before and after the sump!

Ok , the kiddie pool wont work for the sump , casue with the two GBs its sure to drain out and kill the pump .

I still like the idea of having a bright blue clam shaped growbed , theyre only 22cm deep though - enough for good bacteria growth ?

Anyone know how many litres a kiddies clamshell pool holds , or do I have to get out the old ten-litre bucket tomorrow ?

Guessing, but it couldn't be more than 200L. 10L bucket would work, only 20 buckets to count, not that bad.