After posting some pics of my new garden on Facebook I've had numerous people show interest me writing some blog posts. I have other blogs related my sailing and photography, so this one will be dedicated to my aquaponics setups.
After 3 weeks of work I've finally finished my aquaponics garden to the point where it's ready for the fish and plants.
After 3 weeks of work I've finally finished my aquaponics garden to the point where it's ready for the fish and plants.
Barrels:
Early last year I purchased the barrels from a gentleman in Benton. These were barrels that held concentrate for flavored water so I know they are food grade barrels. I purchased a total of 10 barrels for $10/each. I sold 3 to my brother, and kept the rest. Unfortunately I did not clean them out immediately; therefore, when it came time to clean them out almost a year later they were rather nasty. Having a power washer is a must for that type of job. The barrels already had seams in them from the vacuum forming process so cutting them was in half was an easy job with a reciprocating saw.
Uniseals:
Uniseals are a rubber, water-tight grommet that allows a PVC pipe to pass through a material. It's like a bulkhead fitting, but is much more versatile for it can create a seal on a non-flat surface. I purchased 10-1" Uniseals from Greener Hydroponics for $1.55/each, compared to Amazon which is selling them at $4.50. The measurement of a Uniseal is the inside diameter which is different than the outside diameter, so the hole drill size is different than the Uniseal size. The fit is VERY tight so I used olive oil as lube when inserting the PVC. through the Uniseals. Some of my Uniseals do not fit flush against the side of the barrels but surprisingly there is still no leaking.
Pump:
I originally purchased a 800 GPH high-lift pump from Amazon thinking I would have to raise the water 5 feet and I'd always been told that pumps never perform as they say on the outside so I overcompensated. Well, that pump was WAY to powerful so I downgraded to a 291 GPH pump. Each grow bed will fill up to about 1/3 of the full barrel size so that is 18 gallons x 2 growbeds, and I want each to fill 4 times per hour so that's 144 GPH. The rise is actually only 4' so on the Pump Spec Chart for a PP-291 16W pump the flow is 172 GPH @ 4' rise. After installing the pump, but before building the aerator, the tubs were filling every 16 minutes so it was close. The pump has an adjustable opening on one side that seems like it would limit the flow, but I haven't found that it makes much difference if it's open or mostly closed.
16W Pond Pump (Flow Spec Chart is Last Image)
Filter:
I created a Radial Flow Filter to remove the fish effluent solids from the system. I found some similiar systems on the web, but most of them used plastic paint cans with conical shaped cement in the bottom. I didn't want to go that route so I found a couple Mountain Valley Spring Water water jugs and cut the bottom out, flipped it over, then drilled a couple holes in the side for inflow and outflow. I destroyed the first one with the hole-saw, the plastic at the top and bottom is strong, in between it is very easy to rip. The outflow must be above the inflow to regulate the outflow speed. The inflow pipe has a 90 degree elbow that causes the water to spin. I made a cleanout by attaching a coupling to the spout at the bottom and a 2" PVC pipe. I'm not sure what this is called since it's not a flexible fitting, but it was cheap ($3.50) and it worked perfectly. Then I added an elbow, a reducer, and valve, and an elbow to extend the drain to the front of the garden for easy access. I also cut the bottom off the container so I could access the inside to install the components. The container sits upside down so the cut out bottom is actually the new top.
Grow Beds:
I originally planned on cutting the barrels completely in half, but realized that if I left the rim I could attach some fencing material should I have a problem with critters. Once I cut them I drilled the drain hole, then built a couple Bell Siphons, installed the drain components, and the barrels were done. Excluding cleaning, the entire build process for the beds and bell siphons took about 4 hours. The link below contains instructions on building a bell siphon, one issue that I didn't realize is that the two 90 degree elbows that are part of the drain are required to create some back-pressure to help the siphon form. Without these elbows once the water reaches the top of the stand pipe it will drain straight out without creating the suction required for the siphon. I don't necessarily agree with the instructions on priming/gluing the bell cap, I don't think that is required and makes disassembly impossible later on if needed.
Venturi Aerator:
I've never truly been impressed by those cheap air rocks people put in aquariums. Fish need oxygen just like humans and those rocks don't put very much oxygen into the water. If you ever notice a fish gulping air at the surface of a fish tank then that water does not have enough oxygen in it. So, I decided to try to build my own. I found some articles on the web on how to do it, but they used some custom sized components and I wanted to get parts at Home Depot. The 5/8" inside diameter (ID) incoming tube (In the above picture water flows left-right) attaches to a 5/8" outside diameter (OD) barb to 1/2" adapter. This attaches to a 1/2" ID to 3/8" OD flare, in the middle is a 3/8" ID T-connector. The right-side of the T-connector is set up exactly the same but backwards. The inside diameter of the 3/8" flare is 1/4", therefore the change from 1/2" to 1/4" then back up to 1/2" is what creates the Venturi Effect, the pipe on the top is where air is sucked into and mixes with the water stream.
Here's a video of the aerator in action. You'll notice when water first starts to flow that it comes out the top pipe, but eventually gets sucked down in by the pressure differential. Once all the water is out of the pipe the air starts mixing with the water in the outflow.
Upcoming:
Over the next couple weeks I'll post more updates on my garden. My 25 talapia should arrive later this week or early next week, I'm still waiting on a call to arrange deliver. The plants will be started this week in rockwool, and I'll hopefully move them over to the grow beds in two weeks.
