Aquaponics - All System Go!!!

After ironing out all the problems (I hope!) I had the fish tank filled out to the brim.


Filled to the brim 

I made sure that all the water in the grow tanks were siphoned out before filling in the fish tank. In this way I am able to determine how much water is left in the fish when all the grow tanks were filled.


Water level after filled grow tank 

The water level is about 6 inches or 16cm below the brim, That is a comfortable level to work with and I think if I were to add one more grow tank, it would be no problem.


All system go!! 

After feeling everything is running smoothly, I started with the cycle time adjustment. The best time I could get is about 11 to 13 minutes, any slower the siphon will not start. I guess I just had to work with that even thought I mentioned theoretically is 15~20 minutes. Would a couple of minutes make a difference?? Hmmm ... Well the only way to find out is when the planting start and I am OK with that. I had also inoculated the water with some water from my fountain so that the maturity of the water can be shorten.

And I the final cost:

Total Hardware purchase: $175.00
Old parts cost estimate: $25.00
Total Cost : $200.00

I guess at Malaysian Ringgit $200.00 is reasonable and I am sure once it is productive, it should pay back in less than 6 months.

Next, should I get edible fish of just fish, buy or go fishing?

Aquaponics - Unforeseen Problems & Headaches

After sleeping on the flow problem I came up with a simple solution which I thought should work, restrict the flow at the throat before the outlet. Instead of adding regulating valves on each and every outlet which will attract and increase cost, I guess the simplest way to achieve this is to reduce the diameter at the throat by inserting a sleeves. Got hold of tubing of different diameters and cut short section of it to make sleeves. Inserted it into the throat of the outlet with the fastest flow rate and the result was encouraging. I had turned the flow regulator valve to feed the grow tank at the most minimal rate as possible in order to see the effect of the flow.


Sleeves 

After lots of trial and error in establishing the diameter of each throat with all sorts of tubing and even plastic drinking straws, I managed to get the almost best even flow rate for all the 5 outlets. Once this is established, I can then adjust the cycle time . While adjusting the cycle time, I noticed that the drain did not stop and continue trickling at a steady pace. Oh no not another problem! Could it be the draining rate equals the feed rate? Checked the siphon hose one by one and confirmed that the two grow tanks that is the furthest away from the fish tank is the culprit. If the feed rate is equal to the drain rate then increasing the feed rate would solve the problem so I thought. Tried increasing the feed rate but problem is still there!


Version 1.0

Version 1.1

Insurance 

It was getting late and decided to pack it in for the day and surfed the net till late at night looking for a solution but there was none. The next day I thought could be the air access hole being too small to break the siphon must be the problem and decided to make them bigger. It was a tedious task having to remove the pebbles from the two tanks but it was done after nearly 4 hours. Since I had all the pebbles removed from the tank, I decided to add a cage to the opening of the siphon tube to reduce the possibility of getting blocked in future. All the siphon system have the same size air access hole when I made them so I decided to redo the other three tanks as well. Even though it is tedious, if it must be done, it must be done - better safe than sorry or is it better now than later? Anyway cages were also installed as well to be on the safe side


Pho bo - yummy 

The next day got all the components and pebbles back in the grow tank and got the pump running again and ...... no, no...oh NO!!! it was still not working. Ah well, decided to help Becky with the very delicious "pho bo" or Vietnamese beef noodle soup preparation for lunch. This was the very first time we were making it and it was really yummy. After satisfying my tummy and rested, I headed to the aquaponic area to look at it again. Hmm ...... this maybe if I can just see what was happening under the pebbles maybe I would be able to find a solution.


Siphon 5 

OK I decided just to make an opening in the pebbles until I can see the cage and observe the whole process from fill to siphon to break siphon to fill again. It was a long wait before the siphon started and again a very very long wait for the siphon to break because it did not. The siphon just slowed down when it reached a certain level and equal out to the feed, when I push the siphon loop lower the siphon speed increases. This must be the culprit, remove the hoses of the two problem tanks and compared them with the others and confirmed that they were shorter. Guess what, this problem was self inflicted, remember when some of the water was purging out during the very first run I cut the hose shorter to ease the flow, guess I cut a bit too much.

Now to set the cycle time.

Aquaponics - Its Done ... IS IT!

Got the water pump which is the heart of the whole system which is reasonably priced and very reliable. Best of all the shop is just walking distance from my place.


The Heart
It is a submersible pump exactly the same as the one that I have in my fountain which had been running continuously coming to three years now without any attention needed. It is rated 2,000 liters per hour with a power consumption of 28 watts. Took a piece of left over 15 mm pvc piping and it fitted nicely over the discharge port of the pump.
With the diameter of the feed plumbing settled, I sat in front of the incomplete aquaponics system to imagine and decide on the best delivery system to feed the tanks with the water from the fish tank. Once decided, I started to make a shopping list for the hardware needed. From my measurement, I needed about 14 feet of the rigid pvc piping but I decided to get a whole standard of 20 feet which is more cost effective than buying it base on foot run.


Dry, dry, dry!
After getting the hardware together, I had to stop work for the day because it was getting late in the day and the plants in the mini farm need to be watered, no thanks to the extreme hot weather and dry spell. I have to water them 3 times a day for the moment.


Power Point
Started immediately after breakfast the next day with the pump in hand and realised that the power was not done yet. Spent almost the whole day getting the cables and power point done up. The hardware were all left over from when I rewired the house. The wires were all new and the power was drawn from the main switch board with a dedicated mini circuit breaker. A switch is placed in the house for convenience of easy reach in case of emergency.


Feed
Basing on the principle that level of water will be the same if all vessels containing the water is connected, the feed pipe design is rather straight forward. The stopcock is to regulate the flow of the water. If the pump capacity is not enough, I had already convinced myself to buy another same pump if necessary because it did look a little small


Feed System
Once everything was hooked up and ready to go, I decided to filled the fish tank with tap water because I had no more rain water and I don't think it'll rain soon.


First Run
Once the tank was 50% filled and it was all system go! I was surprised the volume of the water that small pump can really pump up and in a matter of minutes the grow tank was filled and some even flooded before the siphon kick in. I was excited, really excited to see the system in motion. While adjusting the level of the flooded tank, I felt water splashing on my foot ......o..oh!!


O, oh!!

The Culprit
Made a quick inspection and found that water was splashing out of the hole where the hoses go into the drain pipe. Hmmm.... checked the hoses where the water is splashing and concluded that they were too deep inside thus restricting the flow of the water and causing a back flow. Without another thought those hoses were reduced in length by  an inch or so and the problem was corrected. I am pleased that it was running and took a moment to admire it in action

The flow regulating valve worked like a charm but I was wrong with the principle that level of water thingie, it only works base on arguhhh!!! I don't know!!! the flow to the five tanks were all at different rates.


Feed Version 2
Decided to change the design to this improved version with the main feed flow coming from more or less from the center. For this design I had added in the pressure from the pump and hope that the flow pressure would be distributed evenly through the outlets. Well it did not but at least I got even flow in pairs, that is the 2outlets at the ends were the same, the 2 mid-way have a flow rate of their own and the one closest where the feed is coming from was the strongest.

Tried to find a solution but it was getting late and the mozzies had a feast of me!!

And the cost so far:

1 pc 200 litres Drum = $45.00
5 pcs 25 litres cans = $20.00
1 pc Funny Hand saw = $3.90
1 tube 300gm silicone sealant = $6.00
8 pcs Reduction Adapter 32 to 25mm = $5.60
8 pcs Reduction Elbow 25 to 15mm = $4.80
1 meter 32mm pvc thin wall pipe = $2.50
1 meter 15mm pvc thin wall pipe = $1.50
1 pc best quality hacksaw blade = $3.80
4 pcs 20mm pvc T junction = $3.80
1 roll teflon tape = $0.50
1 pc submesible pump = $48.00
5 pcs pvc 15mm T joint = $5.00
1 pc 20ft 15mm pvc pipe = $10.50
1 pc 15mm pvc/nylon stopcock = $8.50
7 pcs 15mm pvc elbow = $5.60

Total : $175.00*
*Malaysian Ringgit  

Aquaponics - Almost There!

Done with the sorting of the pebbles and assembly of all the grow tanks with the drainage plumbing in place. The sorting of the pebbles was rather boring but it must be done. In total I made 3 trips to pebble land and spent more than 10 hours doing the sorting. Good things doesn't come easy in life ya!!

The first batch of the pebbles was filled into the prototype tank to make sure that it would work fine and it did.


Pebbles
The pebbles were filled in the order of the coarse right at the bottom to small at the top.


Water Capacity
The amount of water that was being held in the grow tank before the siphon start was also determined after the pebbles were in. It is about 11 liters and with 5 grow tanks a total of 55 liters of ............ oops!! mental mathematics block!! Will look at this matter when I can do a full physical run to see how would the whole system perform.


Sealing
All the other grow tanks did not have a perfect fit for the drain pipes as in the prototype. This time I have to use silicone together with teflon tape (thanks for this suggestion Sojerd). The teflon tape is great for increasing the perimeter of the piping for a snug fit while the silicone provided a great seal.

While doing the assembly, a thought came into my mind that nasty algae will grow in the transparent soft pvc tubing that forms part of the siphon loop. I decided to make use of opaque flexible hose instead of the transparent pvc tubing


Opaque Hose
Once again up into the goodies store to look for an alternative and all I could find is this extra long garden hose that had been comfortably rolled up in its reel. It was all dusty for being up there for like ages and I guess cutting a couple of feet won't hurt.


The Return System
The pebbles went into the grow tanks as they were sorted until all were filled before the plumbing work was started on. I had the return plumbing firmly embedded in my mind and was really excited to see it transformed into reality piece by piece.
For the stand, I salvaged the materials from one my funny fishing gadget which was some kind mini sailing vessel.


Fishing Contraption
I made this contraption after reading about it in the internet and did not catch any fish with it. The idea is for it to carry the hook and baits away from the beach as far as possible which I thought there were many fishes but ........ ah well!! that was history. Some of the parts were salvaged from the rod holder.
The 20mm rigid pvc piping that I am using had a little story of its own. Never knew that the pressure could caused the pipe to crack, it was really messy and ugly.


All in a row.

Almost there!
Now I am glad that I got a use for it and it should not cause any unexpected mess. Anyway the only expenses here were the T-junctions and teflon tape.

And the cost so far:

1 pc 200 litres Drum = $45.00
5 pcs 25 litres cans = $20.00
1 pc Funny Hand saw = $3.90
1 tube 300gm silicone sealant = $6.00
8 pcs Reduction Adapter 32 to 25mm = $5.60
8 pcs Reduction Elbow 25 to 15mm = $4.80
1 meter 32mm pvc thin wall pipe = $2.50
1 meter 15mm pvc thin wall pipe = $1.50
1 pc best quality hacksaw blade = $3.80
4 pcs 20mm pvc T junction = $3.80
1 roll teflon tape = $0.50

Total : $97.40