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