Gurkan's IBC System

GurkanYeniceri

It is time for me to open my own system thread after running 2 separate systems for two years with silver perch and trout and gained enough knowledge to build the Mark II of my AP.

I have 4 grow beds cut from IBC’s and 2 full IBCs one for a fish tank and another for a sump.

I dug the place for the sump but couldn’t go further than 45cm as I hit the rock bottom.

The system will be like the design below and later I will be adding NFT channels and maybe a circulating wicking bed.
Without NFT

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With NFT

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Once finished, there will be around 2000L of water as I am running the grow beds constant flood. I have a 5000L per hour water pump and Hailea80 air pump which should be enough for the moment. Also a 1000L per hour water pump as a backup.

This design is constrained by the garden space limit. 7 X 3 meters, adjacent to the fence.

More pictures coming soon.

GurkanYeniceri

The space I have is 5 metres. And the fence will hold NFT channels in the future.

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These two barrels bought from an old Italian winemaker. One of them will be my filter.

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boss

System design looks great!
I love setting up new systems, best of luck with yours.

I can't say jackhammers are fun, but they break through rock like nobody's business. I rented one for what I think is cheap.
Whereas I spent much of last Summer busting out rocks for our addition using a sledge hammer and rock bar. I know I must sound crazy. :notworthy:

I am a short handle tools advocate. :notworthy:

Whoops, that didn't make me look less nuts. :geek:

What's really nuts is I'm actually considering digging another greenhouse in next to our existing greenhouse because earth-sheltered works a charm to keep it warm and cool when needed.

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Brian.

GurkanYeniceri

Yo Brian, respect bro. That is some excavation.

I thought about hiring a jack hammer but the other problem is where I am gonna put all that clay rock. It would have been nice to bury the entire IBC as a sump but now, I think, I will trim it a bit.

GurkanYeniceri

Finally this weekend, I had the time to build the grow beds but there is a new swarm in my dead hive and they are replacing the queen and slightly angry.
So I had to call it a day after 2 stings over the bee suit.

I managed to empty one grow bed and carried to its new place. Scoria is sitting in the garden drying.

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Petesake

Hi Gurkan,

There is going to be a lot of water running down those NFT channels if they're as small as depicted you might have to rename them SWT. The cothes line is well positioned to help support tall plants and provide shade in summer.

GurkanYeniceri

That is what I was thinking the other day. If I am going to feed the FT through NFTs, it will not just trickle.
I might rethink NFT inclusion. May be some towers.

What is SWT by the way?

Petesake

A few weeks ago, Mr Damage got fired up with the topic "Not NFT" claiming that round pipes are not NFT and that NFT water level is about a millimeter or so deep hence the film technique.

Placing net cups in round pipes demands that the water level is about 40 to 60 mm deep. This sparked a terminology debate around water levels. Shallow water culture SWC was derived from DWC although it seems its already been taken so as no specific name was agreed upon. I call it shallow water technique SWT with the level between 3 and 150 mm.

I think you can still do what you were planning just that you'll have to dam up each end of the tubes so they'll always be half full of water and make the gradient very shallow. A filter on the intake of the pump will help too.

I prefer the SWT over the towers because there'd be less maintenance, greater grow space, captured water in the event of pump failure, extendable and media free.

GurkanYeniceri

Pete, I like it. With the benefits of less maintenance, greater grow space, expandable, media free and captured water in case of a failure. I am sold.

I need to increase the size of the pipe to 150 and glue the caps to create the dam at 100mm. With a slight gradient, it should do the job. This will be the next step though. First I need to build the main system.

rininger85

or just split the flow so not all of the flow runs through the NOT-NFT tubes =) I added my NOT-NFT tubes after everything else was up and running as well, so I just worked with what I already had for plumbing... I just added a T and a shutoff valve to control the flow to the NOT-NFT tubes... well it just so happened that I didn't need the shutoff because the water mostly flows to the fish tank without closing the shutoff valve, so my NOT-NFT gets about 40gpm (150L/m) while the rest of my flow goes to the fish tank.

I would have an issue with my plants in the NOT-NFT drying out if I lost power for an extended period, but that's the way NFT systems are, so I've modeled my NOT-NFT the same way. I wanted to test out as many different growing methods as I could so if I find certain plants don't like growing in certain ways I can put them in different types of growing conditions... I have tested out a few different methods of constant flood (DWC, gravel bed, hydroton bed, scoria bed), dirt wicking bed, the NOT-NFT trickle of water so only the roots come in contact with water, next I need to look into converting my scoria bed to F/D because I don't really like the scoria bed... doesn't seem to grow things as well as the other beds (aside from tomatoes, they don't seem to care where I plant them) so thought I might try changing one bed to F/D to have another test of what plants like and seems how the scoria bed is my least favorite media it is going to be the winner I think.

Glad to see another build thread to follow =)

boss

One of our hives got taken over by mean bees. I got stung several times working with them. One went up my nose while I carried the super up to the house. thank goodness that one didn't sting me inside the nose. I bought a new suit and now I'm hurting too much with hip pain to go harvest this year. Oh well what's a guy to do?
Good name Rob, Not-NFT.
Gurkan, what are the gray things on the left side of your new system?

GurkanYeniceri

rininger85 wrote:

or just split the flow so not all of the flow runs through the NOT-NFT tubes =) I added my NOT-NFT tubes after everything else was up and running as well, so I just worked with what I already had for plumbing...

I am also planning to add them last. Will see how it goes. Exactly like you, I want to try DWC, earthen bed, media beds, NFT and SWT to compare. Also utilizing the RFF sludge in my worm farms. There are many things I want to do but not enough time. Who invented this day job thingy :upset:

rininger85 wrote:

Glad to see another build thread to follow =)

My pleasure

boss wrote:

Gurkan, what are the gray things on the left side of your new system?

Those are my rain water tanks. I am also diverting excess water to my sump from the rain water tanks. It is beginning of Spring and the tanks are full.

rininger85

GurkanYeniceri wrote:

Who invented this day job thingy :upset:

right? lets all quit our day jobs and just work on AP all day long... I'm hoping at a minimum to position myself for early retirement (which from what I've seen means I'll start my next career which means I'll have to work even harder at home to keep up with all of the projects). I'm 32 years old and I've already been at my job for 15 years, but I have 33 years to go until retirement age... depressing! I don't want to wait 33 years! Need to get out early to enjoy life before I'm unable to!

skeggley

Hiya Gurkan, nice progress. Looks like your tube channels (TC's)

travel quite a distance, I'd split them and feed each line separately for several reasons. With such a long run nutrients could be minimal at the end of the run, if the tube blocked with roots anything down stream would suffer and it would be easier to shut off just one leg if maintenance is required. Just my thoughts.

Oh and the guy that said lets work 5 days then have two off must have been dyslexic or something.

rininger85

skeggley wrote:

Oh and the guy that said lets work 5 days then have two off must have been dyslexic or something.

I'm thinking if I ever get off of OT I might still work 10 hour days but work M-T, off W, work Th-F, off Sat-Sun... I did this for a little bit a couple years ago and it was really nice having that mid week break. It's nice just having longer weekends though too. Our shop is on a 4-10 schedule and works M-Th and then OT Friday if they didn't get through what they needed to otherwise they have a 3 day weekend every week.

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