BullwinkleII's system

BullwinkleII

two part reply...

part 1....

Sminfiddle wrote:

Although one of the benefits of the floating outlet is that it is not touchy about input rate to trigger, somehow yours is very forgiving too. And does not require the extra chamber for the water source...

makes you wonder if the great pumpkin didnt just want aquaponics to all just kind of work out as part of the master plan

I think we need a collective noun for GB-sequencing-geeks

I'm thinking an "AlphaPosseDeathSquadron" of GB-sequencing geeks but I'm guessing we will settle on something closer to a "NutSack" or "Loon" of GB-sequencing geeks"

part 2 ...

mmmm shiny
(delay considered response until the night/ethanol goes away)

-craig

BullwinkleII

hydrophilia wrote:

Very nice! I'll have to try one.

Trying to get my head around this.....There are three flows: 2 steady flows (one for each growbed) and a switched flow. So, what you are saying is that the parameters for flow are
tipped flow=steady flow=1/2 of max flow (approx)=1/3 of total pump flow
siphon flow>max flow
steady flow should be enough to trigger autosiphon
Is this correct?

I think I ended up with ...

tipped flow = 1/2 total flow
left flow = 1/4 total flow
right flow = 1/4 total flow

so max flow at any one time is 3/4 total pump ability... but the most important ratio was input:siphon ... if you are going to make one I would start from normal siphon science and set you input to one that will make your siphon work

then divide that so some comes from the center flow and some comes from the side flow
put a tap on each flow so you can control each and I think it will be easy to get a good result...
remember you need less siphon than a normal flood and drain system because it has nothing to do but drain while the other bed is filling(it has all the time in the world to drain)... so you can reduce your siphon diameter a bit if need be

for some reason I was told I had to remove it from the kitchen sink so I cant check it... don't quite understand why ... must be some cultural thing ... tho I don't recall grandma ever mentioning anything about sink based GB-sequencers ...

or just buy Sminfiddle's shiny cyborg lookin device

it seems to be quite forgiving but if i were to make a full grown system...

-I'd add a tap for each of the 3 flows so I could tweak them
-I'd lengthen the balance beam and add baffles
-I'd mount the floats on a wingnuted thread so I could easily adjust the length of the float stalks

-craig

RupertofOZ

I'd expect your nitrites to rise as Ammonia begins to fall.... Nitrates won't really begin climbing... until ammonia begins dropping... and will increase markedly as the Nitrite spike decreases..

Here's a typical cycling chart...

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graph2.jpg [ 89.44 KiB | Viewed 7062 times ]

BullwinkleII

RupertofOZ wrote:

I'd expect your nitrites to rise as Ammonia begins to fall.... Nitrates won't really begin climbing... until ammonia begins dropping... and will increase markedly as the Nitrite spike decreases..

Here's a typical cycling chart...

Attachment:

graph2.jpg

thanks RupertofOZ ...

cool so all i have to do is wait... as if that was ever an easy thing to do

Its no wonder everyone "risks" a few fish and then buys some more when they die.. Im going crazy here

aquaponics

part hydroponics (yep I have lettuce seedlings)
part aquaculture (NO)
(Stu -WHY WONT YOU SELL ME SOME FISH EVEN THO THEY WILL DIE LIKE EVERYONE ELSE'S)

AAAAgghhhh!!!

-craig

The notion of Karma is really stating to give me the shits.
Me 2010-04-07 02:35 :drunken:

RupertofOZ

Patience Bullwinkle... trust me ... there's nothing worse than a tank full of dead fish....

Sminfiddle

BullwinkleII wrote:

I think we need a collective noun for GB-sequencing-geeks

I'm thinking an "AlphaPosseDeathSquadron" of GB-sequencing geeks but I'm guessing we will settle on something closer to a "NutSack" or "Loon" of GB-sequencing geeks"

-craig

Maybe the noun could be a "Swig" (of GbSeqGeeks) or a "Slug" - I often refer to the amount of water that gets sent off to a GB to get refined and (ideally) comes back as a "Slug" of water. Gotta name it something before I start juggling more than one at a time, right?

Anyway, "AlphaPosseDeathSquadron" is already used for "at least 15 but no more than 93 earthworms migrated from an established gravel growbed into a new GB containing over 66% expanded clay."
It's in the Glossary, you should have Searched it first. :whistle:

Rick

BullwinkleII

BullwinkleII

I finally got some grow beds for my new system (thanks Buzzy. Thanks Tom
They are 2 by approx 1100 l galvanized iron rainwater tanks

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2 x 1000 l tanks.jpg [ 52.77 KiB | Viewed 6720 times ]

The (very fluid) plan is...

-buy a 3500 lph pump (max head 4m - I'll need about 1.8m)
-buy a 12 volt 3500 lph powerhead (7watts) for the FT running at zero head as an always on via battery backup aerator (I already have a 100amphour deep cycle battery always on charger so ill just run it from that 24/7)
-buy an IBC to use as a FT
-split 1 rainwater tank down the seam to create 2 GB's of approx 300mm in depth 1750 x 1100
-cut 300 mm off the second tank to give me a sump of approx 900 l. It Will be down the hill a bit from the GB's with its top lip being around 300mm lower then the bottom of the GB's
-use the 300 x 300 x 1100 cut off section as a prefilter for solids
-buy/make a plastic greenhouse dome over the GB's (FT will be under a carport)

1000 l FT
1000 l GB
900 l sump
100 l prefilter

the plan would be to go CHIFT PIST with the prefilter taking the overflow from the FT before it siphons to the FT's
The prefilter would have an auto-siphon to make a happy place for worms. Water would enter at 1 end from the top and any solids would have to pass through 1000mm of scoria before getting to the siphon at the other end.
All the galv surfaces exposed to water will be painted with gripset 51 (I think that's what its called)
Ill cover the cut edges with poly pipe split length ways
Also the plan is to make a shallow water filled GB for duckweed with a tap controlling how much water goes to it. When the GB's a full of plants I'll give the duckweed only a trickle, but if there isn't much growing, or I've just done a big harvest I'll turn up the duckweed flow and grow more duckweed for the fish or freezer.

the site...

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big system empty site.jpg [ 108.81 KiB | Viewed 6718 times ]

Q. can you dry duckweed? (ie and keep its food value as fish food)
Q. will my prefilter work (I have no idea how much solids 1000l of FT will produce)

Comments, suggestions, derisive laughter?

-craig

cjinVT

BullwinkleII wrote:

They are 2 by approx 1100 l galvanized iron rainwater tanks

I'm just a beginner, but I thought metal in the system was bad.

BullwinkleII

I am to, and I think it is. But I'm painting all the exposed metal with a waterproof product called gripset 51 (I think thats what its called) it says its fishtank and rain water tank safe, so it should be fine.

-craig

hydrophilia

Sounds good, Craig.

Re duckweed: fresh is easiest and, I expect, most nutritious. But dried is fine.

rmcpb

Does anyone ever have trouble growing duckweed? If you run out you must have some VERY hungry fish.

BullwinkleII

rmcpb wrote:

Does anyone ever have trouble growing duckweed? If you run out you must have some VERY hungry fish.

I was thinking of only growing it when I was nutrient rich. The plan is to put a tap on a duck weed bed that only runs at a trickle if my GB's are using all the nutrient, but turn the tap to flat out if I have an excess of nitrates that i want to deal with. From what I understand duckweed is about as fast a growing thing there is, so I thought if I could dry it of freeze it I could just over produce it when ever the need arises. It was really more about being able to dial up nitrate removal rather than making fish food, but I would rather use it than compost it.

-craig

BullwinkleII

I read somewhere that you can grow all your fish food from spare nutrient, but I think the universe has laws against that kind of thing given I plan to take product out of the system.

Inputs are fishwaste, sunlight, carbon, trace elements from the scoria.

Perhaps there is some nitrogen from the atmosphere that I'm not taking into account.

-craig

BullwinkleII

This is what I think I've settled on.

Some of the heights are a bit out. eg the GB stands should be a bit taller, but it gives me something to look at.

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My CHIFT PIST.jpg [ 21.04 KiB | Viewed 6761 times ]

Are there any issues with auto-siphoning 2 GB's into the same sealed drain? I have a feeling when GB1 dumps, the suction in the tubes could set off GB2 prematurely. There would probably be no suction to GB2 because the water is freely flowing from GB1 but I have some nagging doubt.

Perhaps I should put a breather in the drain between the two beds.

-craig

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