Terras Patch

Terra

My AP journey begins with just a simple bathtub two small GBs and Mrs Terras gold fish but of course my plans are much bigger than that. I have an unused tank stand in a great sheltered position that i am using , framework started to enclose as a small greenhouse , Two BYAP grow beds would fill the stand nicely or four shuttle GBs , underneath are two sections between the brick walls , 2000mm long 800 wide and 600 deep the depth can be increased easily by another layer of brick or some solid timber on top of existing walls , If i fill the tank stand with GBs , access to a fish tank / sump tank underneath becomes a problem tank stand opening is one sided only , and its built the wrong way round to extend , bit more head scratching required . One BYAP Grow Bed and a shuttle bed or similar would leave room for access underneath and a bit of room for seedling trays , I also run an extensive dirt garden and am looking for a hot house option for our cold winter . So first upgrade might be a custom made fish tank to go underneath in one section which leaves the other side free, or take half of the centre wall out and use a cut down shuttle as a fish tank with cage providing partial support for grow beds, later on this would be a sump for next stage, or slide a large round tank underneath and beef up the GB support . See i am already seriously infected with AP. Next stage will be large constant height fish tank in nearby shed and more GBs alongside tank stand / green house.

Terra

Made some changes to my starter system , went with the shuttles to build with after a week of frustration getting insane frieght costings for tanks ect . A bit of luck came my way a friend had two and a bit shuttles that had of all things fish compost juice in them the bit part was a shuttle that was used for water carting and fell off the trailer the top half was damaged but the bottom half was fine . The Fish juice its produced locally and used as a fertilizer the dried out residue was interesting to get off , you can certainly get rid of spare time building these systems . So i have a chop 2 system running now , may change it to chop 1 as im unsure if i have a strong enough change over of water in FT . I have a full size Shuttle as FT a cut down one to 700L as a sump , two growbeds plus my initial little growbeds .

Terra

A bit more luck i found two more fish goo shuttles so have plenty to work with , cut one down so i could evict the goldies they are in the black cut down shuttle with a small grow bed filtering for now . Trout availiable so have been busy , getting system sorted and growbeds online .

arbe

Looking good Terra.

Charlie

love it....fantastic :wave1:

RupertofOZ

Well done... :cheers:

Terra

Made a few changes so thought i would update thread , went to gravity flow feed to grow beds so i could get a stronger flow through fish tank MUCH better tank cleared up straight away . SLO is feeding 4 auto siphons with no return to sump i thought the flow might be too fast and keep siphoning but it has worked fine for two days now .

If i had my time over i would have installed drains in outer corners and wouldnt need pipes laying across growbeds but that will have to do for now , elbows on ends of pipes are used to adjust flow , no taps

.

Got Polycarb on east and west ends south side will have poly carb as well with an access door for picking ect no bending

Terra

With the change to growbed feed came clear water i can see when the last of the feed has been eaten , Pic shows the fish i threw a golf ball in today so they have something to play with .

I have some airstones in a sort of air lift to shift water from bottom to top , its a bit problematic fish knock it around i will have to find a way to anchor it , i have a hole drilled through about half way down with a cable tie through hole this stops airstones working their way up .

I have to keep checking it as feed pellets get stuck in the airstone / cable tie area , i recon i will do away with the bottom entry and have a entry point to airlift 100mm up from bottom .

Terra

First Tomato nearly ready

mantis

Good work and getting tomatoes at this time of year, splendid

SnowT

Love the system..

Got a Question the bottom of the SLO are the hole on the pipe are they all that you have on it..

If not, then that will be restricting your Flow..

Actually I sort of Like the way that F&F has[ At least I think he started the trend]

I have a heap of water flow.. and it helps to suck the bottom clean..

Juergen..

Terra

No the SLO has a variety of holes in it those few that we can see were an after thought in case of blockage , on the underside are two full rows of holes slightly either side of the middle if that makes sense , so as debris is drawn along fish tank floor it more or less can slide straight into the SLO , the end cap is also full of holes .
Rob

SnowT

Ok..

just one simple question.. Going to sound strange..

But does the amount of holes[Area] = Greater than the cross-sectional area of the Pipe..?

The main reason is the area is pipe is proportional to the amount of water flow..

Juergen

Terra

I would think so dont know how to do that mathematically :roll:

had another look there are 4 rows of holes on the underneath side , will put a photo on , the input from pump to fish tank is near enough 900L an hour and the 50mm outlet runs about 2/3rds full . Output cant be restricted or tank would fill up and overflow .
Rob

Terra

Base of SLO drilled on underside

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Terras Patch

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Terras Patch

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Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics