Solar Fruit Tree IBC blue barrel AP wicking bathtub system

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Got the first part of my new system today

Maybe not the reccommended way to transport an IBC!

Does anyone know if the black ones are more UV resistant, wondering if its still worth while painting...

Will start putting the system together tomorrow, and yes it was interesting getting it off the ute single handed :think:

PLJ

Matt, from what I have read elsewhere on this forum, the black IBCs are indeed more UV resistant than the translucent white ones, and quite sort after as well. I wouldn't be painting it.
Re the mode of transport, I thought the idea of a ute was that you could carry bulky stuff like an IBC in the back of it, not on the roof, haha! You would have turned some heads on the road as you drove home - keep checking Youtube because you may see you and your trip featured in one of those crazy road user compilations! :wink:

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Layed the new system out today. Been trying to minimize the head to reduce power needed from the solar system (will be setup non solar to start with).

Questions raised today are:

1. How much 'freeboard' to people generally leave above their SLOs? I'll be cutting the IBC down to 80cm so if I put the SLO in at 70cm I'll have a 700L FT with 5cm freeboard from the top of the 50mm SLO pipe. Is this enough? Think it may be a bit tight though don't want to reduce the FT volume much more.

2. Whats the easiest way to go frmo a standard bath tub drain fitting to a 40mm horizontal pipe that is level with the base of the bathtub? I have very little vertical height bewteen the sump (horizontal blue barrel x 2 (still need to get anouther - not shown in the photo)) and the base of the bath tub GB.

3. Since the GBs are at different height is it easier to keep the 50mm SLO output horizontal and have vertical 25mm droppers with valves to the GBs from the viewpoint of ratio-ing flow to the 3 GBs, or is it better to have fall in the 50mm SLO output and just deal with the ratio-ing via the GB valves.

4. When joining the two Blue Barrel sumps together, I plan to do a uni seal at the mid height of each BB and have a SLO in the BB sump that does not have the pump in it. This would not have a T at the top, just an elbow so should hopefully be able to siphon nearly all the water down to the BB sump with the pump in it.

mattyoga

System is up and cycling at present - I've just been whacking some Charlie Carp in and measuring once a week (only at home on the weekends) so once the Amm and Ites drop I'll pop some fish in.

Heres the overall system

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File comment: Overall System View

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I put two 25mm feeds from sump up to FT - ones goes straight to the FT, the other to a 200L GB that then drains to the FT.

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Just drilled holes in the poly to distribute the water - have since put a cap on the end to neaten things up

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cont...

mattyoga

I've got 3 feeds coming from the FT suuply line - two go to the base of the tank to help ciruclate water and shift solids to the SLO end of the tank and one feeds the surface. All have valves so I can adjust the proportion that flows to the tank/Upper GB....

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Also have since installed a small micro irrigation tap at the top of the 25mm poly pipe to act as a siphon break as the FT was siphonnig down to the level of the centre barbed tap.

Used DWV vent cowls for the top and bottopm of the 50mm pressure pipe SLO - needed a bit of heating and manipulating to fit though happy with how it slots in.

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Found the best solution to avoid dropping the pipe level out of the baths was to use a 40mm poly fitting ( didn't want to drop below sump inlet level and then have to use more fittings to come back up over it)

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cont...

mattyoga

Construction details for the AP wicking bed - Feed in with inflow media guard

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Outflow media guard and standpipe

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May have to drop the level of the standpipe a bit - I made it longer so It was easier to pull out.

Did not really wash any of the media - just hosed it and filled the system at the same time and chucked a few egg whites in - system has cleared very well.

Jobs to do now
1. Add fish once cycled, and of course more plants
2. add auto top up tank - think I only have about 150L of spare capacity in the sump which will be used up quite quickly in the summer
3. add shadecloth-greenhouse frame/material over the top
4. add Paw Paw blue barrel GB.
5. Install backup pump (Have a small DC pump that will circulate water from FT to 200L GB above it)
6. Procure & Install DC pump and Solar Panel

Gwydion

Looks interesting. How much sunlight are you getting? Seems to be a very narrow space. I like the SLO with the vent cap. Might use that idea to solve some issues here... ;-)

Cheers

mattyoga

The sunlight is a bit low through the winter months though good spring to Autumn. Hopefully the pawpaw will be high enough to get winter sun. Shed faces north so I get some light reflected of the tin of the shed for what it's worth. The beans and carrots in the bottom wicking bed are doing ok and they've been in since about June.

mattyoga

Think the system will be very toasty in the summer months! Might be good for barra

jono81

Nice integration of the wicking bed..

Are you finding the black Aquapro pond bows out the sides a bit when full of water, or is it holding up ok freestanding like that?

jono81

mattyoga wrote:

3. Since the GBs are at different height is it easier to keep the 50mm SLO output horizontal and have vertical 25mm droppers with valves to the GBs from the viewpoint of ratio-ing flow to the 3 GBs, or is it better to have fall in the 50mm SLO output and just deal with the ratio-ing via the GB valves.

Going off your sketch, I think you may find you'll need a little bit of downhill slope on the SLO to the GB's otherwise the water flow may tend to back up a little bit, raising the water level of your fish tank even further and it doesn't sound like you're leaving much freeboard?

EDIT: woops looks like you've got it all running ok since you posted this question. How much slope did you end up running with on the SLO? Kinda hard to tell from photos

mattyoga

Hi Jono,

I didn't put any slope on the part of the SLO pipe that feeds the beds - where it comes out of the FT it drops about 120mm then runs horizontal (well maybe a slight line fall on the spirit level).

Not found any problem with the AP pond bowing as yet - might still occur when things warm up and it becomes softer though.

The FT level goes up about 90mm when fully flooding - this is just below the top of the SLO overflow so not a problem. I think when I add another outlet for the fruit tree it should drop a bit more - the bottle neck for the SLO at present is the 25mm poly valves - it basically runs 50mm pressure into two 25mm ball valves at present.

I'll take some more pics this weekend - system is showing 4ppm Am, 1ppm nitrite and 5ppm Nitrate so is well on its way to being cycled - not in any rush to stick fish in so will wait till its fully done.

The other thing that I did different from the original plan was join the sumps at the base rather than mid height. They are joined with 50mm pressure pipe.

jono81

ah nice one..

If you find the sides of your Aquapro pond do start to flex outwards too much for your liking, one simple brace idea I've found works a treat is to weld up a simple rectangular steel frame out of 3mm flat bar steel and glue this to the underside of the lip, using Sikaflex. The plastic lip hides this mod quite nicely too, and it adds heaps of strength

I had to do this for when I used the Aquapro tanks for growbeds (filled with blue metal gravel) to prevent them flexing:

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mattyoga

That's a good mod - I think I'll have to do something along those lines soon - its starting to bow and will do more once it heats up I'm guessing.

AP wicking bed is fully up and running and has been coloring the water with tannin with all the rain we've been having, though the fish don't mind.

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File comment: Filled bed with mushroom compost, low grade potting mix (no added fertilizers) and a bit of sand. Also shows plants for conventional bed as of 14 Sept 2013

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Difficult to see in the pics though there are lots of carrots, beetroot and parsnip seedling just popped up...

The water going into the AP wicking bed is straight out of the FT SLO and is unfiltered - not sure if this will cause an issue - I may replumb it so that the bed is filled direct from the sump as there is only a 100mm depth of clay balls at the bottom and it won't handle solids build up very well. This would mean that all the system solids would end up in the other bath though (so only 250L of filtration available to minaralize solids)........ May need to look at some kind of RFF down the track.

mattyoga

sorry for the sideways shots! Heres the top GB as of 14th Sept 2013

Kohl rabbi, strawberry, zucchini and some runners.... and a stray Spring onion - system Ates are high at the moment so I need to get some gross feeders in!

I've also installed a 12V DC backup pump which just pumps from the IBC FT to the GB above. It draws around 1.5A and would turn over the FT in about 90 mins (pending measurements!!!!). Has the advantage that it will provide biofiltration as well as aeration in the event of the main pump carking it and I'm away for a week at a time.

As its on constantly at present I've put a siphon in to drain the top GB periodically. It therefore has to cope with 2 flow rates and after much dicking about, still does not cope with either flow rate well (either failing to start or stop). :shifty:

I think I need to constrict the output a bit more...

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