DD's System 2011

Dave Donley

Indoor plants today, it's raining like crazy outside and I'm getting up the gumption to work on the cold frame in the garage.

Going to make chimichurri with the parsley and cilantro, for fajitas tonight based on a comment in SS's thread from way back. Also need to make pesto with the basil. Stepson keeps asking when the lettuce can be used for a salad so that's nice.

Thinking about making a wider shelf in front of the windows to put the larger planters inside when they aren't in the outdoor system.

Dave Donley

Here's the solids digester going into the biofilter (pipe goes to the bottom and water comes back out the rim of the can).

Dave Donley

Pictures of the solids in the digester with air on and off. The less steep side of the cone has more solids/biofilm on it. Also the top of the cone is cleaner because I turn off the pump to feed the fish and it siphons some out, this makes me think it would be useful to empty it from time to time, to slough off some buildup of biofilm, back into the aerated section maybe. Is that a bloodworm I see?

scotty435

The solids digester looks like it's working really well at collecting the solids, way to go! I wonder how scuds or crayfish would do down in the bottom of that or whether it's a viable environment for something else?

Dave Donley

The bed burrito has evolved again, into what I think of as the "Saddlebag Rail" (SBR) bed.

One piece of pond liner (covered with light fabric to avoid solar gain), wrapped over a board, with media or not (will show the two sides being used as gutters next), both edges attached at the top of the board. Construction would just be plywood cut into long strips to form rails, or 2xs of different sizes for larger ones. Hung on 4x4 posts using joist hanger brackets. Slightly tilted to run the water out the other end, plumbing could be routed to the next rail down to come back to the start post.

The pond liner would be set on the top of the board with the top of the board halfway across the liner width. Then the two sides are lowered forming gutters, filled with media, then closed by attaching the edges to the top of the board.

The top and bottom edges of the board can be attachment points for screens or strings to support the plants.

The saddlebag trough things get much more support against the rail than my previous idea of leaning them against each other with a screen in the middle, and this solves the vertical support problem at the same time.

I read on a koi forum about using hose clamps with pond liner instead of uniseals or bulkhead fittings, that could reduce the fitting costs. You cut the hole a bit small and that fits the liner tightly around the pipe and you hold it with a hose clamp.

This may or may not make sense for small plants, where you may just do PVC pipes as NFT or trays or something, but this does get much cheaper as the pipe diameters get larger. Extremely simple to make too. I hope to do something like this on my system instead of "real" beds, to have several fences with different sized rails for bigger and smaller plants in them.

DéjàVoodoo

wow - nice render! Scketchup?

Dave Donley

Thanks DJVD, I work for the company that makes Vectorworks which is a CAD program, we changed the rendering add-on to use CINEMA 4D's render engine.

Dave Donley

Hi BYAP from my new iPad 2

freoboy

Dave Donley wrote:

Hi BYAP from my new iPad 2

wish i had a ipad 2

gnash06

freoboy wrote:

Dave Donley wrote:

Hi BYAP from my new iPad 2

wish i had a ipad 2

Why...so when the ipad 3 comes out you can be sad again

I'm flat out trying to use an i Ron

freoboy

Haha yep:) haven even got a iPad 1 :geek:

Dave Donley

It's slick, lots of fun stuff to put on it. Staying up too late tonight lol

freoboy

youll have to change your signature to
'sent from my iPad'
:lol:

Dave Donley

I am not dead, have been busy with other non-AP things though, which is very annoying to me! Snowed yesterday, Spring is here but glad it is giving me more time to get the AP setup completed for growing season to start in earnest.

Thinking hard about AP this morning as always on the commute, today I am thinking of splitting the system into two; one I would call the "MiG" and the other the "F-15", which kind of describes the two approaches.

This is a picture of the cold frame I made for the larger Rendezvous planters. Need to get them going and make larger shelves for the kitchen so the plants can get started without worrying about frost.

Dave Donley

Happy because I was able to do some AP this weekend. Today was actually pretty nice weather, tomorrow it's getting up to 75! Got the pipes all hooked up to run the pump all the time, the pump sits on a spiral of pipes with slots in them, then to a vertical segment with a couple holes in it to hopefully stall if the FT tries to run dry, then the pump. I tried just using silicone and not cementing the pipes but that doesn't hold them well enough. I still need to cement the pipes that drain the lagoon, those are the ones I'm most worried about.

Breaking up the charcoal for the planters is a pain, I now have a system of running over the bag with my car a few times then picking out the big pieces that were missed and smashing those with the block, which is better than doing all with the block. I filled up six planters with three bags of charcoal. The five gallon buckets will use more, so the plan is to look into using mulch or maybe compost on the top half instead, since the planters are only getting watered from the bottom. Pictures maybe tomorrow of the planters, I put in green onions, broccoli, lettuce, and peas. We'll see how it goes...

Forgot to mention I moved the two indoor koi outside, so it's an official AP system now!

Loud thunder coming our way right now!

Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

DD's System 2011

Who is online

Backyard Aquaponics A place to discuss aquaponics

DD's System 2011

Who is online

Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics