DD's System 2011

Dave Donley

The liner hangs over the rails making like a W, so half the weight of the water is held up by the rail rather than the edge of the top board, and all the weight of the plant is on the top edge of the rail too. A wire screen or strings can be hung from the rail above too, to help stabilize the plants.

TCLynx

Ah ok now I get it.

needed a picture before you put the plywood back on over the liner :shifty:

Dave Donley · Screen shot 2011-06-15 at 3.01.53 PM.png [75.39 KiB]

Not much updating going on, almost done with the bottom of the rail fence, waiting for 5" net pots to ship for the middle rail, top rail is drilled thanks to Karen Swanberg's tip about drilling with a hole saw not all the way through, but to stop before you go all the way then flip and finish just the little bit left on the other side. I made a raft out of spare blueboard and about 55 net pots since the drilling became so easy after that! Some of the pots have sprouted already, but I'm not sure about all of them because I just sprinkled seeds in each pot and the charcoal is basically wet. Some of the seeds may not like that.

Found a picture I did back at the end of March, that shows the cross section of the rail. I am calling this an UTU rail because that describes the cross section.

Dave Donley

Buttoned up the ends and filled with water to see what happens overnight. Plan to try pushing a 1" pipe though a smaller diameter hole in the liner and securing with a hose clamp for the drains, read about that technique on a koi forum.

Dave Donley

Well after a day of the trough being topped up with water, the plywood has bent down on the edges some. I have been thinking about using two cedar boards instead of one plywood board. I expect that the plywood will delaminate as it sits out in the weather, some of the screws have spread the plys apart too. Also, the thing this week about formaldehyde in plywood has me looking for another material.

Two of the adult minnows were dead in the sump yesterday afternoon. I had been feeding them some of my leftover tilapia pellets, which I think are OK because they've been in the cool dry basement and they are made of mostly wheat. I had given the minnows some goldfish flakes for the first time a day before, as something easier to eat for the babies. But I think the ones that died overate; the one looked very full around the middle. The other one had white bumps on the front of its head, I hope not ich. Stupid minnows...

RupertofOZ

You've been busy DD... good to see you're back in the swing of things... :cheers:

TCLynx

it is hard to tell by the marks on a fish after it has been dead for more than a few hours what got it since bacteria tend to attack the body quickly after death.

iammr.bill

Thanks DD, that zettsfish link was very interesting. Love the way it was written. Very informative.

Dave Donley

Haven't seen any new dead fish so I think the minnows overate the goldfish flakes.

Was working on the system almost all day yesterday. Got the trough plumbed and running but have several adjustments to make.

The hose clamp technique seems to be working fine for the drains. I first tried using a spade bit but that doesn't work well with liner because the liner tries to bunch up and spin. I ended up using a regular 1/2" bit for the 3/4" drain pipes.

I put seven electrical conduit fittings in the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket to distribute water evenly to the different levels. Once I tried using the pump (a 550 GPH Tetra from Lowe's) it turned out it did not have enough oomph to reach the top of the fence. I drilled holes in the pipe until I found where the water was and moved the bucket down almost two feet. This means I can't reach the top rail with this pump. For now I am just going to do the bottom and middle rails. I may try to split the flow with tee fittings but the bucket works well for this. I could use a much smaller and shallower container for it than a 5 gallon bucket, need just enough room for four fittings at the bottom.

Dave Donley

Re-uploading the UTU diagram:

bonsaibelly

Nice one DD - I think the system dropped a couple of pics on this page in the site upgrade (. Any chance of a re-load or a - with water in pcs.
Cheers
BB?

Dave Donley

Yep some of the pictures here were lost. I did some work on the system on Wednesday, and this weekend should be good. I will post new pictures soon!

Dave Donley

Saturday Night Picture Dump!

Here is a picture of the raft made from blue board. It took me awhile to figure out why almost all the pots are knocked out of the raft. Turns out our dog Bugsy was trying to get the minnow that must have jumped up on the raft and dies there. He tried to step on the raft while I was watching and that was what messed it all up.

Dave Donley

Got the upper rail finished today!

First I marked and cut out holes for the 5" net pots. Used a Rotozip which worked really well.

Then I marked and cut the liner. The size was set by hanging a string under a net pot sitting in the hole, so I knew how much liner was needed to make the gap I wanted. Hung the liner over the rail, making sure it was centered and that the sides were draping exactly even on both sides.

Then I set the top piece on the rail and screwed it into the rail, making sure it stayed level.

Dave Donley

Screwed the liner into the edges using cap screws. Started in the middle and worked out, I used twice as many as on the bottom rail, I figured two for each gap between the pots was better than just one of them.

Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

DD's System 2011

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Backyard Aquaponics A place to discuss aquaponics

DD's System 2011

Who is online

Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics