Aquaponics The no holes fishtank window

Ive been thinking about adding a viewing window to my fishtank because Im part way through moving and expanding my little system, and now would be a good time.

The new system is going to be a simple CHIFT PIST* with fewer points to go wrong compared to my current system.

The problem with adding a window is that its another point that could fail. The side of the IBC fishtank is flexible, and the glass window is rigid, and that never ends well.

So I thought Id run it through the invention engine and see if there was a safer way.

It came up with something it likes to call the "No Holes Fishtank Window".

Which is nice.



So, it turns out you could probably force an aquarium partially under water from the surface to make an interesting inside-out aquarium.

Its a little reminiscent of Woncos house, "Outside of the asylum".

A better viewing angle would be made from a wedge shaped aquarium made from two squares of glass, and two triangles for sides. One square sits flat against the side of the fish tank (the side you would be leaning against when viewing), and the other sits at an angle of 45 degrees, so that it meets the other square 40cm underwater.

The entire device is mounted on a bracket that keeps it underwater. The bracket is an inverted U shaped bar of stainless steel (stainless steel, so the fishies dont get all dead). One bit of the U is siliconed onto the side of the window, the other end has a locknut to attach it to the frame of your IBC.

It could be easily removed to clean, or to simply add to land fill.

It will probably work, and might look a bit like this...

I might even make one for my boat.

Surprise!

120 Things in 20 years is still alive!



*Constant height in fish tank, pump in sump tank

Read More..

Aquaponics Automatic solids removal

So this...

out of the blue

A while ago... What I think is a year in Bullwinklle time... I decided Id not use the invention engine for a year to see if it made any difference to the quality of the stuff I create. I have no real idea if it it has, but Im now officially giving up on the experiment.

It feels a little like Ive had one hemisphere tied behind my back.

So now Ive decided to set two tasks allowing full access to the invention engine process.

1. Get sticking rich.
2. Contribute something to my garden that might be useful to someone else.

The two are in no way connected, and because I have no idea how to get sticking rich, I thought Id start with the aquaponics system, and leave the wealth part for another day.

I suspect leaving getting sticking rich for another day might be a theme in my life.

anyway ...

Ive been playing around with the idea of making a farm to grow escargo for many years. I figured this might by the thing I could put some research into and come up with an idea or two. My ideas put to the engine have all been based around using a bell siphon to flush a grow bed of snail solids by drowning the entire farm...say... once a day, by completely submerging the grazing feed (lettuce etc) in 30cm deep of water to wash away the snails solid waste.

The plan looked something like this...

Picture a 30cm deep BYAP grow bed with 15cm of media, and a 1cm wire mesh stretched across the top. The escargo would live in a cage on top of this grow bed. Planted in the growbed would be green leafy plants that snails liked, and that could survive being eaten from the top once they reached a height of 15cm. Lettuce etc. The plants would grow to 15cm height, then they would be grazed by the snails that would be housed in a cage that sat on top of the lettuce cage.The lettuce would continue to grow, and via some magic that I would figure out with the invention engine, the solids would be rinsed every so often with the rising tide of an auto siphon (or something)

Got it?

It doesnt matter, because thats not what Im going to do.

It turns out that if you read through own threads on forums, you find you made some other promise to make an aquaponics system that removes solids automatically.

Oh well.

Unfortunately for me I think I might have a go at this as a project.

I would like to state at this stage that I think this is an entirely pointless thing to do. I really like the way aquaponics works as an almost closed loop (if you invite your fish food manufacturer into your loop).

The balance is what makes it so appealing.

But that is also what makes it appealing as a task to set the invention engine.

Sorry universe.

So thats it...

How do I make an aquaponics system that removes solids?

Eughhh! (with shaking head)


Ok...


How do I make an aquaponics system, that I dont hate, that removes solids?


I already have some stuff that might be relevant from when I made a swirl filter (somebody eless invention), but made it with a built in autosiphon. The problem with that is it triggers all the time and dumps a lot of water with the solids.

Now that I think of it, I might have already come up with some other useful stuff as well.

Perhaps this test of the invention engine will just prove that I should have paid attention the first time around.

And now I remember the deer scarer.

Perhaps Ive already collected all the bits I need.




120ThingsIn20Years thinks this might be a bad way to come out of semi-retirement (Eughhh!)

Read More..