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!)

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Aquaponics Swirl filters for solids removal

Over the last few days, Ive been reading a stack of stuff on radial flow and swirl filters.

Heres what I think I know so far.

As far as I can tell a radial flow filter moves the water in a very gentle manner, first down then up. The solids stay at the bottom. It often does this by having a container inside another container. One container acts like a bucket, and the other is mounted upside down from the lid. You add water and solid waste into the centre top, where it gently moves down to under the rim of the upside down container. The water then rises up to exit near the top outside rim, leaving the solids behind at the bottom. A tap is placed at the bottom so you can remove the solids.

I think Im going with a swirl filter instead.

The swirl filter migrates solids towards the centre and the bottom, which should be the best position to remove them via a siphon. The path the solids take is a long one because the flow is circular due to the direction of flow on entry to the device. This allows more time for the solids to fall out of suspension (maybe).

So a swirl filter is a bucket with an inlet pipe mounted near the rim to introduce water and solid waste from the fish tank. The inlet tube is pointed in such a way as to make the water create a gentle whirlpool.

Normally, a tap is added to the bottom to remove the solids once collected.

As far as I can tell, a swirl filter changes the pressure of the water on the outside, making it higher than that of the centre due to its rotational ... disposition.

This pressure (and depth) difference means that the top is no longer the top as far as the poop goes. The poop now thinks the top outside edge is the new top, and the bottom centre is the new bottom. So the poop moves to the new bottom which is right where Il mount the bell siphon.

What all this means is that the poop is a little more committed to sinking than its normal, only slightly sinking self.

Its also more likely to settle out near the centre of the bottom of the swirl filter.

Instead of using a tap mounted through the bottom of the swirl filter, Ill be adding an auto siphon in an attempt to automate the dumping of the solids into a worm farm.

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Aquaponics Shell grit seed raising shoots

My attempt at raising seedlings in shell grit seems to have worked.

No real surprise there, because if its going to fail it wont be for a while yet. The point of failure, if there is one, will be the plants rotting because the water might flow through too slowly, and become stagnant.

The shoots appeared this morning.

The lettuce and rocket have sprouted, but the kale is yet to.

I think it was only 4 days ago that they were sown.

On a slightly interesting note, the seeds that were directly sown to the growbed came up yesterday afternoon.

They were sown around 10 days ago. I figured they werent going to show and moved on to trying the shell grit idea.






I still think it will be better to grow seedlings and transplant them just so you can space the plants properly. When you direct sow, you have to plant lots of extra and think them out because some dont grow, and some move around a bit and as a result you can get clumps of seedlings all in one spot.

Anyway...

So far so good with the seed raising in shell grit experiment.

120 Things in 20 years still has no taglines forming in its addled brain.

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Aquaponics Rain rain its ok

I was planing a bit of a build post on setting up my new improved aquaponics system, but the heat wave we have been having of up to 44 C (111 F) was interrupted this weekend by two days of rain that sunk our fringe festival.

But I like rain.

For one thing its nice that 44 C, but it also lets my put off doing things that I really should.

44 C days also let me put stuff off, but they are less pleasant to sit in.

Rain is much better.

So my new system looks like this...

Im in the process of siphoning it out, but it collected enough water to fill it to the 3/4 mark.

But I think Ive finalised a plan for my new system.

Ive never been a big fan of removing solids from an auqaponics system because I really like the way it forms an integrated system, where the fish waste feeds the plants, but I thought Id have a go at it because years ago someone thought it was a good idea.

The only real problem I have with removing solids is that it seems like a waste, but I figure if I can use the solids in the system, it will still fit within my comfort zone.

So the plan is...

• Make a swirl filter to collect solids
• Build a bell siphon into the swirl filter with an adjustable (height) stand pipe
• Set an outlet on the swirl filter such that it can dump water from the surface at the same rate that water is entering from the fishtank. This way the siphone will never trigger under normal operation.
• Make a stock tank float valve so that it adds water from the tap if it gets below a certain level 
• Make a Shishi-odoshi, which is a thing you might find in a Japanese garden that water trickles into, and occasionally goes "Doonk". Its basically a length of bamboo that is mounted at 45 degrees on a pivot point just a bit lower than its half way mark. Water enters the pipe from the top, and when it gets full, the weight at the top causes it to pivot and dump its water. The nature of the universe being what it is means the device dumps all its water, because once its commited to the dump, the weight of all the water shifts to the (now) bottom end. It also hits the ground and makes the "Doonk" sound that is apparently useful to scare deer away from your garden. Also apparently, Shishi-odoshi (??) means "scare the deer" in Japanese. I dont know why you would want to do that. 
• Make an automatic water topup system for my sump tank so that when the water gets low due to evaporation, it will add a bit. There is such a thing as a stock tank valve that makes sure your cows always have a full trough no matter how thirsty they get. Ill use one of those. They have a float that regulates when water can flow. Ill use that in the sump, set so it triggers at my minimum low tide mark, then rather than dump that water into the sump, Ill dump it into the Shishi-odoshi. When this happens the water will continue to flow from the tap until the sump is filled again, so the Shishi-odoshi will fill reasonably quickly, then dump suddenly. 
• Build a cup of PVC with a half inch hole in it so that it surrounds the standpipe from about halfway up and is higher than the standpipe by a few inches. 
• Drill a half inch hole into the standpipe at the bottom, of a size that would mean the water being sucked into the standpipe would be roughly equalled be the water entering the cup. ie it wouldnt just instantly drain and halt the siphon once triggered. 
• Direct this dump from the Shishi-odoshi into the cup surrounding the siphon, and it will instantly trigger the siphon. 
• The swirl filter will collect the solids at the bottom in the centre, so only a small amount of water needs to be dumped to empty the solids from the system. Perhaps only a litre or two. 
• The dump of solids from the contraption (and this is by far my favourite bit) will drop directly into my soon to be newly constructed worm farm. My fish go crazy for worms. 

The beauty of the system is that the hotter it is, the more active my silver perch are. They eat way more in summer than winter. The result will be in winter when the fish and worms are less active, the worm farm wont need or get much water, and the system wont need as much topup water. 

The result is that it should regulate itself perfectly. 

in summer...

• worms are more active and eat more
• the fish are more active and produce more waste
• The worm farm needs more water (or at least can handle the extra litre or two every day) (mine will be a fairly large worm farm. Im thinking of using a blue barrel)
• the system needs more topup water to replace evaporation so the Shishi-odoshi will trigger more often, and so supply more water and solids to the more active worms.

The worms eat my kitchen scraps, and fish poop.

The fish eat the worms, some duckweed growing on the sump, the scraps from the system (cuttings, root balls etc) and some store bought feed.

The plants eat the fish solids.

I eat the plants and the fish.

Everyone is happy.

Except the plants and the fish, the duckweed, and the worms. 

120 Things in 20 years Where I am everyone.

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