Wolfracer's System Build

[wolfracer]

Although most of you are way ahead of me, I thought I would start a thread to chronicle my progress. I will add to it as things get done.

Here is what I'm am planning - Build a CHIFT PIST system, That is a Constant hieght in fish tank , pump in the sump system, raise tilapia ( if I can purchase them from some one) and vegtables year round via a radiant heated greenhouse. I am planning on constant flow using loop siphons in the grow beds and river bed systems made of 6" PVC.

For radiant heat I am going to build a hot water storage system copied from Mother Earth news utilizing a pond liner and insulated box. I will pump this hot water thru the pad via the radiant heat tubing. Although I am a big believer in buying locally you should shop around for this Item as it is varies in price from one distributer to the next. I am planning on taking advantage of solar and wind power to reduce operating costs but will also use electric for a backup.

I purchased a 275 gallon IBC from a local barrel cleaning company to use as my fish tank. I plan on enclosing and insulating it with a styrofoam/plywood box hopefully reducing any drastic temperature fluctations. After all this is Kansas and the weather changes to all extremes.

I have already purchased a 10x12 Harbor freight greenhouse and have installed the radiant heat tubing in the pad for it with 3-1/2" of concrete. I did this a couple of weekends ago. Mother Nature has been fighting me all the way! First working with 3/4" radiant heat tubing in the cold is a drag! Doesn't bend or manipulate very well. Since this is a greenhouse with water involved I also installed a small drain in the center.



Then the weekend we poured we recieved an unforecasted cold snap right after we poured. Fortunately the only damage to my pour might be a little scaling on the top layer. I can live with that, after all the concrete is there for thermal mass. Notice the light dusting of snow on the pad after we uncovered it.



Well I was hoping to get to constructing the greenhouse last weekend but that didn't pan out because of high winds(part of life in Kansas), so I decided to start building my growbeds.
These are made up of 30 gallon sterlite containers my wife found on sale a few weeks ago. they were a littlle tall, so I broke out the die grinder and cut them down to 12" deep on the inside.



Since I am planning to use a loop siphon system I constructed a internal drain pipe with 3/16" holes drilled in it for the water to drain thru. I made these removable, in case I need to make a design change (add more or bigger holes) and to aid in cleaning.

The next step in this process was to drill a 1 3/8" hole in the grow bed to allow the drain pipe to connect to the loop siphon . I connected it with a home made bulkhead fittng using 1" pvc to 1" pipe male and female adapters and hand cut rubber grommetsand 90 degree elbow. These seem to be fairly sturdy, but I have yet to test them.




I worked fairly steady at these and was able to complete 9 growbed assemblies this weekend. This will give me approximately 170 gallons of growbed capacity. I may add more But I really need to get the greenhouse up first to see what I am dealing with when it comes to room to work.



I hope you enjoy this thread and please don't hesitate to offer advise! We all could use a little help from our friends.

[jackalope]

Sounds like you're going to have a heckuva system Wolfracer. Congrats .... keep us updated!
That kinda makes mine look small . That's OK though, I'll get there, little by little

[JeffW]

Looks great!...this thread will be neat to watch as you move forward so I shall subscribe to it.
Interested in your follow up on the heating with the tubing too.

[mommyhen42]

I really hate to sound stupid here but what is a loop siphon???

I am trying to figure out the need for the pvc to go all the way thru the growbed... Does it go through to both sides or only one?? sorry just trying to visualize something I have never seen before...

I am a great one for looking at something and then going home and doing it myself, but I am totally lost here.

It took me a while but I finally understand how the auto-siphon works and can get them to work now no matter how tall my stand pipe is but I just cant picture a loop siphon.

Would have killed me to cut up those totes, but if what you are doing looks great I will copy your design and give it a try.

Thanks
Sheryl

[wolfracer]

I really hate to sound stupid here but what is a loop siphon???

A loop siphon is an Auto Siphon, it works on the same principle as a bell siphon that is that once the siphon action starts, it will continue until the siphon action is broken by introducing air into the siphon. A loop siphon is a piece of hose that is looped with the top of the loop being where you want your high water level to be. Once the water level rises to that point and flows into the downward part of the loop the siphoning action starts. this will continue to siphon until the water level drops to a point that the siphon sucks in air. they are the simplest form of Auto Siphon. The bell siphon's definitely work better, as far as removing the water faster.


I tested my growbed loop siphons last night so here's a picture of what they look like.



Using a constant input of water from my sink sprayer with faucet halfway on I was able to fill the container in 16 minutes and drain it via the loop siphon in 8 minutes . This will work well in the system as I have pictured it. No need for timers using a constant flood and loop siphon system.

Here's a picture of my cat Boots supervising the test.



I am planning on bracing the growbeds up when I get them in the greenhouse because the bulging sides had me a little worried.

I hope I helped with my explaination.

[JeffW]

My little setup with those half loop siphons work fine with small pea gravel in the cups,
and it drains the entire system dry automatically when siphon mode kicks in. I am wondering
with your beds having a greater amount of media in them than what I have in those cups
will your grow beds drain the same way with out stopping and more than likely there
should be no reason they won't.

By the way I think flex hose method is great, we have not had any troubles using hose
siphon, we used that in all setups all summer 2008 in more than one system and they all
worked.

[wolfracer]

I am hoping that they will work as predicted. I have seen this on the Aussie bords and they seem to work well for them.

[JeffW]

Yep I learn allot from down under..they take this very serious and darn good at it too.

Oh by the way I am using rain water, I got 100 gallons last 2 days from roof.
Our city makes our water with chlorine and fluorosilicic acid in it so it is not good
for my guts much less the plants and fish

Yea they are worried about our health and our teeth so they use that acid which is
a toxin left over from mining a certain product.

[mommyhen42]

Ok, so now this is starting to make some sense to me. Do you cover the drain holes with screening to keep the gravel from being sucked in??? Or do you use a much larger gravel. I have been using all purpose gravel which has varing sizes unlike pea gravel which seems to be pretty much the same size.
Home Depo is charging me $2.47 for each bag and it takes about 2 1/2 bags to fill a 7 gal growbed to a little over 3/4The pea gravel is a little more than $3 a bag for the same amount, which is why I have been going with the all purpose... either way I do have to wash the gravel because of the amount of mud in them, some are definatly worse than others, as I found out a couple of years ago when I dumped a bag into my new pond and turned it into a big mud puddle... The bag says that it is washed but it is not, I complained to the company and they sent out a rep who brought me 4 more bags to the 3 I had bought but all were just nasty with mud... This years group of bags is just as bad...
The washed pea gravel for landscaping that really is washed nicely is over $5 a bag so I am not going there.

[wolfracer]

I am hoping to find gravel that is large enough not to plug the drain holes but still small enough to work correctly as a grow media. Thanks for the info on the gravel!