Time for an update on the project...
Came home Tuesday night to a small disaster, one of the loops pinched itself off causing the growbed to overflow. Probably lost about twenty gallons of water. After spending some time online and more than a little time in the hardware store, I devised a solution that I think will service me well. I purchased 3 5' sticks of 3/8" white PEX tubing. I found that iI could bend this stuff in a fairly tight radius without it kinking and it woud slip air tight into my 1/2" hose. It also allows me to adjust the height of the water in the grow beds by pulling the PEX out or pushing it back in the 1/2" hose.
It took a while to get them all done up this way because I would wait for the end of the siphon cycle and then cut the hose and make my modification. I also found that I had to add some length to the siphon hose at the sump end or the siphon wouldn't break the siphon action, it would just keep on dripping.
While I was fixing these my wife was washing the dirt off of tomato's, cucumbers, peppers and red cabbage plants that we had purchased the evening before, to prep them for planting in the growbeds. We both participated in planting them. We also threw some onions in these growbeds, as we read that they do well in companion planting. These plants have been in the growbeds since Wednesday night and seem to be doing allright. I have also planted seeds for celery, spinach and leaf lettuce.
I pick up the Channel Cat fingerlings tomorrow at 9 am, so I needed to get the air system set up for the fish . I am using 2 6" air stones that I purchased online from drsfostersmith.com, powered by a Tetra Whisper AP 300 air pump. Here are the URL's
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/p ... catid=8121
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/p ... catid=3676
I ran into a little trouble hooking these up as the air pump uses a standard aquarium air lines and the air stones required a 1/4" ID line. I managed to hook these up by using the 1/4" ID line to the airstones and place a short link of standard airline on the both of the pumps outlets then slid the 1/4" line over that, it seems to be working quite well. I also secured the air pump to the shelf using plastic wire ties, to prevent a disaster like the pump falling into the tank.
Two of these air stones put out a lot of air! Here is a picture of the surface of the tank and the water looks like it is about to boil over! I believe this should provide a good amount of air to my cat fish.
Tomorrow should be a great day, as I will have a fully functioning auqaponics system with 50 catfish fingerlings!