Eskowronski's build

[eskowronski]

All,

Welcome to my build!

My first post will be dedicated to my siphon construction...it was both easier and harder than I thought it would be. Hat tip to Affnan's blog and youtube videos as well as the discussions here for valuable information.

Here is a pic on the unassembled siphon...1" standpipe in a 1" bulkhead fitting, 2" bell, and a 3" gravel guard, followed by sequential assembly.








The 500 gph pump is plumbed with 1/2" PVC and 4 ball valves (return and each grown bed) to control flow to each part of the system.

I found that my original 275 gph pump was underperforming at the 3' or so head...it would run all siphons with no hydroton, but would only run 2 of three siphons when the beds were filled. They would run, but the full drain siphon would never materialize and it would just maintain a fully filled equilibrium.

In retrospect, the siphon is too large for grow beds of this size. In order for the siphon to form, the flow has to be fast enough to fill about every 7-10 minutes...a little faster than I wanted. Slower and it will not siphon reliably form. However, it is VERY efficient and will drain the bed in 2-3 minutes and breaks without a hitch.

Comments and thoughts welcome!

[eskowronski]

Now the entire build...

- 100 G fiberglass tank courtesy of Costco
- 500 gph submersible pump
- 7.8 Liter per hour air pump, two large air stones
- 3' x 2' x 8" grow beds (mortar trays from Lowes, only $13 each!)
- 300W titanium heater

Grow bed layout



Brick footings for beds supports (wire racks)



Final system



Note to self: WASH HYDROTON BEFORE RUNNING SYSTEM AND/OR ADDING FISH!!!

Current stock is 50 Comet goldfish, 10 of which expired in transit and setup, but the rest seem healthy. In talking with fish suppliers, this MAY not have been a good call as biosecurity for goldfish in terms of pathogens is not terribly good!

Planted roughly half of the available space with lettuce, basic, cilantro, and spearmint.

Again, comments and thoughts appreciated.

[rfeiller]

congratulations on getting underway. it is a very good base system to work from.

yes the goldfish feeders have a lot of pathogens, but the biggest problem is the ammonia burn they suffer from being overcrowded. even the "fancy" pond raised goldfish have the same problems at 20 times the cost. the fancy gold fish shipped from florida to here are all breaking down with one thing or the other. just wait for the strong ones to survive and you will be fine. if you are concerned with parasites hit them with clout, formulin, dronsit, levamisol, metronidozole, flubendazole, there is a poison for just about everything.

if you buy game fish from commercial hatcheries you will probably experience the same parasites. internal parasites such as flukes, tapeworms, capillaria, flagelate protazoa, and a lot of annelides. it's easy to sacrifice one of them and look at a few slides under the microscope at about 400power is usually enough. externally you'll see fish lice, ich, parasitic cysts, anchor worms and such. it's a great study, but kinda kills the appetite.

if you wait for them to die first you won't see much but a cloudy liquid.

remember a good parasite won't kill it's host. so don't worry about it.

[davidstcldfl]

Looking good eskowronski ...

That Affnan knows his stuff....

In retrospect, the siphon is too large for grow beds of this size. In order for the siphon to form, the flow has to be fast enough to fill about every 7-10 minutes...a little faster than I wanted. Slower and it will not siphon reliably form. However, it is VERY efficient and will drain the bed in 2-3 minutes and breaks without a hitch.

I have mortar tubs in my backyard system also. I use 1/2 stand pipes with 3/4 bushings on top of the stand pipe. ( I used 'thin wall' 1/2", it has a bigger inside diameter...schd 40 didn't seem to drain fast enough)
Any chance of reducing the size of your drains ? Maybe you could use reducing couplings/bushings in your bulkhead ?

Here's one place that has the 'bell type' reducing couplings like Affnan uses on his stand pipes....
http://flexpvc.com/cart/agora.cgi?cart_ ... s-Reducing
Looking forward to some more picts....with lots of plants..

[bcotton]

I never wash my hydroton or gravel. The system will filter the sand out of the water relatively quickly. If you are using a submersible pump i would take out the foam filter thing so the particles can get into the grow bed to settle instead of on the bottom of the tub (where they will constantly get stirred back up.) This may be more stress on your pump components but i guess there's tradeoffs everywhere.

It may be preferable to not have fish in it while it's so murky but fish live in muddy ponds and creeks and seem to do ok and i have yet to lose a tilapia, goldfish or my placo to murky/muddy water

My advice is that your system looks good, just let it do its thing.

brian

[urbanfarmer]

Congrats, looks great!

[keith_r]

it will settle out.. you might find that "fines" accumulate in your tank... just use a siphon to vacuum them up and it's all good..
i got impatient and put a sock on my growbed outlets as well as scrambling up a couple raw eggs and putting that in the ft as a floculent

[rfeiller]

how long a grow season do you have there? what do you grow?
i need to change my thinking from an 8 month grow season in ca to a 4 month season at 6000ft elev in reno, nv.

[eskowronski]

All,

Thank you for the input.

Not going to try to replumb the siphons...it is what it is. I did find out that sealing all air leaks is kinda important! I could NOT get my caps off of the bells, but sealed the gap with PVC glue.

rfeiller, I am growing lettuces, basil, and a few other leafy veggies just to start out. Going to get some trout when I get back from my trip next week. Reno is only about 4500 ft I think...we are at 6400!

E

PS UDATE: Lettuces and basil are starting to sprout already!

[rfeiller]

My acreage is up red rock road just under 6000 feet.