Building an Aquaponics hydroponics system

I finally got a chance to post some info about my system. I was given a bunch of 8" ABS piping. At first I was going to just split them in half, but I didnt think I would have enough root depth. Heres what I did:

First of all, I bought some 1/4" and 3/4" taps. I use them throughout the project and they pay for themselves by not needing to buy bulkhead fittings! They work great in ABS or PVC!

I cut each pipe into 5 sections, and then cut out 2 slots in the top about 4" wide for the plants. I then drilled and tapped a 3/4" fitting in the bottom for filling/draining. Once I put in the barbed fitting, I cut off the top on the inside to "maximize" the drainage. Plus, if there is any debris, it will get sucked out though this area.



In the background, you can see I cemeted and a ring around the inside of the pipe. This will act as a shelf to help support the end cap that I welded into place. This is the first time Ive done plastic welding....LOVE IT!



I had a bunch of 1/2" black pipe so I welded a rack together and also dug a hole in the floor of my greenhouse for a sump. It was heartbreaking to dig out the floor in my nice little greenhouse. Im sure Ill get over it once I see all these yummy veggies The sump pumps the water back into the 650 gallon tank.



I split a piece of 2" pipe and half and laid it in the bottom of each tray. This keeps the rocks out of the drain pipe....but Im still concerned about the roots getting in there and I dont have a good way to clean them out...



I wanted to have an external bell siphon. I dont have a lot space of play with the water/gravel height in these trays, so by having the external siphon, I can fine-tune the height of the entire siphon. Im really glad I did this now....Its has been working perfectly and I can make really fine adjustments to it without having to dismantle it.

Here area all the parts to it. Just a couple of odd things about it: A) I tapped two 3/4" fittings in the bottom-side. At first I tried to use just one fitting, but the 1/2" stand-pipe can suck the water out faster than a single tray can drain into the siphon chamber. B) I have a homemade bulkhead fitting in the bottom...I didnt have an o-rink or rubber laying around for the seal, but a dab of plummers putty worked really well! C) The ball valve is for the water supply and the little tube is used to direct the water down into the chamber....I had a little spray problem and it would shoot out the top of the chamber! As a bonus, since I just sort of stuck the tube on the threads, while its filling, it sucks air in through it and it act like a little bubbler.



Here it is all assembled. Just by dumb luck, I was able to sneak the supply tube under the vacuum break tube. It holds it all together nicely and helps to keep the bell from moving around.



Here it is with Its lid on and the 2 fill lines in the bottom-side.



Heres a couple of shots of the entire setup in operation!

From Aquaponics

Last week I planted lettuce, broccoli, peas, radish, beets, peppers, carrots and green beans. The peppers I planted indoors about a month ago. Everything else has sprouted. It will be interesting to see what the carrots, radish, and beets do in this sharp gravel.



The ground is still frozen outside (you can see the snow in the background). Even though this setup much smaller than my outdoor garden, I usually dont get to start planting until the first weekend in May! A 2 month head start rocks! The mass of the floor and tank can keep the night temps in the greenhouse about 12 degrees F warmer at night...just enough to keep everything safe!

I hope you all enjoy my setup...I have more expansions Im working on......

Lessons learned about nutrients and pest control

Well, its been a few weeks since my last post. Im sorry to say that I did not do my due diligence in researching the addition of nutrients to the growbeds in conjunction with the use of organic home made pest control measures. Due to some iron deficiencies in several of my plants, I decided to order some chelated iron to add to the fish tanks and to spray on the plants. I also, experienced some issues with red spider mites on a few of my plants, some on my Cilantro, and Stevia. After mixing up a home made remedy of garlic pepper tea, I decided to attack the red spider mites with a spray bottle of my home made concoction. This appeared to work, so I decided to spray all of my plants...no big deal or so I thought until I sprayed them afterwards with the iron chelate, which was a little to strong. As you can imagine the garlic pepper tea opened the pores in the plants leaves/stems and the iron chelate, being a little too strong, did the rest. By the next morning I had tons of black leaves on most of my plants and within a few days many had died and / or the leaves were severely burned. I am glad to say those plants left have recovered fully, and are growing once again. I even have a few new tomatoes on my plants.  I also had to pick a few cutter type worms from some of my swiss chard, so I have ordered some organic BT and Neem oil spray to treat the pest in the future.This will also help with any fungal problems I might encounter in the future. Lesson learned, follow the instructions to the letter on the label, or from the source of the information. A setback...yes, but not the end of the world.

Here are a few pics of the disaster.

Building a hobby room

Something a bit different from my aquaponics systems. I built a custom hobby/craft for my wife. She will put it to good use!

(It may be best to click on the video to open YouTube in a new window. Blogspot like to cut the edges off!)

The Building of a Greenhouse

Well, after months of debate on the type and style of greenhouse to use, and after much consideration with respect to price for prefab structures I have opted to build my own greenhouse from the ground up...without using plans. Here is what it looks like thus far. I decided on a 12Wx20Lx9H structure to start with...

As you can see this is the post setting stage with an 80lb bag of concrete securing each post.

These are two old 7x13 dog pens that I will be converting to cold frames once the greenhouse is finished.

  This is the Girt additions to tie it all together.

  and the trusses for the roof, the peak is 9 feet and the side walls are 5.5 feet, the whole structure is 12x20 which should provide plenty of room to start and I have plenty of room to grow the structure on the left side if needed.

The roof sheathing is being placed and regular composition roofing will be used on the north side of the structure. Notice the additional bracing on the girts.

The next stage was placing the siding, I used T1-11 and cut opening for windows and also place felt paper on the north side of the roof.

and here is the structure as it sits now, I have completed the purlins for the corrugated clear polycarbonate panels on the south facing portion of the roof, and painted them with white paint as recommended by the panel manufacturer. Now on to painting the rest of the greenhouse to match our home. Time to complete this stage - 2 weeks @ 4-5 hours per day.