Folks have been asking for parts lists and drawings on how to put this together. So Ive (finally!) put together a parts list, complete with links to the product pages for these bits on the Home Depot website.
Bernoulli Standpipe
1" slip to 3/4" male pipe thread (MPT) adapter - $0.77
3/4 in. Sch. 40 PVC Pressure Slip x FPT Adapter - $0.44
5.5 inch length of 3/4 in. PVC Schedule 40 Pipe - $1.97 for 10 feet, $1.15 for 2 feet
Inexpensive Bulkhead Fitting
3/4 in. Male Terminal Adapter - $0.46
[A 1 inch diameter hole drilled through the bottom of your grow bed]
#18 O-ring - $2.27 [for Box of 10]
3/4 in. Female Conduit Adapter - $0.50
Coanda Discharge
5 inch length of 3/4 in. PVC Schedule 40 Pipe (already bought)
3/4 in. PVC Sch. 40 45-Degree S x S Elbow - $0.62
5 inch length of 3/4 in. PVC Schedule 40 Pipe (already bought)
Auto-siphon "Bell"
10 inch length of 2 in. PVC Sch. 40 Pipe - $3.69 for 2 feet
2 in. PVC Cap - $0.98
Media Guard
11 inch length of 3 in. PVC Sch. 40 Pipe - $5.95 for 2 feet
All told, the parts add up to about $20 if youre just building a single Bell Siphon. If you build two of them, they come in at $14 apiece. Or if you get a bunch of friends together to build 10 of these, the price comes down to $9 apiece (because youll buy the 10 foot long lengths of 2-inch and 3-inch pipe - economies of scale).
Now that youve got the parts, heres how to put it together:
Small system I put together for a Feb 2012 science fair
Installing the Bulkhead fitting (the grey conduit bits and O-ring)
Assembling the Standpipe, Bell, and Media Guard
Different Discharge Options (I like the 45 degree or Coanda Discharge)
Sometimes we see a few critters wandering around the farm and they usually keep their distance. This guy didnt care that I walked right up to him to take this video.
I have had quite a few requests to provide some more detailed information on how well the wood burner works. I would like to share some temperatures with you using a AGPtek Dual Two Channel Digital Thermometer.
I have been very happy with how well this pool heater has worked for us this year. We have had such a cold summer here in Michigan this year and this heater has been one of the only reasons we have been able to enjoy the pool. Normally, the solar heater and solar cover can keep the pool comfortable but this year it has just not been adequate. I have run the wood burning heater only when needed, maybe once or twice per week at the most. We have been able to easily keep the pool temperature above 75 degrees so far this year.
The numbers and methods here are just for rough estimation of how well the heater works, this is not meant for the science books, but should hold true with a heater of similar size and efficiency.
I measured about 69 gallons per hour with a 33 degree average warm up to the water. This was with an average sized fire going as the temperature here will fluctuate as you add wood and let it burn through. I have seen it as high as 45 degrees and as low as 15 degrees, so it just depends on how much and what material you are burning.
Calculations I used: 15,000 gallon pool divided by 69 gallons per hour (filled one gallon in 52 seconds) gave me 217 hours to heat all of the water 33 degrees. Or if you reduce, it comes down to about 27 hours for 4 degree rise for the entire pool. You can also just divide 33/217 to get a coefficient that can be used to create a formula. Y = .15x where Y is the degrees you will heat 15000 gallons of water and x is the number or hours you run the heater. So if we plug in 24 hours for x we get y=3.6 degrees Fahrenheit.
Hopefully that makes sense to be used as a ROUGH estimate for calculating how much you can heat a similar sized pool.
Products:
This post has been shared at: The Homestead Barnhop, Simple Saturdays Blog Hop, The Backyard Farming Connection Hop, Natural Living Monday, Frugal Crafty Home Blog Hop
Why build support posts when you can use a super-strong dome?!?!
I needed to come up with a way to support and spread out some of my vine plants in the greenhouse. By removing a nut on the hubs and installing a coupling and eye bolt, it is an extremely strong point for attaching a cable system to act as a trellis.
Installing it is very simple, loop the cable through on one end and clamp it, feed it through another eye bolt on the other side of the dome, and bring it to another eye bolt to figure out the final length. On this end, I loop it through a turn buckle.
Alright, moving right along….
Then just hook the turnbuckle into the last eye bolt and tighten the cable.
All that is left to do is to tie the plants on to the cables. I also run some twine down to the grow beds so that the cucumbers can grow up it and attach to the wire. Here’s a shot of the tomato and cucumber once they have really started to grow along the line.
In this video, I am working on the conversion of the chicken run into a chicken tractor. There are several reasons why I would like to do this. The chickens enjoy eating grass, bugs, and scratching through a fresh piece of yard now and then. Also, it will allow me to move the run to easily clean the area where they spend most of their time. I have been wanting to get this done for quite some time but have been busy with other things this summer.
I have been looking for some old piece of junk on the side of the road somewhere that had wheels on it I could scavenge but have thus far been unsuccessful. I was able to pick up a small set of wheels at Home Depot that will fit the burden but not really the bill. I paid much more than I wanted to but they are some pretty sturdy looking wheels that should last a long time.
The main thing that I needed to tackle with this project was to build a hitch for my garden tractor and to build a system for the wheels so I could move them into position when I am ready to move the run around the yard. I still have more work to do here (build a nesting box, food scraps trough, roosts, and portable watering system. These will be done as soon as time permits and I will get another video that should cap this project off.
This post was shared at: Homestead Barn Hop, HomeAcre Hop, Simple Lives Thursday, The Backyard Farming Connection Hop
Every year I see people burning and bagging leaves, are you one of those people? If so check out this easy and basic process for composting that we have found to work very well.
We stopped giving away our free fertilizer a few years ago and we will never turn back. We now do not throw away any organic material from our yard or kitchen unless it is somehow toxic or gone really, really bad. All of our leaves, sticks, sawdust, chicken manure, food scraps, cardboard, compostable paper products, and much more all end up being processed right back into our garden beds. Is there any other way? I cant imagine going out to the store and buying fertilizers and compost that some company is selling back to the same people that left their yard waste at the curb, doesnt that seem silly?
There are many resources out there on what you should compost and how much of each type of item to put in the pile or bin or whatever you have setup. I go with a simple and very general rule of thumb. We add about 75% carbon material (leaves, saw dust, cardboard, paper, wood chips, etc.). This is the base to any good compost and handily this also makes up the majority of most peoples yard waste (remember that giant pile of leaves you had to rack up last year?). The next ingredient is nitrogen materials (chicken manure, vegetables, plant materials, last years jack-o-lanterns, and all of our kitchen waste). Just to be clear you cannot add any leftovers or meat products to your compost, only things that at one time grew from the ground in some way.
Now that you have all those goodies mixed together the only thing left to do is to wait and turn it over as much as you can remember. I mix mine up about once per week. This allows air to get into the pile and for the bacteria to get to work doing their thing. Many people suggest watering the pile as well but up here in Michigan I would not do that unless it was a drought. I might pour a bucket of nitrogen rich aquaponics water on it if that was needed.
We have found the best way to get started and make sure that our lazy genes dont take over is to keep a small container on the counter in your kitchen for scraps and one just outside your door to move them into every day or two. We use an old mixing bowl inside and an old trash can outside. Once per week or so I take the trash can back to the "pile" and dump it and stir it up with a pitchfork.
If things go well and the pile gets cooking you should be cooked down to useable soil in about 60 days or so depending on your weather. This soil has everything that your plants, flowers, vegetables, or anything else needs to grow. If you do this right you should not need to buy soil, compost, manure, or fertilizers for your garden.
I hope this encourages someone to get started and save some food scraps from ending up in a landfill for goodness sakes!
Here is an update to our original follow-up (confusing, we know!) of our attempt at an alternate tomato cloning method. Our tomato clones did fantastic last year and cloning was a great way to get a jump-start on our gardens here in Michigan. Well, we made some changes to our first attempt, thanks to some advice from a fellow gardener, and it worked this time!
We hope our trials (and errors) help you on your journey to grow your own food!
Its been a busy fall, what with creation of the Aquaponics Association (yours truly is Secretary of the US Chapter). But I finally got a chance during the holiday break to enclose my greenhouse. Not much growing going on, but the fish are all doing fine, even through the nasty cold snap that swept through the eastern United States in early January.
I shot a bit of video on January 1st, when it was cool (55 degrees) but sunny. With the greenhouse enclosed, it got up to 83 degrees inside. Nuts! Slipping into the greenhouse was a bit like getting off the plane in a tropical locale.
For the roof of the greenhouse I simply have a double thickness of 3.5 mil plastic - though I dont have this inflated, there is still insulation value from the small air pockets between the two sheets. This is a time when "rumpled" helps.
Ive been wanting to install some method of measuring temperatures, but the Stout family has collectively decided to be fiscally responsible in 2012. So no impulse purchases of environmental monitoring equipment for Meg. Ive gotten a kickstarter project approved which would let me ask the collective crowd to contribute to the monitoring experiment (for prizes!). Ill see about going live on that project in the next week or so.
Anyway, heres video of the state of things on January 1st, starting with a snippet of video from September to explain how I get 10 foot wide sheeting to cover a greenhouse.
Got to spend the morning with one of my shale customers while they presented their system to CT Governor Dan Malloy and the Commissioner for the Department of Agriculture, Steven Reviczky. This footage was taken at the Arc of Meriden in their greenhouse
A follower has let me know that he saw one of my videos posted on another user’s YouTube channel. I greatly appreciate the fact that they brought this to my attention. I am always happy to produce and post videos which are always free for you to enjoy. What I don’t like is some scumbag ripping and reposting my videos under their own channel. It probably won’t be a surprise to you, but I am a YouTube partner and do receive some ad revenue from my videos. (It’s very little, but every penny helps!)
If you happen to see one of my videos posted, and it’s not from the Web4Deb channel, I would be very grateful if you notify me of this theft. Thank you for your support and I look forward to providing more videos in the future.
Aquaponics is an easy activity which will provide you with the necessary vegetables and fish in a short amount of time. Join us
-
Aquaponic Gardeing - The Advantages
Aquaponic gardens can give you plenty of fresh vegetables and tasty fish, theyre fantastic for any kind of house at the same time as for any age and occupation you may have. However, theyll not take care of themselves! It is correct that they call for really small care, nevertheless it is crucial that you give them those few minutes every day each and every day to be able to get really good outcomes and maintain the farm making for any extended time frame.
The key process in aquaponics is aeration. If the water is correctly aerated, then your fish will be pleased and your plants will grow generally. Alternatively, in the event the water just isnt effectively oxygenized, then you will find really handful of chances that your farm will survive for greater than a couple of days.
The motives why aeration is so essential are very basic and easy to comprehend for everybody. To begin with, the dissolved oxygen is required for the fish to breathe. Although the fish live under water they still have to breathe and just like in case of other animals, they need oxygen to survive. When they lack oxygen they die, therefore the balance out of your aquaponic technique is lost and inside a matter of days your plants will start off to have yellowish and at some point die out.
As this was not adequate, the fish excrements are decomposed and transformed from toxic ammonia into valuable nitrates inside the presence of oxygen. Therefore, in the event the water is just not effectively aerated the fish poop will not be transformed, the plants will have nothing to eat, although the fish will die intoxicated with ammonia. This is not a really pleasant perspective, is not it? This really is why youll need to monitor the high quality of ones water each and every and every single day and have a back-up program in case the energy gets off and also the air pumps will no longer be capable of function. This really is the only way by means of which you are able to save your aquaponic technique and make it operate for any lengthy period of time. Your plants as well as your fish will thank you for that!
Vertical Hydroponics - New Dimension to Hydroponics Gardening
Vertical gardens and living walls add a complete new dimension to hydroponics gardening. Apart from space constraint, vertical gardening gives an appealing alternative for undesirable views, adds interest to boring walls, and produces the identical amount or perhaps much more fresh vegetables as a standard garden. Many of the fruits and veggies like tomatoes, lettuce, strawberries, herbs, pepper, pumpkin and so forth. could be grown inside your vertical garden. While contemplating a vertical garden, keep the following issues in thoughts:
Place: Make certain your plants get enough sunlight; and for those who have seasonal winds, make sure the plants are well protected. In case you have a balcony or patio with limited sun exposure, select plants accordingly. Leafy vegetables like lettuce and cabbage do well in shaded places. Selection of vegetables: Practically any vegetable grown within the ground will work effectively as a container-grown plant in your vertical garden. Shelves work ideal for vertical gardening, as it gives you plenty of space for quite a few varieties of vegetables. The best kind of shelving would be the type with slats this allows far better circulation and excess water will trickle down from best to bottom. Trellises are excellent for developing trailing or vine crops, or you can also use fences, hanging baskets, tiers, or ladders. With minimum obtainable space you can effortlessly prepare a vertical hydroponics technique which is very functional. Its straightforward to preserve a vertical hydroponics technique however the building part requires small bit of skills.
Tools needed to prepare your very own vertical hydroponics garden: Screw gun 4 wood screws of size 3-inch Plywood of size -inch and 2-by-6 feet 3 rockwool plastic slabs, of 4-by-6-by-48 inches 12 eye hooks, -inch eight feet long nylon string Water pump 18-gallon tote Box cutter Black vinyl tubing -inch, 8 feet 2 T fittings, 1/4-inch 12 rockwool plugs 2 eye hooks, 3-inch Chain, 4 feet HPS bulb, 600-watt as well as the cooling unit Ballast, 600-watt
Easy method to develop your own personal vertical hydroponics garden with simple :
Repair your plywood in a vertical position onto the wall where youve decided to set your vertical hydroponics program. Fix the 2-foot side on the bottom on the ground. Set the rockwool slabs opposite the plywood with equal space in between them. See to it that there is 2 feet of clearance between the top from the slabs. Repair the eye hooks in the distance of six inches from above the slabs to ensure that they may be equally spaced and 18 inches in the edge of the plywood. Repeat this approach by sustaining a distance of 18 inches from the plywood bottom and assistance the slabs with all the help of nylon string. Now divide the vinyl tubing into two sections of about 4-inch every single. The plastic which is placed around the top side of the slabs. Fix tubing of two inches and insert into the holes that are drilled to the left and middle on the slabs. Now repair one particular T fitting on every single section. And connect tubing that travels among them. Now connect the 8-inch tubing for the middle T-fitting and connect the finish towards the final slab. Connect the remaining T-fitting for the left and run it towards the lower finish of the slab. Set your 18-gallon tote underneath the slabs and cut the plastic at the bottom of each slab. The excess nutrient solution is drained in for the tote by the slabs. Now connect the water pump into the tote with connected -inch tubing. Now your vertical hydroponics technique is ready to use and you may commence gardening by adding seedling inside the plugs which can be further placed within the rockwool. Cut a 3-inch slice over the plastic slab to supply some space for the plug. Ad nutrient remedy into the tote, and start your water pump. You can hang your HPS unit by hanging it on the 3-inch eye hook. The unit ought to be placed as such that the bulb is parallel with all the vertical slabs and four feet distance away. With the assist of a chain youll be able to position the cooling unit in suitable angle to ensure that the light covers all of the slabs without having significantly waste.
In this video, I show some of the ways that we are keeping the chicken coop warm in the winter including keeping the watering system from freezing. We have had a few days in the 20s here in Michigan so I have had some time to test out the heating system that I have set up and it is working great so far! The watering system that I put together this summer has been working well and it has been so nice not to have to clean out the water!
To prevent freezing in the watering system I am using a product called heat tape or heat cable. You can find that product HERE. All that is required is some electrical tape, duct or foil back tape, pipe insulation, and some zip ties. The installation is pretty straight forward for any piping system. You run the thermostatically controlled heat cable under the pipe you would like to keep from freezing and hold it in place with zip ties or electrical tape. Then wrap the pipe in insulation and cover with foil back or duct tape. The heat cable only turns on when the temp is below 40 degrees and then turns back off once the water is heated up enough. So far this seems to be working great!
We have also installed a heat lamp on the inside of the chicken coop to provide a little bit of heat for the chickens as well. They enjoy the light it provides and also some warmth! To control the temperature in the coop we are using a small thermostatically controls outlet. This product is available HERE. This little outlet turns the heat lamp on when the temps gets down to 35 degrees and then warms the coop up to 45 degrees and then shuts off. We got this idea from someone who commented on one of our videos. We really appreciate feedback like that! This saves energy and allows it to automatically keep the temps above freezing inside the coop. I know that the chickens can probably do without the heat but they do seem to enjoy it!
Next year, I will run more permanent electrical wiring, light sockets, and installing an outlet for the heat cable, but for now I have a extension cord run to the coop from an outdoor outlet on our home. This will work for now but I plan on implementing a more permanent solution.
I hope this helps you with your own coop in some way!
SSL Family Dad
This post was shared at: Homestead Barn Hop, Simple Lives Thursday, The HomeAcre Christmas Hop
Here’s the latest in the dome greenhouse series showing the polycarbonate installation. It’s nice having it enclosed and not working out of the wind. It’s still cold, but the heating system is next on the list!
Transcript:
Welcome Back!
This video will show how the exterior of the dome is covered. The northern face of the dome has no polycarbonate and is covered in OSB and will eventually be shingled. Each of the triangle sections needs to have studs added to support the boards. Placing them can be tricky when it’s difficult to reach all the points.
Sometimes the best laid plans don’t always work…
Once all the studs are installed, it’s time to install the OSB. I found it was easier to set the sheathing by ripping the OSB into two foot strips instead of leaving them 4 feet wide. It also reduced the amount of scrap that was generated.
The shed roof and part of the dome are covered in water and ice shield. This will protect the building during the winter and will allow me to shingle the roof in warmer weather. The shielding has an adhesive backing which helps to hold it down to the OSB and a few roofing nails insures a gust of wind won’t peel it off.
The polycarbonate sheets are 6 by 24 feet long. I set up a couple of sacrificial sheets of OSB on the ground as a cutting area.
I decided to repurpose an old tape measure and cut it up so I could easily measure out the various leg lengths for the triangles. With a couple of clamps to hold the ends, it made it easy to triangulate all the points. I found it was easier to make my marks by just poking a nail through the material. Trying to mark the frozen poly with a frozen Sharpie was a futile effort.
The polycarbonate cuts very easily with a sharp circular saw. After I filmed this, I discovered it was even easier if I placed another scrap piece of polycarbonate under it so the blade didn’t have to also cut into the OSB.
Setting up a guide allows for a nice straight cut. After each piece is cut, the protective film can be removed and the sawdust in the flutes is blown out with compressed air.
Installing the panels was quite simple providing there was no wind. Before cutting each panel, I did measure each opening to insure the measurements matched the computer calculations. There were a couple of sections that were slightly off which was probably from slight errors in the hub construction or the strut measurements. But, for the most part they all went in as planned.
Each panel was cut so that the flutes are orientated to allow for condensation to drain out.
Once I got down to the ground level, it was even easier to install each section. All the panels are held in place with stainless steel screws that have a neoprene-backed washer. The screws pierce right through the polycarbonate and the washer creates a watertight seal against it.
All the joints will be taped in the spring since the waterproof tape needs to be applied when it’s over 60 degrees. During this filming it was 20 out. You may have noticed that I’m wearing insulated boots, long-johns, a sweatshirt, insulated hoodie sweatshirt, scarf, winter coat, winter hat under the hoodie, and insulated gloves!
All the panels intersect nicely over the hubs. The original plan of rabbiting each stud so that the panels wouldn’t interfere with the bolts worked out well. Also adding the bevel to the studs made a large flat surface for the panel to rest against.
The panels along the base are cut extra-long so that they will hang over the knee wall. This will help to shed water and prevent it from getting into the dome through the knee wall. The overlapping pieces are simply cut off with a razor knife.
The northern face of the dome that isn’t covered by the shed was also studded and covered with OSB. Unfortunately, my HD camera was broken so I wasn’t able to film this part, but this is what the final construction looked like.
When I laid out the building, I oriented it so it faced due-south. It now acts like a huge sundial and it’s very easy to tell when it’s time for lunch!
That’s it for now. Next up may be the heating system. It’s getting difficult to work in the freezing temperatures! Don’t forget to join our Facebook page!
This phenomenon is called “needle ice” and it occurs when the soil temperature is above freezing and the air goes below freezing. The water in the soil is drawn out by the cold air and quickly freezes, building these long strands of ice. They’re also fun to crush!
New subscriber? Been around for awhile? What is this channel all about and why do we do what we do? These are a few of the questions that I hope to answer in this video.
A few years ago my wife and I decided to move into this small subdivision in small town America. Having both come from country roots it was a bit of a compromise for us to be in a community type setting. As we settled in those country roots began to take hold of our small suburban homestead.
We started thinking more about what we ate, how we got our food, how to save money and live a more simple life. We decided to have the SSLFamilyMom at home full time working on raising and caring for our family of five. Many decisions began being made that slowly turned this city lot into a small backyard farm.
During this transition we needed lots of information, repairs, cooking, gardening, aquaponics, chickens, and anything else you can think of. We started reading blogs, researching we articles and how-tos, and watching a whole lot of others on YouTube. We learned so much and used so many ideas of others. It was time for us to start giving back, it was time for us to share our lifestyle and our ideas with others. This was the beginning of the sslfamily blog and YouTube channels.
We are a family of five, often going in many different directions at once. Cooking, knitting, auto repairs, wildlife, hiking, aquaponics, chickens, DIY projects, home improvement, recipes, bible crafts, science experiments, inventions, sustainable projects, computer repair, and the list goes on and on. We decided on three YouTube channels to spotlight the kids, my wife, and my own projects individually and one blog to tie it all together.
We have been blown away over the past year at the response we have gotten, the lives that have been touched and the stories and projects that have been shared back with us. Our family has been truly blessed over the last year and much of it in part to those of you watching or reading this now.
So if you are a new subscriber what can you expect here? Well, just about anything! I try to release at least 1-2 videos per week on relevant topics ranging from home and auto repairs to gardening and sustainable living projects. Product reviews come around from time to time if I have a product that I feel would be good for that kind of thing. I always review honestly and never with a product that I have not used. I focus on aquaponics videos throughout much of the winter and to the outdoor garden in the summer. I also release computer repair and technology tutorials whenever they present themselves around the home as this is my profession. I always provide an honest outcome if I am trying something new and share the experiences I have had and what has worked for me or share what I have learned from others. Oh, and you may see a few bible verses shared on my channel, this is something that is important to us and our faith in Jesus is interwoven into everything we do here on our little homestead.
What not to expect? One thing you will not see here is us asking for money from you. We are not here to profit from you or ask for donations of any kind. It is always a turn off for me when I watch a YouTube channel or subscribe to someones blog to see them asking for money and that is not something I am interested in doing here. We also do not do unboxing videos. I will go ahead and open my own boxes off camera! I have not done anything in the way of Vlogging and do not really plan to do anything under this title (I hate the word myself). I may however, offer an opinion on a video or article if I feel it is relevant or feel the need to share with you.
What is coming up next? This is a long-winded answer so I will get to the point. I have so many things that I want to do that I will never be able to catch up. I may post an interactive list at some point for you all to be able to add things to as well but for now I have the following in the immediate works:
Improve the wood burning pool heater and the garage heater Chicken coop watering system redesign Fish "Pondaponics" Indoor aquaponics redesign Rain collection system Automatic garden irrigation Tire rotation Cast iron seasoning Chicken coop scraps feeding door and trough Wireless network tips and tricks Shop computer and the list goes on............
How can you support us? This is a simple answer, do what you are already doing. The best way to support the SSL Family is to follow along with us and share your stories, your pictures and your feedback with us. We couldnt do this without you!
The only appliances you need in your aquaponics system are a water pump to circulate water and an air pump to keep up the levels of dissolved oxygen. I’ll discuss electrical pumps, since most folks have access to electricity, whether delivered by the power company or generated at home in some manner.
The water in your system should circulate completely once an hour. So if I have 200 gallons in my system, you might think a 200 gallon per hour (gph) pump is enough, right? Unfortunately, the flow rating on the box of a pump assumes there are no significant friction losses in the pipes and the water is only being pumped 1-2 feet up hill. Since I have 200+ gallons in this 365 Aquaponics system, I’d want at least a 500 gph pump. I’ve used 800 and 1000 gph pumps, which gives me plenty of power to overcome piping loss, intentional throttling, and bio-fouling (e.g., leaves and algae gumming up the works).
Most systems I’ve seen use plastic pipe or tubing to carry water from the pump to the grow beds and tanks. But these tend to be expensive and/or complicated. As someone trained in the physics of fluid flows, it hurts my soul to see right angles in water pipes. Right angles create friction losses and invite blockage.
Turns out there are all kinds of manifolds with valves designed for garden hose. You can buy them at your local hardware store. And they’re cheap, because tens of millions of people buy them. So far, so good. Regular garden hose, however, isn’t safe for drinking water due to the amount of lead it can leach into the water. Call me silly, but I don’t like leaching lead into the water my fish drink and breathe. So I use special ‘garden hose’ that is specifically designed for drinking water. If your local hardware store doesn’t have it in stock, you can special order it, or order it online. It’s not much more expensive than the stuff that leaches lead, and you can usually get it shipped for free if you shop around.
Draping the hose between the pump and grow bed is trivial for the growbeds on the same side as the sump. But it’s a bit more complex for the beds opposite the sump. Below is how I drape the hose, to ensure I don’t kink the hose, don’t block access to the garden, and put the hose opposite the end of the grow bed that drains into the sump or fish tank. Here is a video clip showing the water pump and hose installation.
Timers - If you have functioning bell siphons, you can leave the water pump running continuously. But there are reasons to have a simple timer to turn the water pump off and on:
Stopping water flow at night. You may do this because its cold weather, and you want to conserve thermal energy rather that spending energy to "cool" your water by circulating it during the dark nights. Or you might just want to keep it quiet for your neighbors. Since I turn my pumps off at night, I have drilled a small hole in the standpipe of my bell siphon so any excess water remaining in the grow beds can drain when power goes off for the night.
You dont want to deal with bell siphons. In this case, you can set the timer to turn on for 15 minutes every so often (say once an hour). As long as you have a standpipe with a small hole at the bottom, your beds will fill while the pump is on, then slowly drain when the pump is turned off.
Even with functioning bell siphons, you can throttle back on power requirements by turning the power off intermittently. This can be particularly important if you have an extended power outage, and are trying to maintain your system off a small solar array.
There are any number of timer systems out there, but I believe a simple timer like the one pictured above will take care of most needs for an aquaponics system.
I know some of you find these teasers agonizing, but heres the next one! Dont worry, the project is almost done and I wont torture you with these videos anymore!
I really cant believe 2014 is over, I just cant. It literally flew by! I cannot remember a year past that was more memorable or more full of blessings. We just have so much to be thankful for and we recognize it, especially as weve watched some of our friends and family go through a different kind of season in their lives this year. Some went through true hardships and our hearts and prayers go out to them.
In just a few short weeks, we will be coming up on our one year anniversary of the aquaponics system. What started as a Christmas present to each other last year (2013) has just blossomed into so much more. We first heard of aquaponics when we were at Epcot Center in Disney World three years ago. We couldnt believe how much faster and bigger their plants were growing, and they didnt need dirt! We knew we had to at least give it a try.
We also added chickens to our backyard this year and started this blog. Sharing our knowledge with the online community has allowed us to invite all of you into our home and our lives. We are so grateful for the many people who have sent us emails, photos and comments. It encourages us more than we could ever explain when we see someone building their own aquaponics system or a chicken coop of their very own.
We keep a list of our future projects and goals and I thought it might be nice to share, in the spirit of the new year and keeping resolutions.
Our goals for 2015:
1. Build a rain barrel collection system for chickens and the gardens. 2. Setup a video live-stream of various areas of the homestead on our site. 3. Add an outdoor fish pond. Lovingly being referred to as fish "pond-aponics". 4. Plant more fruit trees (mini-orchard). 5. Build a homemade wind generator to power parts of our home. 6. Build the "Ultimate Worktable" for the garage workshop. 7. Convert our gas generator to natural gas. 8. Build a greenhouse. 9. Build a treehouse for the girls. 10. Add tilapia to indoor aquaponics system. 11. Add a curbside library to our front yard (www.littlefreelibrary.org) 12. Tour and partner with local food pantries and churches already growing with aquaponics and educating those who dont. (This is a passion of ours, we have already teamed up with one, tour coming soon!)
Phew! Looks like well have an even busier 2015 but we couldnt be more excited. Thank you for sharing in our journey!
Blessings, The SSL Family Mom
This post has been shared at: Country Fair Blog Hop, HomeAcre Hop
The system you’ve been reading about will be auctioned off at the September 2011 Aquaponics Association Conference this weekend on Saturday, the evening of 17 September.
My problem? How to get this sucker from Northern Virginia to Orlando, Florida.
Someone else’s problem? How to get this sucker for Orlando, Florida, to their place.
I figured the bidding pool would shrink significantly if the system was too big to fit in a standard vehicle. So here we go, packing the bits up and loading them into the back of my minivan. I left both seats in the van, since there’s no guarantee someone wanting to take this home will have thought to remove seats from their van.
It can work. You can take the 365 Aquaponics System with you – an investment you wouldn’t have to leave behind if life turned upside down. You’d have to leave the most the water behind, as well as the fish. You might even want to gift all but one grow bed worth of media to a friend. But at the end of the day, you could pick up and take it with you.
I look forward to seeing many of you in Orlando, at the Aquaponics Conference. But the anticipation can’t be better than the friendships and memories I’ll have to look back on when it’s all done.
Heres some more pictures:
The interior of my minivan with some of the long bits inside
In a tragic turn of events, my winter season is over. The circuit breaker for the greenhouse tripped and it went through the night with no heat.
The outside temps went down to 21F (-6.1C) last night while the inside temps went to 27F (-2.8C). Everything got frosted except a few lettuce plants. Tank water is at 38F (3.3C)...goldfish are conserving energy by sitting at the bottom of the tank. Theyll be perfectly fine this way until spring.
.
-
