The Curious Case of Floating Hydrotons

Well, as I've reported in my previous post, the only hydrotons that I can find were the floating ones.

Still I was curious if it can still work in a aquaponic growbed if that material is mixed with heavier materials.

If it works, then the fact that a certain percentage of the GB media can be replaced with a lighter hydroton would have been better than the BG being completely filled with much heavier gravels or stones.

So, I bought gravel of three different sizes, they were at least 4-5kg for each bag. And I bought some of those hydrotons as well.

My theory was to place the hydrotons at the bottom and weigh them down with much heavier stone. Would that counter the buoyancy of the hydrotons? I'm a diver, so I am intimately familiar with the forces of buoyancy.

The first layer was hydrotons:

Then I added water:

Next I place large flat gravels to try and layer them on top of the hydrotons:

And I added more gravels of smaller sizes:

As you can see, I have almost covered the entire layer. Then I added water:

From the side view,  note that IT IS POSSIBLE, provided you choose the right kind of gravel. So once the GB is completely filled, you will have maybe 30% hydrotons and 70% gravel.

Still, once you fill the GB with more water, some hydrotons will still floats up. That won't be a problem if you continue to fill the GB with more gravel. I didn't do that for this experiment because I was running out of gravels.

In total, it was a ratio of 3 bags of gravels and 2 bags of hydrotons.

If you were to increase the ratio from 3:2 to 2:1, I'm confident that it will work.

Then it is up to you to experiment to get the right ratios depending on what kind of gravels you can find locally where you live.

Anyway, I thought it was an interesting test and there were lessons learnt.

Happy Farming.

Aquaponics - Simple Set-up, Part 2.

As mentioned in my update of the original post, I realised that I will need a sump tank so that means the original set-up will not work.

The reason is this:

1) My original fish tank is 128 litres, whereas my 2 growbeds are 103 litres each.

2) Assuming water will fill 40% of the growbed when it is filled with gravel or Hydrotons, each growbed will draw about 40 litres of water from the fish tank.

3) With two growbeds, that will draw 80 litres of water from my fish tank. That means the fish tank will be left with 48 litres of water.

4) So either I stick with one growbed or I add a sump tank to the configuration.

And that's what I did.

I have an old IKEA Galant Table which I shall convert into the rack for the two growbeds. The A-shape legs allows you to adjust the height of the table.

I also had an old hole saw from Ikea for the purpose of drilling cable holes. And I drilled 2 holes for the drain pipes.

The drain pipes would later be fitted like this:

Then set-up the growbeds:

I drilled a small hole at the base of the stand pipe because if the Bell Siphon fails, it will still slowly drain out the water in the growbed.

 

I bought this water pump from a local fish shop:

 

 

 From the water pump, the hose goes to a t-joint: one end goes to the fish tank and the other goes to the 2 growbeds.

 I wanted to make sure the hose is secure and runs into the fish tank, so I inserted the hose through a 25mm PVC elbow. And the elbow is in turn cable tied to the fish tank.

The excess water will flow out through the bulkhead on the left back into the sump tank. The fish tank will have constant water level.

The hose going to the growbeds are secured by a 3-way PVC joint that is again cable-tied to the table.

and then at the edge of the growbed it is guided by an elbow. I drilled holes on one side of the elbows, and then 4 holes for the cable ties to go through the edge of the growbed.

Then the hose is again split through a t-joint so that I can distribute the water into each of the growbeds.

At each end of the hose going to the growbed, I added ball valves (US$4.00/pc) to control water flow rate. Since my water pump is 2,800l/hr, I think this is needed. Anyway, I will do full system test next week and we will see.

Here's a view of the 2 growbeds.

and the full system looks like this:

I think this is as compact as I can get it to be.

Since this set-up is in an apartment, I will get a room divider to block the set-up from the view when people walk into our apartment.

Maybe something like this:

That's it. Next week will be full system test.

Happy Farming.

The Wild Goose Chase

I have been looking for Tilapia fingerling in Singapore.

Looked around google and found this guy's blog: WerksWinkel

In his video, he bought some tilapia from the fishing pond at Pasir Ris Farmway 3. I went looking for the place. At first, I didn't see it because it was hidden all the way in the back.

So, I drove further down the road. There are a whole bunch of sorry looking aquariums selling both freshwater and marine fishes. These guys take up so much space and they hardly do a thriving business.

Imagine if the Singapore government just give 2-3 acres of those space for Aquaponics enthusiasts, what a difference it would be.

Saw some shops selling fibreglass fish tanks. If I have a large space, I would have bought one today.

Anyway, after running through multiple shops, I decided to ask one of the shop owners where this fish pond was. And he said it was where I went on my first stop.

So went around the back of Pasir Ris Farmway 3, and there it was. Actually, there are two companies offering pond fishing. One of them, don't sell live bait fish.

At the other pond fishing spot, I did see some fish in a small tank which looked like tilapia. But the people there looked so unfriendly, I didn't want to ask and obviously wasn't going to take any picture if you know what I mean. I did spot another area where there were a lot of adult tilapias.

I suppose I will go back there and try again when I am ready to stock up my fish tank.

My last stop was a big freshwater aquarium called Tropical Fish International. I did find something that is close to Tilapia.

But they were really expensive. Imagine if you have to buy 50-100 of these.

 

I don't know what I am going to do yet. Maybe I will buy some cheap KOI fish. At least they are bigger and presumably produce more shit.

Anyway, I had to go to IKEA and buy some stuff, so I left.

Happy Farming.

Germinating and labeling

Since my yesterday's success, I am going to germinate more seeds to see how that would go.

I bought this compost material, supposed to be quite good. It absorbs and holds water well. I like it.

 

Then I bought some cups from the baking shop, drill some holes to make drainage. Very cheap - 50 pcs for US$2.00.

To label, I wrote the plants name on some strip of paper and then pierce it with tooth picks.

 

Just stick it into the cup. No need to have sticky tape, easy to remove and to view.

I bought some mesh from the nursery the other day. Since I am placing these trays near the windows, I need to protect the seeds from hash sun. So, I covered it up. The trays are actually cookie baking tray - US$1.50/pc.

That's it.

Happy farming.

New Born

I was waking up this morning, still half asleep.

My wife informed me that my plant that had been germinated for 2 days is sprouting.

I immediately rushed out to the living room and I saw this thing. My tomato!!!!! My iPhone camera doesn't do it justice. Isn't that like the most beautiful thing in the world??

I feel like a farmer now. Hahaha.

Happy farming.

New Growbed and Bell Sihpon

Yesterday I made my first growbed. The plastic container I bought from supermarket. Since this is a test model, I didn't get a fancy growbed.

The container is 70cm (L) x 48cm (W) x 32cm (H) = 107.52 litres

I had a 35mm hole saw which is bigger than the OD of the bulkhead (31mm) but I will do some mod to make it fit.

Then fixed the base of stand pipe, and added some sealant to make it watertight.

Then the bottom of the growbed, same treatment.

Update (16 April 2014) : I'm a bit worried that the sealant that I've used may not be the right type. So I'm going to trim the excess and apply another type of sealant over the area around the bulkhead. This type is suitable for Aquarium and should be ok.

Then the stand-pipe:

As you can see, I have the middle section in various lengths so that it allows me to adjust the height of the standpipe.

I also cut the top of the 50mm to 25mm reducer because it was making my 50mm bell too high. You can see the difference in the above picture. I managed to find another type of 50-25 reducer. I will add the picture later.

Update (19 Apr 2014): As you can see in the picture, the 50mm-25mm reducer comes in different shapes and sizes. The white one on the left has a ID of 32mm at the bottom which will fit a 25mm pipe's OD. The grey one on the left has a smaller ID at the bottom. So be careful, better bring a caliper to the hardware shop when you are buying your reducer and bulkhead. The y have to fit your PVC pipes.

Bell Siphon:

Credit goes to Affnan as I follow his: Design of Affnan's Siphoon

I cut a 20 inch 50mm pipe to make 2 pieces of bell.

Then using tile drill bits, I drilled holes around the pipe.

Then cut it into two pieces.

Upside-down view of the bell.

Then I added another pipe which is 110mm to go over the Bell Siphon. (I will add more pictures later.) to prevent hydrotons or gravel blocking the siphon.

Put it together and tested the siphon in my bathroom.

and it works!! YAY!!

P.S. I added a valve outlet in case I need to drain the tank later. However, if I add a sump thank, this may not be necessary. But still it's nice to have options.