How do i know if i have enough air - Aquaponic Gardening2024-03-28T21:51:04Zhttps://aquaponicgardening.ning.com/forum/topics/how-do-i-know-if-i-have-enough-air?groupUrl=aquaponicsforbeginners&commentId=4778851%3AComment%3A387010&groupId=4778851%3AGroup%3A28135&feed=yes&xn_auth=noPhil, Man i dont have a clue…tag:aquaponicgardening.ning.com,2012-08-27:4778851:Comment:3872202012-08-27T17:57:14.563ZTony Gilliamhttps://aquaponicgardening.ning.com/profile/TonyGilliam
<p>Phil, Man i dont have a clue who made it, I bought it from an old biker / stoner type guy on Craigs List. I had to cut small trees down and deal with bee's and poison oak to get it. Sorry i can help any more than that. I will let you know that it was $1000 bucks to get it here and about 3 weekends of digging it out and several weeks if itching and scratching. It has taken me 2 years to get it to this point. It was originally 20'x48', I spaced the rafters 5' instead of 6' to make it…</p>
<p>Phil, Man i dont have a clue who made it, I bought it from an old biker / stoner type guy on Craigs List. I had to cut small trees down and deal with bee's and poison oak to get it. Sorry i can help any more than that. I will let you know that it was $1000 bucks to get it here and about 3 weekends of digging it out and several weeks if itching and scratching. It has taken me 2 years to get it to this point. It was originally 20'x48', I spaced the rafters 5' instead of 6' to make it 20'X40'.</p>
<p>Right now the sides are 4'. I am considering making them taller.</p>
<p>The greenhouse is about 1' lower than the tanks but about 200' away. I hope i can get a trench dug between them before winter.</p> Who manufactured your greenho…tag:aquaponicgardening.ning.com,2012-08-27:4778851:Comment:3868002012-08-27T16:10:35.168ZPhil Slatonhttps://aquaponicgardening.ning.com/profile/PhilSlaton
<p>Who manufactured your greenhouse and where did you get it? Thanks!</p>
<p>Who manufactured your greenhouse and where did you get it? Thanks!</p> TCLynx, This pic is of my fis…tag:aquaponicgardening.ning.com,2012-08-27:4778851:Comment:3870102012-08-27T15:52:41.778ZTony Gilliamhttps://aquaponicgardening.ning.com/profile/TonyGilliam
<p>TCLynx, This pic is of my fish room. They will drain through a 3 " pipe through 200' of dirt (free heat and cooling), to my 20'X40' greenhouse with 2 = 4'W X 38'L flood and drain grow beds. The grow beds will drain to a 4'W X 30'L raft bed that will drain to a 10' deep sump and return to the fish tanks.</p>
<p>All of this is yet to be built except the fish room and the greenhouse. The greenhouse has a bare frame and 30 tons of stone spread inside, But right now im spending my time and money…</p>
<p>TCLynx, This pic is of my fish room. They will drain through a 3 " pipe through 200' of dirt (free heat and cooling), to my 20'X40' greenhouse with 2 = 4'W X 38'L flood and drain grow beds. The grow beds will drain to a 4'W X 30'L raft bed that will drain to a 10' deep sump and return to the fish tanks.</p>
<p>All of this is yet to be built except the fish room and the greenhouse. The greenhouse has a bare frame and 30 tons of stone spread inside, But right now im spending my time and money on the fish room, I want to make it the best fish room ever.</p>
<p>This is going to be my hobby when i retire in a few years, So i want to get started now.</p>
<p>I am trying to get it right the first time.</p>
<p>I think i am going to have plenty of DO going into the system, I just wish i could measure it without spending $$$ Or dealing with harsh chemicals that my grandkids could get into.</p>
<p>I thank you for your help with this project</p>
<p>I guess the best way to deal with it is to install alot of points of areation and tweek them as i go<a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2684347330?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="721" class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2684347330?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="721"/></a></p>
<p> </p> Well there is a lot involved…tag:aquaponicgardening.ning.com,2012-08-26:4778851:Comment:3865922012-08-26T20:12:46.475ZTCLynxhttps://aquaponicgardening.ning.com/profile/TCLynx
<p>Well there is a lot involved in figuring out aeration and the definition of "maximum safe stocking level" is going to play a bit roll in it as is the type of filtration and plant growing.</p>
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<p>Dissolved oxygen becomes more limiting at high temperatures and heavy Biological Oxygen Demand. If you are removing solids, then your biological oxygen demand will be lower and the need for extreme aeration becomes less. Flood and drain aquaponics or trickle filters have the benefit that…</p>
<p>Well there is a lot involved in figuring out aeration and the definition of "maximum safe stocking level" is going to play a bit roll in it as is the type of filtration and plant growing.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Dissolved oxygen becomes more limiting at high temperatures and heavy Biological Oxygen Demand. If you are removing solids, then your biological oxygen demand will be lower and the need for extreme aeration becomes less. Flood and drain aquaponics or trickle filters have the benefit that you don't need to provide aeration for your filtration (since they essentially are aerated by their trickling or draining nature, only supplemental aeration for the fish tanks. If you are using other means of filtration, you will need to provide some form of aeration for your filters as well as the . And DWC or raft type growing options also require extra aeration.</p>
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<p>So I don't know that I would say dissolved oxygen is THE limiting factor, it will really depend on the design and the situation. It all works together as a whole. If you don't have any filtation, I don't care how much oxygen you have dissolved into the water, the fish and plants won't thrive (probably won't even survive.) If you don't have any fish or source of nutrients, then the filter and plants won't thrive with just dissolved oxygen and water. If you don't have any plants, you then wind up needing to change out water because an overabundance of nutrients. And if you don't have any water then none of it works despite the overabundance of aeration and oxygen.</p> DO seems to be the most limit…tag:aquaponicgardening.ning.com,2012-08-26:4778851:Comment:3865892012-08-26T18:37:01.259ZTony Gilliamhttps://aquaponicgardening.ning.com/profile/TonyGilliam
<p>DO seems to be the most limiting factor in AP. I just want to be able to stock the tanks to a maxium SAFE level and not go way overboard. Here is a pic of my fish room alot of aquariums aren't installed in this pic.<a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2684348361?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="721" class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2684348361?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="721"/></a></p>
<p>DO seems to be the most limiting factor in AP. I just want to be able to stock the tanks to a maxium SAFE level and not go way overboard. Here is a pic of my fish room alot of aquariums aren't installed in this pic.<a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2684348361?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="721" class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2684348361?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="721"/></a></p> If you provide some form of a…tag:aquaponicgardening.ning.com,2012-08-24:4778851:Comment:3860402012-08-24T20:25:10.624ZTCLynxhttps://aquaponicgardening.ning.com/profile/TCLynx
<p>If you provide some form of ample extra aeration and you are going with reasonable hobby/backyard type stocking densities, then I would say you can probably manage by careful observation.</p>
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<p>If you are planning somewhat high stocking rates and going with say Trout, then perhaps the DO monitoring could be worth while. Some of those aquarium automation rigs I think can monitor DO as well as pH and control pumps or lights etc and might be worth looking into or an actual DO meter. …</p>
<p>If you provide some form of ample extra aeration and you are going with reasonable hobby/backyard type stocking densities, then I would say you can probably manage by careful observation.</p>
<p></p>
<p>If you are planning somewhat high stocking rates and going with say Trout, then perhaps the DO monitoring could be worth while. Some of those aquarium automation rigs I think can monitor DO as well as pH and control pumps or lights etc and might be worth looking into or an actual DO meter. Otherwise a test kit that you pull out on occasion might help your piece of mind. To tell the truth though it sounds like you will have plenty of aeration since you are using air to circulate water. How important is it to you to know the number when careful observations of your fish will probably tell you about a problem (and you are likely to immediately see that oh the circuit tripped or the airline came undone or whatever and fix it before you ever go get the tester or test kit and run the test.) So unless you are planning insane high stocking (in which case you probably want something that can set off an alarm and phone you that there is a problem since it would be rare to wander by and preform a test by chance when a low DO incident is in progress) I don't know that testing will help you that much.</p> Well i never thought of that.…tag:aquaponicgardening.ning.com,2012-08-24:4778851:Comment:3859732012-08-24T19:45:09.776ZTony Gilliamhttps://aquaponicgardening.ning.com/profile/TonyGilliam
<p>Well i never thought of that. Thanks TCLynx. See thats why i put in on here, to get other peoples thoughts. There goes my million dollar idea right out the window. LOL Guess i will have to think about it some more. Thanks</p>
<p>Well i never thought of that. Thanks TCLynx. See thats why i put in on here, to get other peoples thoughts. There goes my million dollar idea right out the window. LOL Guess i will have to think about it some more. Thanks</p> Tony, there is one flaw to yo…tag:aquaponicgardening.ning.com,2012-08-24:4778851:Comment:3862172012-08-24T19:25:31.913ZTCLynxhttps://aquaponicgardening.ning.com/profile/TCLynx
<p>Tony, there is one flaw to your vacuum measurement idea, and that is just because your water is depleted of oxygen, doesn't necessarily mean it is deplete of all dissolved gas. Quite the opposite, water that is really low in DO might have high levels of dissolved CO2 and I expect that could really mess with your testing by vacuum method.</p>
<p>Tony, there is one flaw to your vacuum measurement idea, and that is just because your water is depleted of oxygen, doesn't necessarily mean it is deplete of all dissolved gas. Quite the opposite, water that is really low in DO might have high levels of dissolved CO2 and I expect that could really mess with your testing by vacuum method.</p> Ok, So sent alot of time on t…tag:aquaponicgardening.ning.com,2012-08-24:4778851:Comment:3859712012-08-24T19:10:32.118ZTony Gilliamhttps://aquaponicgardening.ning.com/profile/TonyGilliam
<p>Ok, So sent alot of time on the internet last night and learned quite a bit about dissolved oxygen and the test procedure. You can go a couple different directions with it. #1 Buy a relatively expensive probe and follow the instructions for its use. #2 Buy a relatively in-expensive test kit that has some dangerous chemicals in it. Both would give you very accurate results. #3 have a lab test your water.</p>
<p>All of these options have advantages and disadvantages.</p>
<p>Like i said, I…</p>
<p>Ok, So sent alot of time on the internet last night and learned quite a bit about dissolved oxygen and the test procedure. You can go a couple different directions with it. #1 Buy a relatively expensive probe and follow the instructions for its use. #2 Buy a relatively in-expensive test kit that has some dangerous chemicals in it. Both would give you very accurate results. #3 have a lab test your water.</p>
<p>All of these options have advantages and disadvantages.</p>
<p>Like i said, I spent alot of time searching and found the above options, Then i spent alot of time thinking about the problem. How can I figure out if i have enough air in my system? Well i looked at what effects dissolved oxygen, and came up with temperature, altitude, pressure, biological loading.</p>
<p>My idea is to measure DO using a vaccum gauge to lower the pressure of the water sample to a point of boiling at room temperature and recording the (in Hg vac). This method would have to be done at a point when you know you have a good DO level to get a baseline. Then this procedure can be repeated later as a problem solving tool to compare current (in Hg vac) to the baseline. It will tell you if your DO levels have dropped from the baseline.</p>
<p>The thought behind it is, The less DO in the sample, the more vaccum it will take to start boiling</p>
<p>Problem solved?? Now in off to the parts store to buy a vaccum hand pump.</p> Phil, That is a wonderful ide…tag:aquaponicgardening.ning.com,2012-08-23:4778851:Comment:3859182012-08-23T19:30:13.670ZTony Gilliamhttps://aquaponicgardening.ning.com/profile/TonyGilliam
<p>Phil, That is a wonderful idea. Make some cash while enjoying aquaponics. Good luck.</p>
<p>Phil, That is a wonderful idea. Make some cash while enjoying aquaponics. Good luck.</p>