Mixed Aquaponics Design
Do you combine different media, methods or even culture species in such a way that no rules or system descriptions out there really applies to you? This is the place to share, ask questions, learn and refine.
My hybrid horizontal NFT system design, a work in progress
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=af9fe4b40ff5f128...
I don't yet have the plumbing linked up, but seeing as how I've spent so much time already putting this together I thought I should go ahead and share it.
It is a modified CHOP2 system with a yin-yang flood&drain IBC media bed and media-filled sump for solids break down passing to 2 aerated swirl filters before going into the NFT pipes and the IBC fish tank.
Averan
Here's a conceptual mockup for the blue barrel bio-digesters combining a typical swirl filter with my own design for a fluidized hydroton aerobic digester:
thoughts? comments? ideas?
air is pumped into the first barrel via a circular diffuser that blows a ring of bubbles up the outside to create a circular vertical flow. the goal is to break up and digest any solids that have made it this far into the smallest pieces possible.
then the water/solids move on via an SLO to the swirl filter for final polishing and settling. both barrels have bottom valves in case any solids collect and need to be occasionally drained out (back into the sump for another go-around?).
Dec 3, 2011
Izzy
What is a CHOP2 system? What is a yin-yang F&D IBC media bed?
You are very creative! :-)
Dec 3, 2011
Averan
CHOP2 = constant height one pump...2. means fish tank overflows into sump. pump in sump goes to media beds as well as back into the fish tank. think figure 8 circulating loop.
yin-yang media bed-sump is my own invention. basically, why waste all the volume in a sump with just water? might as well fill it with gravel and worms for extra solids digestion. :D the yin-yang part comes from how the bulk of water oscillates between the Flood & Drain (F&D - siphon) media bed and the media-filled sump below, effectively giving you 2 flood & drain beds but using only one siphon.
Dec 3, 2011