Comment

Comment by Francois Lemmer on December 27, 2010 at 7:33am

Because of direct wind I started trying different grow baskets
I made them from shade net and filled them with small stones
This then helped with the anchoring of the roots
I also got ideas from other forums
Bought small grow pots and slit the bases with a angle grinder and used as grow pots

Comment by Francois Lemmer on December 26, 2010 at 11:43am

My system was very simple and I did smaller changes along the way.

My trays were 4 off wide and 4 off narrow trays.......and this all changed to 8 narrow grow trays later
I changed all the trays to narrow trays to make
the system easier to manage
And this made things allot easier
My stones in my grow trays in size were ....+-10-25 mm
Later I added +-5 – 10 mm......big mistake
I sifted them and all up to 20mm out later again.
My final size stones in my system were +-25 mm
and in a bigger system I would even go for 30-35 mm stones
My water from my dam ran directly into my 8 grow trays
without solid removal
I later added baskets at all the outflows to catch some solids before going into grow trays
In the summer months with the temp advantage the fish ate a lot and they were sh ...........just as much
They worked ok to remove most of the solids
If I had to guess I would say about 25% went into my trays.
This seemed to be ok and between plants I would turn stones in tray and plant the next batch of whatever
The turning was more just to drop all the solids to the bottom of trays and open the water passage
Then planting of plants in system was a long battle finding an ok planting method
The wind plays a very big role
When I still had my plastic cover over my tunnel the bigger stones were ok
With no wind the plants grew well in the big stones but after the wind blew my tunnel away I had problems
Because of direct wind I started trying different grow baskets
I made them from shade net and filled them with small stones
This then helped with the anchoring of the roots
I also got ideas from other forums
Bought small grow pots and slit the bases with a angle grinder and used as grow pots
These worked well as well
There are so many ways of doing things so to me there is no one way
People say don’t reinvent the wheel but with Aquaponics the door is still wide open.....
kobus had a comment here where he had figures on study's done and on rekord of ap systems
if i remember right it was 10 study's on rekord
that to me says allot..........the door is open
I believe and me thinking
nothing wrong with trying

Comment by Francois Lemmer on December 25, 2010 at 9:10am

MY SYSTEM I DESIGNED.
• 1. AROUND THE IDEA OF MINIMUM  INPUT COST.
• 2. A DESIGN THAT I COULD UPDATE AS REQUIRED.
• 3. I HAD TO BE ABLE TO DO ALL THE WORK MYSELF.
• 4.SYSTEM HAD TO RUN WITH MINIMUM MAINTENANCE.
• 5. MINIMUM WASTE.
• 6. SUSTAINABLE.
• 7. VERMICULTURE PART OF SYSTEM.

Comment by Francois Lemmer on December 23, 2010 at 11:27am

OPTION 1 24 HR. CYCLE CONSTAND FLOW
KEEP WATER IN DAM TO KEEP BALL VALVE OPEN ALWAYS
THE VALVE USED FOR SAFETY FOR POWER BREAK/
OPTION 2 FLOOD DRAIN CYCLE
WATER LEVEL MUST BE MAINTAINED IN DAM
OUTFLOW CYCLE 10 MIN
PUMP CYCLE 18 MINS
THE SYSTEM SEQ. WILL BE
1 PUMP STOPPED / DAM FULL / BALL VALVE OPEN
2 PUMP OFF / WATER LEVEL IN DAM DROPS / WATER RUNNING INTO GROW TRAYS
3 PUMP OFF / WATER LEVEL DROPS AND BALL VALVE CLOSES IN DAM
4 PUMP OFF / VALVE CLOSED IN DAM / THE WATER VOLUME IN MY GROWTRAYS THEN RUN TO
MY DUCKWEED / PUMP SUMP
5 RISING LEVELS IN MY PUMP SUMP START THE PUMPING (CYCLE) BACK INTO DAM
6 PUMP PUMPING / DAM FILLING / BALL VALVE CLOSED
7 PUMP PUMPING / DAM FILLING / BALL VALVE OPENS
8 PUMP STOPPED / DAM FULL / BALL VALVE OPEN
9 PUMP OFF / WATER LEVEL IN DAM DROPS / WATER RUNNING INTO GROW TRAYS
.............. HOPE THIS EXPLAINS WORKS WELL AND EASY TO RUN AND MAINTAIN

(100 mm = 1500 litres)
Level dam drop 70 mm so this cycle of water into dam = 17 min. 1050 litres water back up to level.
Pump pumps for 17 min. To replace water in dam
Outflow continues 10 min cycle before pumps starts again
10 + 17 min. constant flow
Flow/pump flow =27 min. 1 cycle
In 24 hr. Cycle move 53.3 cycles
1 cycle moves 1 050 53.3 x 1050 =55 965 litres per 24 hrs.cycle
So in 1 hr. I move 2331.8 litres water through system