Burton's Posts - Aquaponic Gardening2024-03-28T09:19:37ZBurtonhttps://aquaponicgardening.ning.com/profile/BurtonRosenbergerhttps://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2772183262?profile=RESIZE_48X48&width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1https://aquaponicgardening.ning.com/profiles/blog/feed?user=3c8f34mghmqo4&xn_auth=noLooking at my systemtag:aquaponicgardening.ning.com,2012-03-03:4778851:BlogPost:3013742012-03-03T20:01:27.000ZBurtonhttps://aquaponicgardening.ning.com/profile/BurtonRosenberger
<p>Finally going to start getting the tanks together ... finances are not perfect but getting better so hopefully in a month I can have it up and cycling. (being realistic here)<br></br> <br></br> <strong>My general numbers used for questions / concerns below:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>300g stock tank filled with about 240 gallons of water (4" gap at top)</li>
<li>275 IBC split in 2 as GB's filled with 16" hydroton (110 gallons of hydroton in each half and 96-103gallons of water displaced when both are…</li>
</ul>
<p>Finally going to start getting the tanks together ... finances are not perfect but getting better so hopefully in a month I can have it up and cycling. (being realistic here)<br/> <br/> <strong>My general numbers used for questions / concerns below:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>300g stock tank filled with about 240 gallons of water (4" gap at top)</li>
<li>275 IBC split in 2 as GB's filled with 16" hydroton (110 gallons of hydroton in each half and 96-103gallons of water displaced when both are filled + hydroton with a 2"-1" dry gap)</li>
<li>sump tank 100g (probably 2 50's linked since they are smaller in size) </li>
</ul>
<p></p>
<p> Concerns:</p>
<ol>
<li><strong>Generally you want a 1:1 ratio of GB : FT with this setup I would have a 220 : 240 or if you include the sump 220 : 340ish</strong> <br/> <br/> Does this mean I will need another bio-filter like a MBF in the mix? I plan on using goldfish since I dont eat fish and dont want to deal with the FDA in selling fish locally. <br/> <br/> </li>
<li><strong>Which way should I split the IBC 40x48x46 (I assume the real dimensions of the plastic insert to be 40x48x40 LWH)</strong><br/> <br/> If I split it vertically down the front and sacrifice the 6" from center to remove the valve + bung then I am left with two halves roughly 48x40x17. How could the stock cage support this as two sides wouldn't have metal supports.<br/> <br/> If I split it vertically down the side I would end up with one tank holding more than the other because of the front valve and the dimensions would be 21x40x40 (note only filling up to 16" hydroton) How could the stock cage support this as two sides wouldn't have metal supports.<br/> <br/> If I split it horizontally then I have a bung on one side and a valve on the other so they might vary a little on the water / hydroton in each with dimensions up to 48x40x20. This would be odd as well as the cage on one half would require support where it was cut. And the cage on the bottom half, having the pallet section with assumed 6" height, would sit higher than the other GB. (This could be solved by making this GB brick supports 6" smaller.<br/> </li>
<li>I <strong>plan on putting the GB's on bricks to better slide the sumps under and use gravity. The FT is only 20" tall with a drain at 16" into the sump with an estimated height of 12".</strong><br/> <br/> Sadly the only low profile tanks I can find capable of holding up to 100g of water were th 50g stock tanks from rubbermaid. I say sadly as they cost 75$ea. >_< adding 150$ onto the system themselves. But elevating the GB above the FT isn't an option, even with 9' ceilings' as the GB would be a minimal of 40" vs the 32" with a sump system. <br/> <br/> Another thought would be to use an indexing valve to fill one gb at a time (48gallons) and use one sump. <br/> <br/> Or, use no sump but an indexing valve and place the GB's above the tank (40" height on the GB) and fill one at a time. This would bring the water in the system down to 240 and the water in the tank would fluctuate up to 3.2" at a time bringing the water level down to as low as 12.8" from 16" assuming a 4" gap. This setup would also require 5 full cycles per hour from a 50g sump cycle of 6 and a 100g sump cycle of 3.5 (as both are being filled at the same time)</li>
</ol>
<p><br/> <strong>Another option, kinda 'out there' in a way is to use JTT 27 gal totes.</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>The GB would consist of up to 8 of these each 29x20x15 LWH meaning 14" of hydroton, and 93.6g displacement of water if all were filled 13" with watter.</li>
<li>these are made with '99.99% recycled plastic ... no clue which type they are but hydroponic growers love this tote.</li>
<li>This option use 100% of my available lighting footprint</li>
</ul>
<ol>
<li><strong>To sump or not to sump? How many inches max should I drain from a FT assuming these would be over the FT ... this would determine how many totes could be filled using an indexing valve at once.</strong> <br/> <br/> 15gallons = 1" in the FT and one tote displaces 11.7 @ 13" + hydroton or 23.4, 35.1, 46.8 for sequences of 2 3 4 totes being filled.<br/> <br/> If I use 4 of the same totes as a linked sump the system would have 333.6gallons and 281.19gallons of volume respectively making the ratio of water to BG about 0.84 if you do just FT to GB it is 240:281.19 which is better as it is positive.<br/> <br/> Using 2 totes the flow / ratio numbers would be 286.8gallons in the system making the water to GB ratio near 1:1. This would require an indexing valve or a mechanical rotating valve (have seen some on youtube)<br/> <br/> Flow rates: 4 tote sump would mean 3.56 cycles per hour, 2 tote sump would be 6.12 cycles per hour to cycle all the water through the system. <br/> <br/> 4 totes requires 1 pump<br/> 2 totes requires 2 pumps? and an indexing valve<br/> no sumps 1 pump and indexing valve<br/> <br/> I assume the sump size is > gallons required to fill x amount of GB tubs in case of a power outage the max water lvl would be maintained in the FT. ... wonder if I should move the FT farther from the GB's.<br/> </li>
</ol>
<p><br/> <span style="color: #ff0000;"><strong> If someone could kindly poke holes, offer suggestion, or modify my thinking I would be grateful!</strong></span><br/> <br/> I have included images, to scale, for consideration in my photo gallery.<br/> <br/></p>12 down need inputtag:aquaponicgardening.ning.com,2011-04-14:4778851:BlogPost:888082011-04-14T02:45:51.000ZBurtonhttps://aquaponicgardening.ning.com/profile/BurtonRosenberger
<p>I was looking over my photos and was curious to know what exactly you would like to see in this assembly guide.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Currently I follow these steps per unit.</p>
<ol>
<li>Preselect LED's for each "string" and put them in a breadboard so I can just grab them as I need them, not a necessary step but I still do it.</li>
<li>Start at string 1 and solder in the resistor after bending the leads.</li>
<li>Place each LED in the string in the board, make sure it lays flat, then bend leads…</li>
</ol>
<p>I was looking over my photos and was curious to know what exactly you would like to see in this assembly guide.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Currently I follow these steps per unit.</p>
<ol>
<li>Preselect LED's for each "string" and put them in a breadboard so I can just grab them as I need them, not a necessary step but I still do it.</li>
<li>Start at string 1 and solder in the resistor after bending the leads.</li>
<li>Place each LED in the string in the board, make sure it lays flat, then bend leads and cut. Then flatten leads against the PCB with a flat edge to secure LED in place.</li>
<li>Repeat 2 and 3 till all strings are in.</li>
<li>Solder all the leads in place.</li>
<li>solder the output and input leads and wires in place.</li>
<li>Test unit with paper over the LED's to prevent going blind lol</li>
</ol>
<p>I am going to assume for the guide the person wishing to use the guide will know how to solder and deal with electronics in general.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The lights take about 1 hour to make, so doing a full assembly video wouldn't be desirable. But if you think there is something above you would like to see in video I can do it.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Right now I have photos of</p>
<ol>
<li>Each LED string being placed in the PCB one string at a time.</li>
<li>Tools used in the process</li>
<li>How I hold LED's while securing them in place (might want to do a video on this though)</li>
<li>End units with wires</li>
</ol>
<p>I do not have images of</p>
<ul>
<li>Units pre-finished stage where I am adding each wire jumper to the board. I believe this could be figured out by looking at the images but might be wrong :)</li>
<li>LED's in bread board</li>
<li>How to test LED's if you mix them up</li>
<li>How to tell the LED's apart in general (red vs other colors based on anodes alone)</li>
<li>How to use pieces of leads to bridge holes for inputs / outputs on PCB (assumed if pointed out in image it should be easy to understand)</li>
<li>Each LED being placed in the board (this would be tedious and I did do this on the first unit I made but the process of assembly has changed to speed the process up now)</li>
<li>Images / Video about trimming the LED bumpers (posted an illustration in a previous blog if you think this is enough then I will go with it :) )</li>
<li>Process used to test the units (simply wiring up leads from the DC jack [hooked up to the power supply] to the boards illustrated INPUTS)</li>
</ul>
<p>Did I miss anything?</p>
<p> </p>
<p>So, tech minded people out there, how would you like to see this guide undertaken so I can produce it in a way you desire. I have to make 28 more units so I have room to adjust the "guide" as needed. I have also not figured out how I will mount these and that will have to be eventually included. However since I have not started this yet I will test the waters to see what you guys would like to get out of this and run with it from there...</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Thanks for your input :)</p>
<p>-Burton</p>First of 40 donetag:aquaponicgardening.ning.com,2011-04-09:4778851:BlogPost:845852011-04-09T04:54:14.000ZBurtonhttps://aquaponicgardening.ning.com/profile/BurtonRosenberger
<p>This is to serve as a teaser while I compile the images I have take, two for each item soldered on so its a bit.<br></br><br></br>Also it should be noted this unit has not been tested beyond a short "pretest" of the LED's before soldering in place. I will try to get a working picture of this tomorrow when I solder on the main leads and the Jumpers for the other leads to jump to then next board.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>This stated here is some goodness for you to look at. TLeft is 1, TRight is 2, BLeft is 3,…</p>
<p>This is to serve as a teaser while I compile the images I have take, two for each item soldered on so its a bit.<br/><br/>Also it should be noted this unit has not been tested beyond a short "pretest" of the LED's before soldering in place. I will try to get a working picture of this tomorrow when I solder on the main leads and the Jumpers for the other leads to jump to then next board.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>This stated here is some goodness for you to look at. TLeft is 1, TRight is 2, BLeft is 3, BRight is 4<br/><br/><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2806450746?profile=original"><img width="750" class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2806450746?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750"/></a><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2806450962?profile=original"><img width="750" class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2806450962?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750"/></a></p>
<p> </p>
<p>This first unit, as all first units do, took a bit of time to make ... I wasn't exactly sure how the leads were going to be positioned before and now I have a better idea. So this means I will be able to put all the LED's on a board (or most of them) at once then solder them in place versus putting a single element on at once.<br/><br/>When I edit this post at a later date I will include a "lead" diagram so you can just copy it from the start instead of wasting the time I had to in order to do this.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>So preliminary notes, there were some LED's where I had to trim more of the bumper off to get them to lay flat ... this was maybe 10 but I will count tomorrow to keep track of how many you will need to adjust and I will include a notation about this in my summary of this step.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The boards above also do not feature the Jumpers yet so you are looking at raw leads, each resistor lead is a positive terminal and each extra lead pointing toward said resistors is the negative lead for the string indicated.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Tomorrow I will figure out where I am going to put the jumper leads, and the DC terminal leads (for the two boards which will require the DC terminal) and I will update my pictures. Depending on exactly what I end up doing tomorrow I might find time to sit down and write out the procedure and tools needed for this step ... But if I really get on a roll doing the other boards I might not get to it till later.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The good news is is its coming soon, very soon :) When all is complete I will probably write ONE guide and post it either on the forum or in my blog here. Though it will be long it will contain all steps and pictures required to duplicate the results.<br/><br/>I expect this project will take about 2 or 3 more days to complete as I still have not worked out how I am going to mount these yet and I will probably spend a day working out the best way to do it.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>If you have questions feel free to ask I will answer them in between soldering boards :)<br/><br/>Oh and for the astute viewers out there you will notice the pictures are taken on stone tiles ... This is my work bench as I am barefoot sitting cross legged on the same tiles while assembling the LED's ... this is to reduce the chance of all static killing my LED's down to nearly 0 :) More on what you can do to avoid this in the final write up.</p>LED project, beginning pt 1tag:aquaponicgardening.ning.com,2011-04-05:4778851:BlogPost:816932011-04-05T13:00:00.000ZBurtonhttps://aquaponicgardening.ning.com/profile/BurtonRosenberger
<p>Ok if you read my last blog post, and mainly the comments, you know I am still waiting for items to come in and I ran into a snag with the PCB hole spacing not being ideal for my ultra compact LED layout.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>To review that is this layout<br></br><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2772184026?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2772184026?profile=original" width="364"></img></a></p>
<p>The problem is simple, if you place two LED's in with the anodes (positive side as indicated by the purple/pink…</p>
<p>Ok if you read my last blog post, and mainly the comments, you know I am still waiting for items to come in and I ran into a snag with the PCB hole spacing not being ideal for my ultra compact LED layout.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>To review that is this layout<br/><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2772184026?profile=original"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2772184026?profile=original" width="364"/></a></p>
<p>The problem is simple, if you place two LED's in with the anodes (positive side as indicated by the purple/pink circles above) all facing the same direction in one row, they will bunch up with anything greater than two. This is is bad because we want them to sit flush against the PCB so we know where the light will end up when we are done, where ever we point it :) The problem lies with the LED bumper, while flush on the cathode side it sticks out everywhere else.<br/><br/>So to rectify this situation I had two options, one was to stack them so the bumpers overlapped but after trying this I realized the end result will not be a desirable one. The second way is to remove the problem bumper on the anode side.<br/><br/>Originally I thought this would be a pain in the butt and grabbed every file in the house to see about removing it ... the hardest part was holding onto the slick epoxy LED shell >.< <br/>It was then I remembered back to my days when I use to assemble lab equipment and how I would remove the bumper back then.<br/><br/><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2806444172?profile=original"></a><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2806445067?profile=original"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2806445067?profile=original" width="307"/></a></p>
<p>With a razor blade at an angle from above ...</p>
<br/>
<p>The procedure while easy is a little time consuming, yesterday I went through 500 LED's while watching / listening to things on my computer ...<br/><br/>What I did was first get one of the SINGLE square PCB's I ordered then grabbed one of the non-corrugated cardboard boxes they came in and poked two holes in it to slip the anode and cathode pins through. This was then slipped through two holes on the PCB and acted as a soft barrier so I wouldn't slice up the PCB in the process of "snapping" off this part of the bumper. <br/>
<br/>
<a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2806445266?profile=original"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2806445266?profile=original" width="600"/></a>How I secure the LED for clipping in the PCB ... snipping right side of bumper only.<br/><br/>And if you do it right it will indeed snap off, versus slice, given the angle ...<br/>So I have about 1000 LED's left ... I am identifying the amount of each LED I can skip this step on, you might ask how, by seeing if the anode sticks toward the outside on the image above. If it does, then you count each up and multiply by 40 to get the total count you can skip this step on.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>I will provide these numbers when I am done, so far I have only done the 660nm 30 degree LED's I can tell you you can skip this process on 60 of them, 40 actually skipped, and 20 extra we got ordered to get the price break at 500. :)</p>
<p> </p>
<p>you would think a pair of snips" would be easier however I think there is more room for error as you could expose the LED's bottom anode if the forces are wrong ... and LED's are too expensive to do this in my book</p>LED project, is a gotag:aquaponicgardening.ning.com,2011-03-30:4778851:BlogPost:788162011-03-30T00:40:26.000ZBurtonhttps://aquaponicgardening.ning.com/profile/BurtonRosenberger
<p>Just ordered all the parts I will need to create my LED light project. This project will cover a area 6 x 8 if it is desired and will cost $760 in parts and run off a total of about 80watts. Based on my math this will pay for itself in a few years time based on energy savings alone over using HID lights.<br></br><br></br>There is a lengthy post in the Indoor lighting group with the reason behind why I chose this design over others. This is NOT made to be the only source of light but work in…</p>
<p>Just ordered all the parts I will need to create my LED light project. This project will cover a area 6 x 8 if it is desired and will cost $760 in parts and run off a total of about 80watts. Based on my math this will pay for itself in a few years time based on energy savings alone over using HID lights.<br/><br/>There is a lengthy post in the Indoor lighting group with the reason behind why I chose this design over others. This is NOT made to be the only source of light but work in conjunction with HID lights which are cycled on for up to 1 hour every 3 hours.</p>
<p>Since my project is 100% indoors and there is no great source of light in the location I am using this seems to be the best option. I have had a lot of experience wiring high voltage laboratory equipment with many more components and complexities than what I will be presented with in this project so I have confidence I will be able to see it through.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>I plan using a heat gun or a well controlled oven to construct the "light bars" in such a way they are molded to fit the application, more on this later when I work out the details.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Here is the parts list with total cost analysis <a href="https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AmBBwWjoCrwXdGEzLTMxbF9PZ2RsampjU2dydFlYSmc&hl=en&authkey=CPSA1MUH" target="_blank">https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AmBBwWjoCrwXdGEzLTMxbF9PZ2RsampjU2dydFlYSmc&hl=en&authkey=CPSA1MUH</a></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Basic Circuit construction, the LED array on this is NOT up to date as I am not going the route of making my own PCB's</p>
<p><a href="http://img862.imageshack.us/f/completeunit.gif/" target="_blank">http://img862.imageshack.us/f/completeunit.gif/</a> for a clearer image as it is BIG :)</p>
<p><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2806443385?profile=original"><img width="750" class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2806443385?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750"/></a></p>
<p> </p>
<p>This is ONE array of 5 in each light strip, there will be 8 light strips total with two power supplies for a group of 4 respectively.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2806443748?profile=original"><img width="750" class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2806443748?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750"/></a>This is to scale drawing of the new array layout using the 213 pin boards in the price list. The dark colored items are the resistor locations for each "string" in the LED array. <br/><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2806444411?profile=original"><img width="115" class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2806444411?profile=RESIZE_180x180" width="115"/></a>Wire guide with each array indicated, the red dots are the + side of the LEDs. This design was chosen based on the new constraints of the 213 pin PCB and a desire to get the colors as close to the original array above.</p>
<p><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2806451249?profile=original"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2806451249?profile=original" width="230"/></a></p>
<p>Color guide below, currently uses same LED's in the arrays indicated on the circuit diagram just rearranged. I will most likely design this a couple of times before I am happy with it but this is where I am at currently. Colors used come off the diagrams above.</p>
<p><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2806473710?profile=original"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2806473710?profile=original" width="230"/></a></p>