Growth

This is how the system is growing along.

December 15th, 2012


There are little flags identifying what is planted where.  On the left is a #1 and also on the right in the middle.  This is the mesclun mix seedlings.  One the left on in the middle is a white onion from a onion set.  This was just put in for fun.  The #2 flag is for the microgreens.  The back right side by the water inlet is the  cucumbers.

December 21, 2012


You can see how much growth has happened in a few days.  The cucumber just keeps getting bigger every day as well as the white onion.  In the back behind the siphon are 2 dill plants and a couple of onion from seed.  As you can see the microgreens and mesclun are reaching for the light.  So I will have to double up on the lights.  At this point in the aquarium it seems like it has cycled.  The ammonia is at a safe level and the fish are happy.

December 24, 2012


Just one last one.  Everything is just growing really fast.  The onion planted from the set will probably be removed.  I did not plan on that thing growing like it did.  Now you can really see the plants all going towards the center to the light.  A new lamp hood with double the lamps is needed.

December 29, 2012


The onion was removed as some of the microgreens.

First plantings

So the seedlings sprouted and are ready to be planted.  Every one started except one "microgreen".  These are some of the leftovers and tomatoes on the tray.   All of these will be going into pots.


This is what the plant bed looks like planted.


On the left is a onion planted from a 'set',  then some mesclun mix.  On the right in back is the cucumber and up front the microgreens.  Still to be planted is dill and 'parade' onions.  I expect some of these will not survive as the system cycles.  But there are plenty of seeds in those packets.

Seed starting

Now we are ready to start some seeds.  My growing media for seed starting will be 1.5" Grodan rock wool cubes.   For some of the smaller stuff like "Micro greens", "Mesclun mix" and Dill I cut the cubes in quarters and made them about 1" high.  A 3/8" hole was drilled 1/4" deep.  Per the package instructions they were soaked 30-60 minutes in pH 5.5 water.  Into each hole went 2 seeds.  For the seed starting apparatus we are using a Burpee Self-watering 36 cell seed starting system.


To use with our aquaponics system we will discard the "cell" grow tray and peat moss pellets.  We are only interested in using the clear dome, wick, and tray system.   Once the rock wool and water are conditioned to the right pH level and planted with seeds we place them on the wick mat.


I marked the rows with a numbered flag. The number was written on the seed package as well. This should mark what is in what cube.   Four small holes were put in the clear dome and then placed on the tray.


Until the seeds sprout they will be under constant light from the 10W Ultra Sun 6500K CFL light.   Next time around I will increase this to a 23W bulb.


Hopefully in a few days you should see sprouts.  At this point take off the clear dome.  When roots appear it is time to put into the grow bed.

Splash guard and muffler.

Here is a little splash guard and muffler I came up with. When the water is dropping 2-3"s it creates a lot of splash and noise. This tube stops it. It is made from a 2-3" adapter drilled with holes at the bottom. A 2" piece of PVC tube and a 2" coupler.


The coupler at top holds a standard 2" net basket perfectly. In the basket is a bio-ball. This stops the water falling 2" and making noise. I suppose some Hydroton would do the same.


This is the splash guard/muffler installed.

Adding growing media

Now it is time to add the growing media and in our case the expanded clay pebbles.  First make sure the gravel guard is in place.   Some water in the growing bed is helpful as the clay pebble will float and fill in around the guard.  As more pebbles are added they will hold the guard in place.


Fill the pebble up to the edge of the gravel guard.


If any pebbles fall into the gravel guard they will have to be removed. The pebbles will cause the bell not to be able to break siphon.


This little guard is to watch the water flowing into the grow bed. It is not necessary but I like to monitor the water flow. It is made from a 2" net pot cut in half.

Growing media

There are a couple different types of growing media. River gravel, slate and Hydroton(expanded clay pebbles). Whatever you choose it should be PH neutral and the three listed are. Don't try "Pea gravel" from a home improvement store. I did that and even after washing it the gravel had a oily substance on it. Plus it created a mess in the system.


The whole system had to broke down and cleaned.  If you want river gravel buy it from the pet store.  In the end I decided to use expanded clay pebbles.  Supposedly they do not make Hydroton anymore and you get expanded clay pebbles instead.  I really found no difference between the two except weight and color.


Here the washed media is shown. Hydroton on the left and expanded clay pebbles on the right.

Bell siphon construction - part 4 tuning

So getting this thing to siphon correctly is a bit of a challenge.  First I will start with what the water looks like at different stages.  This is the normal water flow.  It is coming out of the drain hole in the side of the stand pipe.  This was put there in case power is lost.  However it will look like this as the top of the stand pipe starts feeding water.


As the water starts to build velocity and suction it will look like the picture below.  If it stays like this you will need to increase water flow into the grow bed.


When proper water pressure/suction has been achieved it will look like below.


Once the grow bed has drained the siphon bell make a "straw sucking" sound.  Then the end of the drain pipe will make a "burping" sound.   At this point suction should be broken and the cycle starts again.   If the drain pipe does not burp and water continues to flow out you need to decrease water flow into the bed.  It may take a few hours to get it right.

Some tips on increasing suction.  First increase the length of the first down tube.  Mine now sits at 6 1/2".  The other two pieces of PVC come in at 2".  This has created a reliable siphon.  You may have to adjust the down tube or the other tubes to make it create siphon.  Also the water flow will have to be adjusted.  Temperature and bio-slim will be two other factors to deal with.

Bell siphon construction - part 3

So now we have a siphon,  lets do a couple of tweaks before adjusting it.  First I live in SW Florida and power outages are a reality.  From research online I have found many people are drilling a small 1/8" or less hole in the stand pipe in case the power goes out.


Secondly and not a tweak.  We need a gravel guard.  This will keep the growing media out of the siphon.  Basically all you need is a tube with holes in the bottom part of it.  It is just to keep growing media out and allows the water to drain from the siphon.  This was made out of a Rubbermade 1 Qt. container.  Next time I will use gutter guard.  It comes in a 10' roll 8" wide and looks like black wire mesh.  For three dollars it beats the heck out of drilling a bunch of holes.


It sits in the grow bed like this:


Next up will be adding growing media and tuning the bell siphon.

Bell siphon construction - part 2

These are the drawings on what sized pipes I used in my system.  Consider the down tube arrangement a good starting point for your system.  It will have to be tuned and that will be covered in part 4.

Lets start with the stand pipe(right) first.  The 4 3/4" is the depth of the water in the grow bed.  You want it to be 1-1 1/2" below the top of your growing media.  For the Sterilite container I used this is the max water depth I can have due to holes left by the locking lid.  The stand pipe is made from 1/2" pvc pipe with a coupler on top and a grey(electrical) pvc slip to threaded adapter.  For the bell a 1 1/4" pvc pipe and cap is used.  According to just about every resource on the web the bottom of the pvc cap on the bell should be at the same height as your stand pipe.   In the top of the cap a hole is drilled the same size as the air tubing.  You run this air tubing down to the top of the slits at the bottom.  I cut it at a slight taper.  This is to break vacuum and stop the siphon once the water is down to the lowest level.  The slits at the bottom are of course to let water into the bell.  They should be at least 3/8" - 1/2" wide and there should be 4 of them.


Here is the drain pipe it also from 1/2" pvc pipe.  Make it close to this.  Part 4 will explain how to adjust it.

Bell siphon construction - part 1

There are lots of resources on the web on how and why a bell siphon works.  You can research at you leisure.  This will be how this systems bell siphon is constructed.  You can use the information here to replicated what I have done if you are building a copy of my system.


So these are the major components of the system.  On the right is the actual bell.  Middle is the stand pipe that goes in the grow bed.  The drain pipe is on the left.


This is stand pipe installed in the grow bed.  It has a Male threaded to slip pvc adapter on the bottom.  We us an one intended for electrical conduit because the threads are not tapered.  On a regular white pvc adapter the threads are slightly tapered to make a tighter fit.  It has a piece of 1/2" pvc pipe attached to it with a 1/2" slip connector on top.  This makes for a bigger opening creating more vacuum to start the siphon.  The bell sits next to it.  The bell is made from 1 1/4" pvc tube with a cap.  On the bottom are 4 slits 3/8" wide x 1/2" tall.  Those allow water into the bell.  On the top is a hole with a piece of air tube attached to it that runs down to the top of the slits on the bottom.  This breaks the siphon when the water has been sucked out of the grow bed.


Here is the drain pipe setup.  On top is another electrical conduit thread to slip adapter.  In between this adapter and the bottom of the grow bed is a #15 o-ring.  There is a long 1/2" down pipe and then two 90 degree elbows.  This will create a back pressure and start the siphon.  Will go into how this works in part 3 on troubleshooting.

So there it is.  In part 2 I will give you actual CAD drawings a dimensions to work from.

Building a micro-aquaponic setup

This is going to be the shopping list of what I am using, prices and where I picked up the item.  Some of the stuff I have around home but I want this list to be complete.  Of course things can be substituted but for what you have on hand or can get a better deal on.

• Topfin 10 gallon aquarium - $14.99 Petsmart
• Topfin Air-1000 air pump - $11.99 Petsmart
• Topfin 1"cube airstone - $1.99 Petsmart
• Topfin air tubing - $2.49 Petsmart
• 168 GPH water pump- $6.99 Harbor Freight
• Sterilite 4 gallon stacking storage bin - $4.95 Walmart
• 10 1/2" Lamp reflector hood w/socket - $11.97 Home Depot
• Lightbulb Y adapter - $2.48 Home Depot 
• 3/8" PEX Brass elbow - $1.67 Home Depot (optional)
• 6500K 23W CFL bulbs Sylvania 2pk - $10.41 Lowes item# 302257
• 2700K 23W CFL bulbs Sylvania 2pk - $7.98 Lowes item# 302309
• Shelving unit 30"H x 24"W x 14"D - $19.99 Lowes item# 328961
• Danco #15 O-rings - $2.37 Lowes (qty. 10)
• 1/2" pvc elbows (qty. 2) - $0.19 ($.057 for 3) Lowes
• 1/2" male threaded to female slip pvc grey for electrical conduit - $0.31 Lowes
• 1/2" female threaded to female slip pvc grey for electrical conduit - $0.30 Lowes
• 1/2" pvc pipe schedule 40 5' length - $1.51 Lowes
• 3/8" ball valve w/pex ends - $6.90 Lowes (optional)
• 5/16" vinyl tubing 4' - $1.12 Lowes
• 1 1/4" pvc pipe schedule 40 2' - $1.79 Ace Hardware
• 1 1/4" pvc pipe cap - $0.87 Ace Hardware
• PVC cement - $3.98 Ace Hardware
• Tie-wraps - in the electrical isle at any store. 

That is a grand total of about $110.00 for my equipment setup not including grow media, fish and plants.  If you are into aquariums, hydroponics or do any plumbing you may have some of this stuff around.  So don't let the price scare you off.