Day 2

The tank was just as murky as the day before. While pondering what to do about this, I decided the investigate the PH situation a little more. I found both my house water and spring water had PH levels well below my tank water. Therefore, whatever caused my PH to be over 8 came from the gravel, the grow beds, or the pipes. While my spring water PH was higher than the house (house water read about 6.2; spring water 6.8-7.0), neither was anywhere close to the tank water.

That made my decision to change the entire water quite easy, so out it went. This allowed me to clean out all the small particles that were in the fish tank as well. After refilling it and running a few flood and drain cycles, the water remains much clearer than before, and the PH is in the 6.5-7.0 range. Not exactly where I want it, but much better than before.

Next, I'll be off to a local Tilapia grower for some starter fish!

New Design - OUT with you half-barrels!!

After trying various half-barrel configurations and bell siphons, I decided half-barrels just aren't the way I want to go. The bell siphon alone takes too much space in each barrel, and having 16 bell siphons just didn't appeal to me. Also, the depth in each barrel is obviously not consistent due to the curvature of the barrel. If I were doing a small system, and just had a few barrels to set up, that would be one thing, but since I am setting up a decent-sized system, I'd rather do it right from the start.

I redesigned my layout based on larger grow beds, of about 525 liters each. After getting quotes from fiber glass shops on these one-off beds, and just as I was about to put a deposit in for an order of four, I discovered a local manufacturer of various rubber-based products, including tanks, pools, and water-reservoirs for cattle. It turns out the cattle reservoirs are perfect! The cost of these was about 40% less than the fiber glass equivalent.

Today I finished setting up the system with these new grow beds. I went ahead and planted what we had available - basil, arugula, and peas. I probably should not have done that before testing the water, which turned about to be PH 8 !! This water comes from a natural spring on the property. I figured that was better than tap water, and other than the PH, it probably is.

I went ahead and added crushed egg shells to the system to reduce the PH. I placed them in a make-shift left-over mesh-bag from my greenhouse screens, tying that to a plastic bottle, and floating it in the fish tank.

I have no idea how long it takes for the calcium carbonate to dissolve and bring the PH down, but egg shells are supposed to make for a good PH regulator in AP systems. I'll test it tomorrow and see if it has come down any. When it gets below 7, I will add my Tilapia.

For now, I'm priming the system using "Humonia".

Here some picks of Day 1:

All three bell siphons going. Yes, the water is damn murky. That's due to the gravel, and should settle out in a few days.

This grow bed is a used bath tub. If I could have fount five more of these, I would not have bothered with the water-reservoirs for cattle.

Backup pump system and air pump.

Basic Components - Main Fish Tank Pump

When you buy a pump, the main thing you need to consider is how much water it will be required to move. Whatever your tank size is, you should plan on moving something close to the entire amount of water through the system every hour.

I based my pump size on the maximum capacity of my tank, which is 1,600 liters. It's a "Little Giant" brand pump, made in USA (I didn't know they still made stuff there). It has a 500-gallon -per-hour flow capacity at 1' head. That translates into over 1,800 liters per hour at 1' and enough to move all my water every hour at the height I plan on pumping to. Here are some pics:

Basic Components - Connecting Bell Siphon to Grow Bed

This is pretty simple, but worth explaining.

Your bell siphon drain pipe needs to go through a hole at the bottom of the grow bed. Naturally, you want the pipe to drain only when you want it to and need to make sure the seal is otherwise tight.

Cut a hole at the bottom of the grow bed where you want the drain to go. Use a hole-saw that is just slightly larger than the male adaptor you want to connect to the end of the 1" drain pipe.

Ensure the male adaptor goes through the hole, and screw it to a female adaptor on the other side. You may need to buy some rubber washers to ensure there is no space between the male adaptor and the grow bed floor. This is especially critical in a barrel system, which has a curved floor.

In order to get the male and female adaptors to fit well together, you may need to cut the male adaptor down so that the amount of thread on the other side is just enough to tighten the female adaptor down tight.

Cut and uncut male adaptor with and without washer.

Test your siphon and make sure it works!

Basic Components - Bell Siphon

The following are pics of my bell siphon. It is based entirely on the Affnan siphon, which has several advantages, namely: it shuts itself off without the need for a cut-off air-hose, which are reported to clog easily; it drains faster due to the fact it takes advantage of Bernouli's Principle in its design, and for my time, it's much easier to make than a loop siphon or anything else I found.

Here's the bell itself. This can be made with a hack saw and some elbow grease, or if you're handy with a chop saw, you can make the horizontal cuts very carefully with a chop saw, and the vertical cuts with a hacksaw or jigsaw.

My bell uses a 4-inch pipe (100mm Imperial units). The siphon is a 3" - 1" (75mm-25mm) reduction connecting to a 1-inch pipe (25mm).

What is missing is a picture of the filter housing, which I will upload next time I'm at the farm. The filter is a 6-inch pipe with many small holes drilled into it.

The only disadvantage of this system is that the siphon, once it's fully assembled with its filter, takes up considerable space. This is amplified by the fact my beds are only 100-liter half-barrels. However, I am going to change my barrels to much larger grow beds (more on that later), and keep these bell siphons. That will reduce complications (bell siphons instead of 16) and provide more grow space.

Here I was just testing the siphon. The broken pieces of blocks are just to stabilize the barrel as it fills with water.