An under ground aquaponic concept

With weather going from 115F in the Summer to 20F in the Winter I have been concerned about insulation and maintaining a consistent temperature.  By insulating and placing a large portion of the tanks under ground I may be able to control the water temperature.

Below is a concept drawing of what that might look like.   There would be a covered opening over the sump tank which would also provide access to plumbing.

• The sump tank contains the pump which will operate 100% of the time without a timer.
• Water from the sump tank is poured into the fish tanks.
• Then into the settling tank using a bottom pickup tube not shown here
• As water is pumped into the fish tanks it seeks the level of the spill tube which runs to the grow bed.
• The water percolates through the grow media filling the grow bed
• When the water reaches the height of the siphon it is dumped into the sump tank as clean water.  

An idea I have for a buried system

Some of the features I like in this design are:

1. Reduced exposure to UV will help prevent damage to the polyethylene IBCs
2. One pump design with no chance of pumping the fish tanks dry
3. Well insulated
4. Looks very clean with most of the mechanical system hidden underground
5. Easy to add additional grow beds

Shown from the back side

Some features I dont like are:

1. Plumbing is more difficult to access
2. Grow beds are low to the ground
3. Periodic cleaning of the bio filter may require significant effort
4. The initial cost of digging the hole
5. Possible problems from ground water (our water table can raise in the rainy season.)

SketchUp Link to this drawing

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An Invitation to a Village Feast on Sunday

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Connecting a bulkhead to an EPDM liner

I want this to be done! But this bulkhead is giving me a lot of grief. I get that it was not designed to connect to EPDM, so heres the solution I have come up with.

 I cut a piece of 3/8" plexiglass and applied a lot of silicone to the underside. Then I washed it, and the EPDM with denatured alcohol and applied this fish safe EPDM seam tape.

One thing Ive learned is that if the bulkhead is over tightened it will squeeze the soft inside gasket out of round, and cause the seal to fail.  Im not sure... this might be what happened yesterday, but if this does not work Im just going to smother the fitting with even more silicon until it complies.

This has turned out to be a lot more difficult than I ever imagined and Im tired of dealing with it!

UPDATE

I found the source of my leak.  In my attempt to squeeze all the bubbles out of the silicone I literally stood on the acrylic and jumped up and down on it.  Apparently I caused a small crack in the plexiglass, and the leak.  
To view my repair which was done with much more silicon and care click here.

Im taking no chances.  This hole saw fit over the bulkhead and the two lead weights and a 3 lb hammer will keep the pressure on over night.

I might be overly optimistic, but I have faith, and have begun to shovel gravel into the grow bed.

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Making and Installing Ollas in the Garden an Ancient Watering System

Saving water with ollas is a great idea.  This series of videos from High Desert Garden shows how to do it easily and inexpensively.     High Desert Garden also created a video showing how to make your own ollas from clay, but using terracotta pots is less expensive, faster and easier.

Ollas will buffer the water needs of a garden, but realistically they are not large enough to get you through the day, so High Desert Garden uses an ingenious method of feeding the closed ollas from a larger reservoir.

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Frogs have an anti bacterial bio film on their skin

Frogs have an anti-bacterial bio-film on their skin.  In fact there is an ancient Russian practice of placing a frog in milk to keep it fresh longer.    My bioponic systems are teaming with frogs and tadpoles.  Nitrification continues but it makes me wonder if Im deriving a special advantage from the frogs that may help prevent diseases such as bacterial canker, soft rot, leaf spot, and wilt.  I rarely experience these problems, so maybe its a gift from the frogs.  At night their singing it very loud but I like the sounds of nature..

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An Accidental Experiment

The Control Plant
I didnt intend to compare growth in my aquaponics system to regular soil gardening. But when I couldnt use all the seedlings my daughter started for me in March, the extras got tossed aside. The "control plant" is a squash seedling that continued to grow in the soil under natural conditions. The scissors are in the picture to give a sense of scale.

Admittedly, a seedling in a soil plot that was being tended by a dedicated gardener might be thriving more than my control plant. But I am not a dedicated gardener, so it seems a fair comparison.

The Aquaponic Specimen
Here we have a squash plant that was started at the same time, but has had benefit of growing in the aquaponic environment. Other than feeding the fish and correcting the pH of my system, I have done nothing more to nurture this plant that I have done for the control plant.

If you look hard, youll see the scissors at the base of the plant. The size and maturity difference are significant.

Here are a couple more pics, just for fun.

May blossom #1

May blosson #2

Beets I seeded directly in the hydroton

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Building an 800 Gallon Tank

I learned that deck screws are not strong enough to hold the bottom plate. I ended up using 5/16 galvanized lag bolts.
Folding the liner is a lot harder than it looks. Heres a link that may help
 http://www.friendlyaquaponics.com/support/trough-videos/

Building an 800 Gallon Tank

Rigid Insulation was laid down first

Lessons learned.  This tank lasted about 2 years.  First mistake was not wrapping the liner down over the outside.  Spilled water got between the liner and the wood.  The sides rotted out.

There were many times I forgot to turn the water off while filling the tank.  I flooded my shop several times and the moisture under the tank rotted the tank.   If you build a wood tank take every precaution to keep the wood dry.

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