Thinking Easter moving mountains is easier than you think

Its Easter.

Now I know Easter is really all about some Pagan thing and not so much about a Bible, but..

Traditionally, Easter is a time when all Australians get as many people together as they can, and drive around in boats very fast trying to do as much damage as they can to the river banks.

ItsThats all well and good, its not the speed that does it, fast boats and skiers just skip across the surface. But humans make these things that make wakes so your skiers can do jumps. It looks like amazing fun but it will destroy the river in no time.

When I was a kid of seven years old or so, we would visit an Aunty and Uncle living in a place called Port Noarlunga. The beach boasted a very cool reef full of interesting fish, and a little way away, the worlds highest sand dune (I think it might have actually been the worlds highest sand dune, and not something that simply seemed that way to a kid). A small shop would sell the normal crud that shops sell to people doing stuff at the beach, including small plastic balls with a tiny hole in them. I asked the shop keeper why there was a hole in the ball, and he told me it was to let the water out that I was complaining about that entered through the small hole.

Thats when I knew there was a problem with the world.

But for a few years, this shop also hired out little wooden sleds/sledges/sleighs and sticks of wax to ride the sand dune. This dune was tall. So tall we rarely bothered to climb it all the way to the top for it was hard going walking up it.

Now its not so tall, and the river at the base of the dune is wide, and shallow.

This image search reveals what it looked like about half way through the damage.

I put that mountain into the river.

Me and a couple of friends.

Even kids can move the largest mountain given time.

It only took 20 years or so to turn it into nothing special at all.

There.

Thats the seasonal biblical mountain moving reference out of the way.

Now, lets all try not to destroy the River Murray like I did the Onkaparinga River when I was a kid.

Speedboats and skiers dont do a lot of damage, but wake boats will eat the rivers of the world given half a chance.



120 Things in 20 years thinks we should dredge all that sand back up there.

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Moving this sucker

Titan Atlas, the heavens on his shoulders

I goofed. When I set up my initial system, I wasnt sure what my final design would look like. So I put a full 3x5 unit(fish tank, grow bed) along a clear bit of wall.

I did precisely locate it according to the eventual position of one of the 3x5 growbeds. Alas, the final plan wont have a fish tank in that place. And I cant move the fish tank without disassembling the stand and growbed.

Moving 500 pounds of wet rock, along with 800 pounds of nicely seasoned water is daunting...

Heres my plan:

1) Clear the wall where I want the fish tanks to end up, eventually. [This involves building a double-deep box shelf to house the boxes that currently reside along that wall.]

2) Empty the growbed. Luckily I hadnt planted anything yet. Phew! I have a couple of big sturdy bags that I believe will accommodate the gravel. I can stop pumping water into the growbed for a day or two before this move, to let water drain.

3) Move the growbed onto wood blocks. The wood blocks will protect the plumbing bulkhead, which Ill want to keep in place.

4) Disassemble the 2x4 shelf unit.

5) Pump 50 gallons of the water into the empty growbed. Ill replace the current standpipe with a length of 3/4" tube that extends above the top edge of the growbed.

6) Discard the remaining water. Since I have a couple small fish, theyll get to live in the 50 gallon growbed for the duration.

7) Move the empty fishtank to the new location.

8) Reassemble the 2x4 shelf unit.

9) Anchor the 2x4 shelf unit to the wall.

10) Pump the 50 gallons of water from the growbed back into the relocated fishtank. [Move the fish too.]

11) Position the empty growbed on the 2x4 shelf.

12) Return the gravel to the empty growbed.

Is it mere coincidence that there are 12 steps to this effort?

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Fluidized Moving Bed Experiments

I was eagerly running the tests below when I started to explain my reasons for looking outside of conventional aquaponic methods to Rob Nash who questioned my reasoning. While writing I came full circle and saw that he was right. It comes down to adding more media beds not creating a great bio filter without plants 

Ive been saying its all about the Nitrates and began to see that as my primary goal. I kinda got off track, and lost focus from the real goal which is to provide Nitrates to as much high density growing space as possible.

Ive got to quit thinking like an aquarium owner and more like a farmer. .But Moving Bed Filters have the place in aquariums and aquaculture.  I ended up using the test bottle in my aquarium as a vibration filter and I created this post anyhow since it might help someone else either avoid the derailed course I had set.

It might spark an idea that willl lead to a low cost replacement to the expensive alternatives.

Evaluation of Alternative Moving Bed Media 

 

This was my first test using pumice.  

Second test using climbing rope

Third test using a variety of media

This is my vibration filter. This 40 gallon tank needed a little more bio filtration. 

This bottle was left over from the moving bed media experiments and worked well.
Its a little too tall to place it in my sump, so its in the aquarium.  
I got the basic idea for a vibration filter from TYNE VALLEY AQUATICS, but I added an air line to give it full aeration and a bit more shake.


Heres a design that looks promising

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