Getting Started
Both the fish tank and the grow bed are fabricated from food grade plastic barrels. These are available used in many localities and come with a relatively cheap price tag.
Both the fish tank and the grow bed are fabricated from food grade plastic barrels. These are available used in many localities and come with a relatively cheap price tag.
Start by marking an opening for a viewing window in the side of the barrel to view the fish from under the water level. The viewing window will be made from 1/4” polycarbonate sheet available at most hardware stores, and should be cut to size first and traced onto the barrel. Mark the opening 1 1/4” smaller than the polycarbonate on all sides. Drill large holes in the corners to facilitate insertion of a saw blade to make the cutout.
Cut the bottom out of a barrel for the grow bed. This will sit atop the fish tank.
Fabricate the bell siphon cover from 2” schedule 40 pvc, capped. The notches at the bottom are on both sides, and are 1 1/4” wide by 3/4” tall. The 3/4” height determines the time/depth in which the siphon that drains the grow bed will break (more on that later). There is no need to glue the cap. The four (total) holes are 5/16” and are drilled half way between the top of the notch and the bottom of the pipe to facilitate a faster drain time.
Fabricate the bell siphon shroud from 4” shedule 40 pvc. This will fit over the bell siphon cover. The bottom most edge of the cap (which is not glued) will sit above the top of the grow bed by at least one inch (the cap will need to be removed periodically). The holes are 5/16” and are drilled midway up the pipe all the way around. This will keep the grow bed medium out of the bell siphon yet allow water to pass through freely.
Above are the three parts of the bell siphon, which will stack on top of one another [from left to right: shroud, cover, bell siphon]. Both the shroud and the cover are simply set in place. The last part to fabricate is the bell siphon itself (far right in above picture). This part threads through a hole that is to be drilled in the bottom of the grow bed. The bell siphon is constructed from a section of 3/4” schedule 40 pvc with a male thread on the end (this goes through the bottom of the grow bed), and a 1 1/2” to 3/4” bushing topside. Both fittings need to be glued. Size the hole in the bottom of the grow bed so that the bell siphon’s threads screw into it. Screw a 3/4” threaded to 3/4” slip coupling on from the bottom of the grow bed to hold it in nice and strong.
The bell siphon functions using the same principle as a toilet does when it is flushed. The pump runs constantly, filling the grow bed with water sourced from the fish tank. When the water level in the grow bed rises to the top of the bell siphon, it begins to roll over the bushing at the top, and down the 3/4” pipe draining rapidly back to the fish tank. As soon as water fills the 3/4” pipe, a siphon is created that quite expediently drains the grow bed (just like flushing a toilet). Since water can only enter the bell siphon via the notches cut into the bottom of the cover, it will drain until the water level reaches the uppermost part of the notches, and then the siphon will “break”, allowing the grow bed to begin filling again as the cycle repeats. The flow rate of the pump sets the time for draining and filling, and is a parameter that must be given some thought. This system works like a clock, filling & flushing the grow bed in a precisely timed manner.
The polycarbonate viewing window is installed from the inside using #10 stainless steel machine screws, flat washers, and lock washers. 100% silicone caulk is applied liberally to the polycarbanate before it is mated to the barrel, and also as a bead around both the inside and outside edge of the viewing window after installation. The window must be sealed very well as it will be prone to leakage.
Use a 4” hole saw (or larger) to cut holes in 4 places evenly spaced around the upper most part of the barrel. Make certain that your hand and elbow can fit through! These are access holes.
Suspend a continuous duty submersible pump of around 2 gallons per minute (a pump designed for in floor hydronic radiant heating works quite well, and can be purchased at a relatively low cost) a few inches above the bottom of the fish tank (Pump at lower part of the above picture. The pump at the upper part of the tank is an auxilary circulation pump that is not necessary). Rout the output from the pump using vinyl tubing through one of the access holes and out of the fish tank. The input side of the pump should be routed down to the bottom of the tank, and a shroud should be fabricated so fish don’t get stuck by suction (it will happen).
Prepare a jig to cut a wine bottle as in the above picture using a cheap glass cutting tool available at most hardware stores (red tool in the picture). You need to make a score that is square to the bottom of the wine bottle by spinning the bottle on a flat surface by hand. Score the bottle to facilitate removal of the bottom.
Boil a kettle of water, and fill a bucket with ice water.
Carefully pour boiling water onto the score while turning the bottle. The goal is to heat the score, and not the rest of the bottle. Dip the bottom half of the bottle into the ice water, and if done correctly the bottom will fall off at the score. The cut surface can be sanded to a nice, neat finish that won’t cut you. We recommend not holding the sand paper in your hand to reduce the risk of cutting yourself. Rather, use a sanding block or rotary/orbital type sander. Get creative and protect your flesh from the cut edge in whatever way you can. If using a rotary/orbital sander, protect yourself from breathing glass particulates (dust mask or respirator) as well as accumulating glass particulates on your skin (might not feel so great later). Suitable gloves are a must throughout the entire process, safety glasses would be a wise precaution!
Cut a notch lengthwise in a cork (synthetic corks work best). The notch should take up about 1/3 of the corks circumference and be shaped like a birds mouth (the full length of the cork). Insert the cork and mount the bottle with the cork a couple inches above the top of the grow bed. Rout the vinyl tube from the output of the submersible pump into the bottle and install a plastic 90° elbow on the end. Angle the elbow to the inside wall of the bottle so as to create a whirlpool when the pump is pressurized. The whirlpool should be set to go counter clockwise in the northern hemisphere, and clockwise in the southern hemisphere. This setup is called a hydronic cyclonic vortex, and it’s purpose is to aerate the water. We have found the hydronic cyclonic vortex to do a significantly better job at this than a venturi, although venturi aeration is still a viable option and is relatively simple to fabricate. A major advantage to the hydronic cyclonic vortex is that it does not tax the pump in any way because it never has to build pressure to function.
A submersible led light will attract insects to the tank at night to feed the fish. One can be purchased, or one can be hacked using a resistor, an led diode, a glass or clear plastic cigar tube, and some epoxy. The resistor must be matched to the diode and the input voltage (if you possess the skills to build this light, the resistor calculation will not pose any issue).
Insert the resistor and led diode into the tube and fill it with epoxy.
Fill the fish tank with non-chlorinated water and stock with fish. Take a water sample at this time (one pint will be more than enough). This will be used to record a starting point for monitoring progress in the cycling process.
Fill the grow bed with expanded clay pebbles that have been soaked in water for a few days. Wait to install any plants until the system has cycled (more on that later).
Aquaponics is all about water testing. The API test kit is a great buy, but others exist and certainly over time brands will change. The test kit contains chemicals for testing phosphate, PH, nitrite, and ammonia. It is a relatively simplistic chemistry set geared toward testing pond water. A digital PH meter is nice to have as well.
Testing PH using chemistry is highly accurate, but the digital meter is quick and easy to use, and accurate so long as it remains calibrated. It’s a good idea to test the digital meter against chemistry once in a while, and the meter should come with a calibration tool and a chemical solution to use for the calibration process.
A digital TDS/EC meter is not exactly a necessary instrument in aquaponics as it is in hydroponics, but it can give valuable insight at times and adds an extra flare to the learning process.
TDS, or total disolved solids, is a measurement of impurities in the water. In an aquaponics system these impurities make up the nutrients available to the plants in your grow bed. The TDS measurement however, is not a very accurate reading due to organic compounds that escape the testing method, as well as the fact that there is no way of telling exactly which compounds are present when the water is tested. That being said, we still recommend the use of a TDS meter, as valuable insight can occur at times.
EC, or electrical conductivity, is mainly useful to determine salt levels in the water, and is also sometimes used to determine TDS (albeit crudely in our opinion). Salts are not generally all that present in an aquaponics system (they are more so in hydroponic systems), but salts are used to treat fish for diseases and such. Most freshwater fish can handle fairly high levels of salts without harming them, but most edible plants cannot. A high EC can sometimes be an indicator of an imbalance in the system, and therefore measurement of EC is useful at times. We recommend an EC meter as one can be had for a relatively cheap price and it will add to the learning experience overall.
A thermometer is an absolute necessity. Although many PH, TDS, and EC meters have integral thermometers, it’s a good idea in any scientific experiment to have a trusty analog device as well for double checking. A combination of chemistry, digital technology, and analog metering hopefully insures a relatively high degree of accuracy.
Any clean glass vessel will do for water sampling, but one with measurements is nice, and a spout for pouring is an even better attribute.
The water testing chemistry set or kit that you end up with will have instructions. The bottom line is that after following the instructions, the color of the fluid in the test tube is gauged against a chart and a reading is taken by eye. Be certain to take the reading in exemplary natural lighting and directly against a completely white background (this part is of utmost importance).
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