Sunday, February 13, 2011

Almost there!


Another Great Weekend!!
 I cut the pvc for the drain line and then spent a lot of time cleaning lava rocks and Hydroton.  




If anyone hasn't told you yet, I will!  What a pain in the butt to clean!  The lava rock is the absolute worse!  There is a lot of  powdery stuff in it that wants to "muck" together like cement.when wet.  After washing and draining it about 4 times, there still is quite a bit of muck in it.  Perhaps I just got a couple of  bad bags...I don't know.  The hydroton was much easier to clean and much more friendlier on the hands!  I filled the cooler with water and swished the hydroton around a bit, drained, and repeated.  Make sure to put a small screen in front of the drain so the pellets don't clog it.


Testing the system before everything is locked down.  The pipes filling the beds are not complete yet.  I want them to go into the media to help prevent algae.  The drain pipes seemed to work quite well!  In the end, there will be 6 grow beds.


The bell siphons will be modified a bit.  I need to get some 3in pvc to use as the guard so the media wont get sucked up in the siphon.  I had this size on hand and it works...but, just not happy with it...takes up too much space.

So, at the end of the day, this is what I have.  The line to feed the water to the beds is not going to stay the way you see it now.  I was just testing the bilge pump to make sure it would pump up as high as I needed it.  It will be powered by solar and the test was just hooked up to a battery charger.

If you notice, I did away with the whole brick idea inside of the green house.  I tried and tried and tried to level the area where it sits.  I just couldn't get it right.  By the time my husband felt sorry for me and tried to help, I told him that only the sides needed to be level......the middle will be the pea gravel I didn't want to pay for!  Grrrrr!  I must say, though....I think I like this better!

Until next time, happy gardening!!!

1 comment:

  1. Cheryl- You Go Girl! You are doing a fantastic job documenting your efforts. This will help others avoid some of the same frustrations and learn from you the best options to select. As you already know, part of the fun of aquaponics / hydroponics is the flexibility. This can be a double edged sword because there are so many different options available to you. Thank you!

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