Aquaponics - Finished the new grow bed.

It took a few weeks, but I've finally finished the new grow bed.

It still doesn't have a fish tank, a sump, or any plumbing, but it should be ready for some gravel.

If I get gravel, I can start to grow some nitrifying bacteria. Then I'll be well on the way to a decent system.

I glubbed on a stack of silicone.

Weighted it down with everything heavy I could lay my hands on.

Until I saw a bead of silicone telling me it had covered the surfaces nicely.

Cleaned it up, and its done!

This grow bed has taken way too long to get finished. Especially given there wasn't really anything that needed to be done. It should have taken an afternoon rather then the weeks it has.

Aquaponics - Another base for my new grow bed

I think I have finally settled on a base for my grow bed.

And I cut the hole for the puddle flange to the correct size.

I also cleaned it up so I can silicone it. Yes, in my world, that qualifies as clean.

It was necessary to cut away a bit of the wooden pallet underneath as well. This should now allow a clear path for drainage pipes to the sump.







I ended up settling on three wooden forklift pallets, and some bricks to add a bit of extra width. My main concern was to make it strong enough to take the weight of all the gravel, and all that water.

Additionally I needed to make it sturdy enough that if someone taps it with a car or something, it might still be standing the next day. I think my design provides this.

I hope my design provides this.

Aquaponics - Puddle flange

Who would have thought there was a need to call something a "puddle flange"? It turns out there is such a need. In fact, I just bought one.

A flange is normally a thing that flares out from the size of a pipe, to something at right angles to that pipe.  It allows you to connect it to another flange with bolts.

Puddle flange

A puddle flange is a PVC something, that flares out from the size of a pipe, and connects to a puddle.

It turns out, the thing you have in your shower around the drain is a puddle flange.

I found one that has a hole in it that perfectly fits a 50mm PVC pipe.





I'll stick a 50mm pipe into the hole to act as a standpipe, and silicone the puddle flange into the hole that's in the bottom of my new grow bed.

Because I bought a pump with expansion of my system in mind, it's too powerful to need to run it 24/7. I'll be putting my pump on a timer, and running it for perhaps 10 minutes per hour. This means I will probably settle on using a slow leak approach rather than bell siphon approach to drain my grow bed.

The slow leak approach will involve putting a hole in the bottom of the standpipe, just up from the bottom, so that in time all the water will drain out. The standpipe is there as an emergency overflow pipe.

If for some reason the water fails to drain out of the grow bed, on the next cycle, the grow bed might overflow. With a standpipe as an emergency overflow, the grow bed might remain flooded, but the water will overflow back into the sump.

I'll drill a small hole in the standpipe to start and see how long it takes to empty the grow bed. If I need to, I can then drill larger and larger holes, until the grow bed drains over the space of about an hour.

I'll also be setting the drain up so that if at some stage I need to change the system to a bell siphon based one, all I'll have to do is replace the standpipe, and add a bell.