Aquaponics - In grow bed media washing

Rather than washing my media before adding it to the system, I thought I wouldn't.

So I didn't.

I know it wont work as well as washing it properly, but I haven't felt so good this last week, so I thought I'd just drop all the new media into the grow bed and wash it in situ.

I have in fact done this to some extent with my second system when I filled the 2500L or 3500L or (whatever it was) grow bed, but that one was never used due to having to move house.

I've never written "in situ" before.

I made a media screen, and siliconed it in upside down yesterday.

I suspect it will come back to hurt me at some time in the future, but I might get away with it.

The standpipe has been removed and the elbow turned down in this picture, because I'm rinsing the media with chlorinated tap water, and I want to get as much of the water out before I connect it to the fish tank.

I cranked up the garden tap and tried my best to gig the hose around and move all the dust out.

And just dump the dirty water onto the garden via the driveway.

It started like this...

and ended up running pretty clear.













I'll give it a day or so to let the chlorine out of the remaining water within the grow bed before connecting it to the system.

I also flushed it a bit with some de-chlorinated water, from my top-up container, so I doubt there will be any issues, especially with the new 1000L fish tank ready to dilute any remaining chlorine.




120 things in 20 years. Taking shortcuts and often striving for second best practice when it comes to aquaponics, and washing grow bed media.

Aquaponics - Core sampler

Last night I had an idea.

I thought it might be nice to be able to see inside my aquaponics system.

I thought I should build some way to take a core sample.

I started with what used to be a aquaponics media screen, and then became a cheese press. Its now a media screen again.

I then created something similar from a thinner length of PVC, and stuck a lid full of holes on the bottom, to form a cup.

This will hold my removable, and replaceable core sample.

The plan is to push the media screen into the media, empty the media from inside the screen, and then sit the core sample cup inside.

It takes a bit of work, but I found it helped to screw the media screen in a bit. It turns out, there is a lot of friction between scoria, and a PVC media screen.

As I drilled the screen down, I removed more and more of the media from inside.

Due to the curved bottom of the blue barrel, it ended up on a bit of an angle, but I think it should work just fine.

I decided to put this contraption under my water inlet so I could have a look at the state of any solids build up.

The system is a year old now so is starting to show signs of maturity. When you dig into it, there is a faint scent of rich healthy soil. Like fresh mushrooms have.



Delicious!

I should be able to take the core out, dump it into a bowl, and see what state the system is in.

I'm not even sure if I'll learn anything by doing this, but it was another opportunity to drill holes in PVC so I couldn't see any harm in making one.








I plan on introducing some worms to my system, so hopefully this will enable me to see where my worms are at as well.

Now all that's left to do is sit back and soak up all the excitement that only a replaceable core sampler can provide.

[edit from the future - opening my first mature core sample]

Aquaponics - Media screen and standpipe

To try to keep all my gravel from grinding into the pump in my new system, I'm going to need a large media screen.

The media screen's task is to prevent any gravel from flowing out with the water. The easiest way to make one is to make it out of PVC. PVC is turning out to be my favourite material to use for all kinds of things during my time spent so far learning 120 things in 20 years.

The screen needs to be big enough to put my arm into in case I need to adjust something, or remove a snail or something. The PVC I'll be using is around 200 mm in diametre.

I cut a length at 400 mm because the plan is to make the gravel 300 mm deep, and to prevent gravel falling in when I'm digging around, it needs to be around 100 mm above the gravel.

I concentrated all the holes at the bottom, because if this device doesn't work well at the end of the cycle, when the tide is low, it wont work. Any holes at the top are not really needed if there are enough holes at the bottom.

Then Cleaned it up with a small hand held rotary tool. Any wire brush would do, or you can use a file, or even a drill bit a few sizes larger. If you use the bigger drill bit method you can just twirl it around at each hole even by hand. You also get very nice bevelled edges and it's quicker, but I didn't have a bigger drill bit.

The next task is to place it in my new grow bed, and fill the grow bed with gravel.