Aquaponics Self cleaning swirl filter revisited

One of the many people named Anonymous took the time to comment on my self cleaning swirl filter, so I thought Id revisit the topic with some thoughts Ive been having.

For the last few weeks Ive been thinking of getting some more fish.

And Ive also been thinking about developing the self cleaning swirl filter a little more.

My original design was to tap off a small amount of clean water for NFT tubes employing the self cleaning filter to keep the roots from collecting solids and blocking the NFT tubes. In the end I got around that by just taking my water from the sump, where there were no solids, but that required a better pump to get water to the top of the tubes. .


If this were ever to be implemented as a system to remove solids from a system rather than returning them to the grow beds it would need some adjustment.

Its easy to set up a container so that it is right at the point of tripping a siphon, but will never actually get there unless someone suddenly dumps water into it. With this in mind, one option I thought of  when I was playing with this idea, was to use a deer scarer...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shishi-odoshi

Set a dripping tap, so it slowly filled a deer scarer. The deer scarer should tip only once or twice a day, and should dump the same amount of water that the self cleaning swirl filter takes from the system each time its triggered.

Im going to build a deer scarer, and see how it works, then see if it really would take care of dosing the self cleaning filter with the correct amount of water to make it do its thing.

You can see my previous work on my self cleaning swirl filter here.

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Thailand vs America unexpected racism

Recently I have been looking into new breeds that are sort of making their way into the US. One that is catching my eye these days is the Thai ridgeback as seen in this picture to your left. The Thai ridgeback is one of three dogs with a ridgeback (basically a line of fur on their back that grows the opposite way) with the others being Rhodesian ridgeback and the Phu Quoc ridgeback.

So why my interest in this specific ridgeback? Well, its reputation is rather good compared to a similar breed. Lets see.

This dog...

*is very family oriented and will put itself in front of family

*loves children

*can be aggressive and EXTREMELY dangerous if put in the wrong hands

*hard headed but with a firm hand, will be an extremely loyal dog

Huh...this seems a lot like America and Britains three dogs often seen as the most dangerous dogs in the world.

you bet

American Pit Bull Terrier

American Staffordshire Terrier

Staffordshire Bull Terrier (obviously from Britain as it doesnt have America stamped in front of it)

So why is it these terrier breeds are "dangerous" but not a Thai ridgeback that has the same qualities? Possibly because it is rare?

The most dangerous dog in the world (as told by government study) is the Dalmation. However, Dalmations are allowed in rental properties and will NOT raise your insurance. huh...

Oh and btw more people are bitten by labs than APBTs, a breed BANNED in countries.

talk about racism.

Now if you arent a dog person then you probably will freak out at the thought of ALL DOGS ARE DANGEROUS but its true. Dogs are a dangerous animal just like horses are a dangerous animal. The thing is with horses, we dont ASSuME that cold blooded horses (like Shires) are more dangerous than hot blooded horses (like arabs) and vice versa. Theyre the same animal and can kill you if in the wrong hands. Why do we assume this with dogs? Yes there are dogs that will lunge if their family is in danger but NO WELL TRAINED DOG WILL BITE UNLESS THREATENED!!!

Sheesh people. So Stupid.

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Cleaning New Gravel and Pipe Size

Cleaning Gravel:

Yesterday I cleaned about 5 cubic feet of new gravel.  In the past I have used progressive tubs and a bucket filled with holes.  I would start at one end and work my way down three or four barrels of progressively cleaner water.  This proved to be insufficient and the barrels became quite dirty very quickly which meant that I would constantly have to start over with more clean water.

But yesterday I used a small cement mixer.  Id put 10 shovel fulls of gravel in and filled it with water.  Then turn the mixer on for 15 seconds, and dump the water.  I did do this about 7 or 8 times until the water was running clear.

This next step may not be necessary, but then I did a final rinse in a white bucket.  I was able to easily see how clean the water was in the white bucket, and two quick rinses generally finished the job.

It took a few hours to perform this cleaning, but after several bad experiences with cloudy water, Im very happy with the results.  Today my water is perfectly clear.  

Pipe Size:

A couple months ago I added 10 feet of 1-1/4" pipe to the line from my fish tank to the grow bed.  It has worked well until recently when I noticed that the water in the fish tank was beginning to raise.  Closer inspection of the pipe revealed that gunk had built up on the surface and was slowing the water down.   I replaced the pipe with a clean 2" pipe.   Ill let you know in a few months how that worked out.   Im feeling confident that this is going to work out much better.    As a general rule Id say 2" or larger pipe should be used everywhere.

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Filtering Poo with Continous Flow Media Bed

My indoor system started out with a gravel bed. After repairing a leak in the 45 mil EPDM liner of that grow bed, I decided to go with a Deep Water Culture (DWC) raft.  With only one 10 wall glazed my grow bed is 30"x10 long which is a rather small 25 sq ft..  I found it easier to utilize that precious space with a  raft system.

A panoramic view inside grow room.  800 gal fish tank on left grow bed on right

But loosing the large media bed meant that I would also lose the filtering capability of the 3/4" rock media.   So I decided to build a filter using evaporative cooler pads.   This works great at first, but after a few months the fish population began to grow and the fish got bigger.   The filter could no longer keep up with the poo.   Cleaning filters everyday was more work than I was willing to do.

So I decided to return part of the bed to a gravel media, and keep the rest as a DWC grow tank.

The DWC tank with gravel to the right of a plastic fence partition

I built a partition out of plastic fencing and PVC pipe.  Filled one side with 3/4" gravel and extended the return water pipe from the fish tank so that it dumps on top of the gravel.   One thing Id like to say about that is I also used 2" pipe rather than 1-1/4" because the smaller pipe tends to clog.

At this point I began to have concerns about a continuous flood gravel bed.  RupertofOZ was kind enough to dispel my fears by pointing me toward a very good experiment done by backyardaquaponics.com.  

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