DaveOponic's New System

[DaveOponic]

Here are some photos of my new 1,000 litre system. The pipe grow bed is 18 feet long and cut from a 22 cm diameter storm water pipe. The ends are plugged with concrete and the stands are made from angle iron to take the weight of the pipe filled with water. I will try and use coconut fibre instead of gravel to keep down the weight and the coconut is much cheaper here than using gravel. It also should be easier to empty and clean if/when necessary.

I had to make a frame to support the plastic tank as it is not as solid as a fibreglass one would be (unavailable here) and I want to make sure it doesn't flex too much and crack.

Total cost so far is the cost of the tank ($B 250) + cost of angle iron ( $ 100)

With PVC pipe and pump and another plastic grow bed, the whole system should be just under $ 500.

[GreenCow]

Woo Hooooo! DaveO is on the way. Won't be long now before that side of the house is green.

Noticed it is quite shady where the growbed is. Will it have more light at different times of the day?

Great to have extra help available at a monents notice...

We use a coco fiber/perlite mix in one of our beds and find that it really only needs to get flooded once briefly in the morning when germinating seeds and as the plants grow we increase the time and frequency of the flood to twice a day for 10-15 minutes. Once the plants get big, they will need more flood to keep the heat from doing a number on them.

Just noticed the bigggg fish tank in the back. Any conversion plans?

[DaveOponic]

I took the photos at about 5.30pm. Believe me, here on the equator in Borneo we get more than enough sun. Hence the bamboo and plastic awning I put up on the side of the house to protect the fish from sun and torrential rain.

Our swimming pool is normally at about 30 degrees celsius 24 hours a day.

The position under the eaves protects from rain and direct mid day sun while getting some morning and afternoon sun. Most of the pipe is not under the shade of the awning.

My existing system also sits under the eaves at the front of the house but cops a lot of hot mid day sun. I have put up shade cloth to stop veges. being cremated.


Dave

[Hamish]

Nice work Dave! Are you going to run a trickle bio filter with this system? There probably wont be enough bio filtration in the grow bed especially if only flooding a couple of times a day.

[Murray]

I know what you mean about the heat Dave. I went diving a few times at Madang. The ocean water temp was 28 deg. Except for some deep dives off POM I always dived in shorts and t shirt in PNG

[DaveOponic]

Nice work Dave! Are you going to run a trickle bio filter with this system? There probably wont be enough bio filtration in the grow bed especially if only flooding a couple of times a day.

Yes, my PVC drum bio filter has worked so well in my pond system that I will make another one for the 1000 litre system. I am on holidays from tomorrow so should be able to get the water up and running.

I have been playing with the bell siphon design you posted but it doesn't appear to empty the water any faster. I will try a bigger diameter stand pipe tomorrow and see if it makes any difference.


Dave

[DaveOponic]

The bell siphon is working and I put in most of the gravel into the pipe tonight.
I have decided against using the coconut fibre. I spent a couple of hours this morning tearing out the fibres and sawing the outer husk and breaking it into bite sized chunks. I got a large plastic garbage bin full of the stuff and then soaked it.

As Murray said, it was the colour of brewed coffee! So I went out and bought three bags of gravel - Also the thought of all the extra bio-filtering with the big pipe full of stones tipped my decision.

So the coconut fibres will go to good use for raising seedlings and growing more orchids.

I will connect the pump tomorrow and get some water circulating at last.

Dave

[Jason Palenske]

Good to hear it's going well. You should post up a pic when the water's running.