I know, this blog is supposed to be about the live aboard project, but since I separated my shoulder, I am not really allowed to do anything like work, play, etc.... This is what happens when I am bored. I was watching videos on Youtube.com and stumbled across aquaponics. Aquaponics is a combination of hydroponics (growing plants in water) and aquaculture (growing fish). Aquaponics seeks to find a symbiotic relationship between the fish and the plants. The fish excrete waste, which the plants then use for fertilizer. There is more to it than that, but I don't feel confident in my knowledge of it to explain the details to you.
In doing my searching, I tried to find a small scale project, but it looked like the ones I found were based on growing edible fish, not having a fish tank with pretty fish. In my first idea, because I was trying to make the system without buying anything, I thought that I might be able to adapt the filter pump from the fish tank to pump water up into the growbed. While a good idea in theory, it did not pan out, as the pump was not strong enough to lift the water the foot and a half to the growbed.
Jenny and I worked on this project, with Jenny doing all the heavy lifting. To the left is a picture of me being stubborn and in project mode. I am using my knees to hold the PVC pipe that the bell siphon was made out of. I had to cut grooves into it to allow the water to flow freely up to the stand pipe, which drains back into the fish tank. Maybe this is why I get injured? ;)
This is the grow bed setup. In the foreground is the fill pipe coming from the pump in the tank below. The white PVC piece is the bell siphon that drains the grow bed. It took me quite a while yesterday to get the bell siphon to work as it kept getting clogged with rocks and the pump speed was either too fast or too slow. This type of system is designed to flood the grow bed and then totally drain again. The flood sequence should take about 15-20 minutes, while the drain sequence should take about 2 minutes. Currently I am running a 12 minute flood, 2 minute drain, but I cannot run the pump any slower to get the proper flood rate, because the bell siphon will not work otherwise. I even had to get creative to redirect about 1/2 of the water flow back into the fish tank to even hope to come close to the 15 minute fill time. I took some extra air hose for the fish tank and stuffed it into the fill hose to redirect the water elsewhere. I considered redirecting it down through the bell siphon, but then thought that I might have trouble making the siphon break it's siphoning action. Instead I ended up running the two air lines back down into the fish tank.
This is the whole setup. Jenny and I are trying a few plants to see if it even works, then we will probably go crazy and fill the grow bed with plants. Because there is not a fight between the plants for water, as they are submerged in it, the density of the plants can be significantly higher than those planted in soil. I might have some updates on this new project as they develop. Hope people are interested in this, and that it is a nice break from boat talk!
In doing my searching, I tried to find a small scale project, but it looked like the ones I found were based on growing edible fish, not having a fish tank with pretty fish. In my first idea, because I was trying to make the system without buying anything, I thought that I might be able to adapt the filter pump from the fish tank to pump water up into the growbed. While a good idea in theory, it did not pan out, as the pump was not strong enough to lift the water the foot and a half to the growbed. 
Jenny and I worked on this project, with Jenny doing all the heavy lifting. To the left is a picture of me being stubborn and in project mode. I am using my knees to hold the PVC pipe that the bell siphon was made out of. I had to cut grooves into it to allow the water to flow freely up to the stand pipe, which drains back into the fish tank. Maybe this is why I get injured? ;)
This is the grow bed setup. In the foreground is the fill pipe coming from the pump in the tank below. The white PVC piece is the bell siphon that drains the grow bed. It took me quite a while yesterday to get the bell siphon to work as it kept getting clogged with rocks and the pump speed was either too fast or too slow. This type of system is designed to flood the grow bed and then totally drain again. The flood sequence should take about 15-20 minutes, while the drain sequence should take about 2 minutes. Currently I am running a 12 minute flood, 2 minute drain, but I cannot run the pump any slower to get the proper flood rate, because the bell siphon will not work otherwise. I even had to get creative to redirect about 1/2 of the water flow back into the fish tank to even hope to come close to the 15 minute fill time. I took some extra air hose for the fish tank and stuffed it into the fill hose to redirect the water elsewhere. I considered redirecting it down through the bell siphon, but then thought that I might have trouble making the siphon break it's siphoning action. Instead I ended up running the two air lines back down into the fish tank. 
