A Green Project Challenge

The intent of this project is to see if being more green is viable given the cost of materials vs. the Return On Investment (ROI) for operating my own greenhouse aquaponics/aeroponics system in our backyard. The challenge is whether I can design, build and operate an aquaponics/aeroponics based greenhouse system in a sustainable manner with a small carbon footprint while providing food for the table at a reasonable cost over conventional methods such as purchasing fish/vegetables at the local grocery. Join me on this journey of discovery while I forge a new chapter in my quest for a better tomorrow.

Monday, April 30, 2012

Disaster in the DWC rafts...UPDATE.

OK...so it's taken me awhile to get the system back up and running. I received the ES3500 pump with some shipping damage. The unit's condensor cover was cracked along with the plastic base due to improper packing.  The FedEx delivery driver handed me the box and the pump was just bouncing around inside apparently with very little packing material. There was no obvious damage to the outside of the box, but of course the box was dropped and the pump's cover cracked when hitting the ground. Any way, I contacted the seller and was assured that a new cover would be sent out, I have yet to see one after 2 weeks, so I will follow up and see if or when it was shipped. So for now, I just epoxied the cover back together, everything else apparently works and I haven't found any other cracks in the unit.


After getting the pump in shape, I had to do a bit of re-arrangement on the plumbing for the system using 2" PVC throughout and getting rid of the 5/8" garden hose feeding the grow beds.


and as you can see, the new pump is in place. I also added downspouts to the feeder pipe with ball valves attached and have built spray nozzle which redirect water back into the fish tanks and provides extra aeration.  Of course, now I have a multitude of piping to climb over to get to the fish tanks. Of course I have also had to redesign the bell siphons to adjust to the increased water flow as the fish tanks were filling to fast and over flowing. I am still tinkering with balancing the system. I added some nursery DWC raft to the systems and so far I have had good success in sprouting new seeds.


I also added a washing machine tray on top and I have a constant flow of water traversing the tray and grow beds which then drain directly back into the fish tanks  So far I have had about a 75% sprout rate on seeds, not great but good for what I'm trying to accomplish.

That's it for now...more to follow soon.

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