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SentencedToBurn's crayfish aquaponics

Hey guys
 
I'm about to put together my aquaponics (barrel-ponics) setup over the next couple of weeks. The setup is pretty small - 2 grow beds from a single 55 galon drum, and 2 50L crayfish enclosures (each one will only be filled to about 30L).
 
I'm using a small 600lph pump, 10-20mm clayballs as growing medium. Not sure how big of a water heater I'll need as the greenhouse is heated and will not drop below 15C (60F) - its hot as at the moment anyway so I'll sus that out once the temperature starts dropping.
 
Crayfish I'm using are NZ native freshwater crays (koura) http://www.clearwatercrayfish.co.nz/koura.html and these guys seem to be comfortable with pH anywhere from 5-7 so I'll set it at about 6 which seems to be pretty mint for a bunch of chinenses that I'm going to grow.
 
I'm planning to grow 2 plants per half-barrel so 4 plants all up. So far the plan is to grow: choc reaper, regular reaper, and the other two I'm not sure about. Definitely chinenses though.
 
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I'm hoping to put this all together next weekend once I pick up the rest of the bits and pieces and will post an update. The crayfish won't be going in for a least two weeks after i left it running to make sure the water quality is spot on, etc. And the seedlings should be ready by mid-march hopefully.
 
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Thanks for all the files Bill that's wicked. This community kicks ass, where else do people go out of their way to this point to help someone.
 
If you can be bothered - you can upload your large files to dropbox and then share a link with anyone, that's what I usually do. But no worries if its a hassle, you have alerady sent me some awesome info. I'll be reading through that during lunch time at work today for sure.
 
Going through everyone's suggestions and reading through Bill's PDFs it became clear that it would be stupid of me not to go with F&D. So I went and got all the bits that I needed to make up bell siphons and have just finished putting it together after work. Works like a charm - just takes a while to shut off, I'll adjust it tomorrow, but the main thing is that it works as expected and everything is pretty solid.
 
Will post an update tomorrow once both beds have been plumbed up and i've topped up the clayballs with a few more bags of river stones on top. 
 
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You will be happy to have combo of bell, siphon and GG.  If you want CF all you have to do is take the bell off.  You are gonna want a lot more hole in the GG all the way up to the top of the media.  They clog up quick from roots and media settling.  Then it messes with your siphon timing and flow.  I need to add more to mine...again cause I didn't listen twice!
 
Thanks guys - it took a bit of mucking around, but I got both bells to work properly, they start instantly - take about 30 seconds to shut off. But so far so good.
 
I've topped clayballs with riverstones, they were cheap as and it seems a lot of people use them or gravel. Have already popped a couple of leafy greens in there to help control nitrate levels - and will plant a few more seedlings as they get a bit bigger.
 
Very happy I decided to listen to those with experience and go with F&D.
 
Now will just wait until all water parameters reach the right levels and will place an order for my 4 crayfish.
 
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I had a few issues with the siphons not stopping but going into that endless equilibrium drain. After reading through Affnan's page on his siphon designs I adjusted mine from a 20mm pipe with a 30mm outer ring to a 20mm pipe and a 45mm funnel made out of a drink bottle. All issues stopped immediately when I changed both siphons on both beds. It's been running for 3 hours now and hasnt had any issues breaking the siphon. I'll know for sure in the next day or two but hoping this is all sorted now.
 
The siphon dimensions are:
  • Inner tube with the funnel: total height from the base: 135mm, diameter at the bottom: 20mm, diameter at the top 45mm
  • Bell: total height from the base: 180mm, inner diameter: 50mm
Here is what the inner bit looks like - ignore the length, this is only half of it, the other half is a tube at the bottom of the GG as you can see on the 2nd pic.
 
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Things look like they are coming along great! You have a very nice looking setup and I can't wait to see how the crayfish do.
Just curious, how are your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels looking?
 
If you again have problems with the Bell Siphon not stopping, PM or email me and I think I can help fix that. As always feel free to contact me if I can be of any assistance. :)
 
Thanks mate, I checked the levels on the weekend and I had:
- pH 6.5
- NO2 0.2
- NO3 30
- KH 60
- GH 150
 
So it seems that I was pretty much spot on with what I need. Im logging this weekly so should hopefully detect quickly if any problems.
 
I'm waiting for about a month to get my crayfish though as water temperatures still go up to 24C or so, and they arent meant to be in anything more than 20C. So it gives me all winter to work out a way to chill the water without resorting to using fishtank chillers as they arent cheap. But I'll work something out. Perhaps a small bar fridge with a coil running through it, and a pump hooked up to a thermostat, etc. There will be an efficient and cheap way to do it im sure.
 
It seems that my siphons keep going into the neverending drain mode, might be a few hours down the track but in the end if I leave them over night - come back in the morning and they're just draining constantly.
 
One thing I'm trying now is I've added a snorkel - many people on aquaponics forums say that isnt necessary but I'm out of ideas at this point. The only other thing I can think of is the drop isnt high enough - But my tank is right below the beds and this is the maximum drop that I can achieve.
 
Here are pics/measurements, would be awesome if someone had an idea of what might be the problem.
 
Bell on the left I haven't used yet. Have only just sealed the snorkel on so will try it tomorrow.
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Depth of each bell:
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Height of intakes:
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Drop (identical on both beds:
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Length after the elbow on bed 1:
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Length after the elbow bed 2 (no ruler - it's about 800mm)
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First let me say that I do not have much experience with smaller diameter tubing, but the principles should be the same. Hopefully, if others are more experienced than me, they will chime in and give you more (or better) advice. :)
 
It sounds like you are having problems starting the siphon or possibly keeping it going once it starts. I won't lie, bell siphons can be a pain to dial in. However, in my experience with mine, once they are dialed in, they work really great! Mine only need cleaning a couple times a year and they are under trees where leaves seem to constantly fall into the grow bed.
 
So for what it is worth, some ideas to check: (may not be worth much...LOL)
 
#1) It appears that the length of the bell MAY BE too long. SOMETIMES, there is too much space above the stand pipe and the top of the siphon which can make them operate erratically. Water needs to fill this space completely for the siphon action to be consistent and insure the start of the siphon. If you shorten the siphon, do it in small increments until you get it dialed in or you can lengthen the stand pipe as long as the top of the grow bed stays dry. This should help with starting the siphon action. (Keep the larger holes at the base of the bell siphon to ensure sufficient flow through the bell.)
 
#2) From what I can see in the previous photos, it looks like you MAY not have enough water flow into the grow beds to consistently start both siphons. It is hard to tell for sure from photos. But if you think this may be a problem, you could either get a bigger pump or it may be cheaper (and more reliable) to just buy a second pump, like the one you have now, and run one to each grow bed. This will ensure that there is enough flow to consistently start the siphon. Also, place a valve on each fill line so that you can adjust the amount of water flow. Too much water will overwhelm the bell and too little will not let it start.
Start with the valve full open and check your "cycle" time. (the time it takes to fill and drain.) You can then adjust the fill rate to adjust your cycle time.
 
#3) The addition of the snorkel will help stop the siphon action. For what it is worth, I used a larger diameter snorkel to make sure there is enough air to break the siphon.
 
#4) The drop height should be fine as long as there is enough water momentum to keep the siphon action going. If the vertical height is short, you may need to adjust the horizontal length to fine tune the siphon action. I think it is the overall length of the drain that will determine the amount of "suction" that the drain will create.
(Once you think you have the siphon dialed in, see if there is much difference between the siphoning of the two different grow beds. I notice that the horizontal drain pipes are different lengths. If one bed operates better than the other, you may need to center the crayfish tank below the grow beds and make both drains as close to the same length as possible. It may not be necessary, but just keep a look out for any differences in their operation just in case. )
 
Like I said, just some ideas... I hope some of it may be helpful.
 
Keep us updated! :onfire:
 
Bill
 
Awesome thanks very much Bill. I'll see how I get on with the snorkel.
 
My siphons do start without any issues, sorry I should've probably clarified that. But they never had any issues starting thats for sure, it's just stopping - thats where they are a bit of a hit and miss.
 
Will post updates on how I get on. Thanks!
 
Edit: I chucked the bell with the snorkel on, so far so good - I can actually hear the air being sucked into the bell through the snorkel and it shuts off extremely fast, it only takes about 5 seconds and it stops. Before it took about 20-25 seconds. So this definitely works. I gotta run off to work now, so hopefully when I get back at the end of the day it'll still be running.
 
That's great! I'm glad that the snorkel helped.
I have my fingers crossed that it was still working when you got home.
It is strange that it's day there while it's night here....... LOL
Please keep us posted...
 
And the photo of the lights is really neat!!!
I am saving for a greenhouse here...
 
Hey thanks mate - yup it was still working when I got back. I have added a snorkel to the 2nd bell so will put it in tomorrow once the sealer sets and will see how it works.
 
PaulS said:
Thanks for the updates. It looks like every thing has come together really well.
I love the greenhouse picture, it reminds me of a scene in saving grace. Have you seen it?
Do you have to feed the cray fish to begin with?
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Thanks Paul
 
Yup I gotta feed the crayfish every two days, the good thing is that they eat tons of things - there is a good article on keeping these exact species and you can feed them vegie cutoffs, bits of fish, meat, etc. theyll eat anything. I have just chopped up some carrot and dropped it in the tank and man they're all over it.
 
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