Some people may not realize the magnitude of lowering your Kw usage by 30% on that piece of equipment that runs 24/7. It's these improvements that are going to allow aquaponics become competitive. So thankful for your pursuit of improvement on these systems Rob!
With our electric rates, it now costs about $5.25 a month to run this. Compared to the cost to run the fans during the summer it's a small savings, but every penny helps!
@@Bigelowbrook I understand that when on grid, such savings are modest, but off grid it can be much more important! Keep up the good work and thanks for taking the effort to share it!
Take note youtube algorithms! this channel deserves more hits! Been following you and your great work for a few years through other accounts etc, and just wanted to say thank you for the great and honest content. Much of it (like Rob's channel) is a huge help for many of us that have smaller systems ourselves. Cheers
Thanks! Sadly, YT doesn't care much about educational/how to videos. They rather focus on stupid channels that trend quickly so they ran rake in the $$$
Hi! I enjoyed the debut of RobCad 1.0. The air injector/venturis' are neat and I hadn't seen them before. I solved a similar airation issue by porting an air tube/intake to the draw side of the water pump. If the air vent tube is higher than the water level it won't leak. If you need/prefer a short line intake than a check valve would work also. I found that the water pump (submersible in my case) when given a small vent will pull a LOT of air from a 1/4 in fish tank tube. It needed to be regulated so I drilled a very small hole in a spent .22 casing and pushed it in to use the hole as a valve also. If your infusinators clog too often or require unwanted maintenance maybe try providing a small amount of air to the intake side of the water pump. (longtime listener - first time caller)
there are some pumps out there that are designed with an air intake. You just have to be careful with this since the water cavitation can wear down the impeller faster. Sometimes the vibrations can wear on the bearings too. Thanks for the 1st comment!
@@Bigelowbrook You could do the same thing on the riser to the mineralization tank & not need the venturis which will continue to clog frequently I would guess. Just put the intake part of the air tube higher than the tank to prevent leaking.
i was wondering if a combination of venturi + vortex would be nice when I watched the venturi video. glad to see this in action. are there any ressources on vortex and venturi aeration?
7:01 permanent fixtures are great for when they are inaccessible (concealed within a wall or burried in the ground). For a system like this, I would definitely consider detachment points, something the would allow you to pull sections apart without having to dismantle more than you need to.
extra lengths of piping between fixtures helps a lot for reuse of materials as well. I was cringing a bit watching him cut that one piece so close to the connection as a union would make it reusable. I live far from a hardware store to buy new pieces, so reuse is my go to normally. Adds in basically unnecessary space use, but I suppose its like adding a couple meters loop of electrical wire to work repairs with.
Thank you for these videos, I dream to one day have a system I can iterate on like you do. I have about 700 ft^2 in my basement I'd like to dedicate to aquaponics but it is difficult to commit to the expense / know what to go cheap on. The local aquaponics contractor has systems that are like $2500 for a nicer chop-and-flip on a 125 gal tank which is steep.
Only thing you really can go cheap on is the PVC using sanitary grade instead of schedule 40 pressure tubing. The whole system is basically working under gravity so won't need high grade pvc except on parts like the venturi which require pressure to work. Tanks & other such things are gonna be a user based decision rather than what can be cheap or expensive. It depends on your space & what you want to do with the system. I'm working on 6 hectares of land converting the whole thing to produce Tilapia & several other livestock options.
@@Bigelowbrook Understandable, that you want to promote the infusionator, but otherwises, the setup seem terrible to me. The pump may not last very long with pumping al this solids on top of the cloging venturis. I would just have improved the airlifts. The reason, why you have a lot of solid in the buttom pipe is the T. In the middle of the T is no flow, solid build up and new solid build up on the old ones. I would have only used one airlift with a smaller diameter like 1 inch, that would drasticly reduce the flow, but that doesnt matter much, because you only need to lift the solids to the top so they want settle in the tank. The single 1 inch airlift could run with a 20 watt air pump.
It's actually working quite well. I did have an infusinator clog the other day because a fish scale got stuck in it, but besides that I haven't had any issues with it. The problem with the air pumps is they can work well with water, but once there's a lot of solids in the tank, it becomes more of a thick slurry and they become less effective, which then slows down the water, which then allows the solids to settle down. Using smaller pipes might help to keep the flow moving faster, but then it will still take more effort to move the slurry through the system anyway. I've been able to run a much thicker slurry in this setup vs the old one which I had to keep flushing the waste out to dilute it. Overall this solution is far more effective for me.
@@Bigelowbrook When it works for you it is good. Does the pump has some sort of overload protection? In case of a power outage, the solids will settle and block the pump. Would be bad if you break the pump because you accidently switch it off and back on.
I am doing my CZcams research before building an aquaponic system in my yard. I'm enjoying the heck out of your videos! With my industrial and wastewater treatment experience, I was wondering when somebody would catch on to the venturi, and it's satisfying to see it working....though I'm wondering if submerging the infusinators down to the cone taper can help keep the DO higher? Keep experimenting!
I am using the same pump he used in this video & working on installing a DIY venturi manifold in my tanks today. We'll see how well they work at a meter deep in the tank though I don't have an oxygen meter.
I'm new to aquaponics, but many concepts have been explored in the wastewater treatment industry. To help find comparable information, the wastewater treatment industry calls a radial flow settler a clarifier, and mg/L (ppm) is usually the preferred unit of control/measurement for Dissolved Oxygen. Is % DO based on saturation value at present temperature?
The hydro folks usually reference DO as ppm but my sensor reads as %. There's a calculation that can do the conversion based on the water temp....I just didn't feel like doing it. ;-) Years ago I was in wastewater and the terminology was "clarifier". Sometimes people will use that in term in fish operations...especially if they have done wastewater treatment work!
Another great video Rob thanks, do you have any thoughts on charging biochar in a aquaponics system? I was thinking of adding a barrel full of fresh clean rice husk biochar every month or so between the Radial Flow Settler and the MBBR to catch the smaller particles of raw fish waste and also charge the biochar with nutrients circulating the system, in your experience do you think it would have a positive or negative impact on an aquaponics system?
From what I have heard, it will work great as a bio filter because it has a huge amount of surface area. I have also heard that it absorbs much of the nutrients in the system until it is "charged". Based on that, if you keep replacing the biochar, you may be removing nutrients from the system. You may need to research it more to verify what really happens. ;-)
yes. every few days I drain a 5 gallon bucket from the MT, let it settle, and siphon the clear water into my media beds. The sludge gets tossed into compost.
Great use of the infusinators Rob. 👍
Very impressed with the speed at which you work too.
Cheers mate.
The whole project took about 3 hours....the video took 6 hours to put together. ;)
Some people may not realize the magnitude of lowering your Kw usage by 30% on that piece of equipment that runs 24/7. It's these improvements that are going to allow aquaponics become competitive. So thankful for your pursuit of improvement on these systems Rob!
With our electric rates, it now costs about $5.25 a month to run this. Compared to the cost to run the fans during the summer it's a small savings, but every penny helps!
@@Bigelowbrook I understand that when on grid, such savings are modest, but off grid it can be much more important! Keep up the good work and thanks for taking the effort to share it!
I have zero intention of ever farming, but it's very interesting to see these updates for more academic inspiration. Keep up the great work!
Take note youtube algorithms! this channel deserves more hits! Been following you and your great work for a few years through other accounts etc, and just wanted to say thank you for the great and honest content. Much of it (like Rob's channel) is a huge help for many of us that have smaller systems ourselves. Cheers
Thanks! Sadly, YT doesn't care much about educational/how to videos. They rather focus on stupid channels that trend quickly so they ran rake in the $$$
Hi!
I enjoyed the debut of RobCad 1.0.
The air injector/venturis' are neat and I hadn't seen them before. I solved a similar airation issue by porting an air tube/intake to the draw side of the water pump. If the air vent tube is higher than the water level it won't leak. If you need/prefer a short line intake than a check valve would work also. I found that the water pump (submersible in my case) when given a small vent will pull a LOT of air from a 1/4 in fish tank tube. It needed to be regulated so I drilled a very small hole in a spent .22 casing and pushed it in to use the hole as a valve also.
If your infusinators clog too often or require unwanted maintenance maybe try providing a small amount of air to the intake side of the water pump.
(longtime listener - first time caller)
there are some pumps out there that are designed with an air intake. You just have to be careful with this since the water cavitation can wear down the impeller faster. Sometimes the vibrations can wear on the bearings too. Thanks for the 1st comment!
@@Bigelowbrook You could do the same thing on the riser to the mineralization tank & not need the venturis which will continue to clog frequently I would guess. Just put the intake part of the air tube higher than the tank to prevent leaking.
A mean rebuild on a mineralization tank and a nicely produced video.
Great combo of venturi aeration and vortex aeration. Love to see it.
i was wondering if a combination of venturi + vortex would be nice when I watched the venturi video. glad to see this in action. are there any ressources on vortex and venturi aeration?
7:01 permanent fixtures are great for when they are inaccessible (concealed within a wall or burried in the ground). For a system like this, I would definitely consider detachment points, something the would allow you to pull sections apart without having to dismantle more than you need to.
extra lengths of piping between fixtures helps a lot for reuse of materials as well. I was cringing a bit watching him cut that one piece so close to the connection as a union would make it reusable.
I live far from a hardware store to buy new pieces, so reuse is my go to normally. Adds in basically unnecessary space use, but I suppose its like adding a couple meters loop of electrical wire to work repairs with.
Awesome new Setup!
Awesome update, cant wait to watch the next video and see how it all holds up! Cheers, keep it up!
Thank you for these videos, I dream to one day have a system I can iterate on like you do. I have about 700 ft^2 in my basement I'd like to dedicate to aquaponics but it is difficult to commit to the expense / know what to go cheap on. The local aquaponics contractor has systems that are like $2500 for a nicer chop-and-flip on a 125 gal tank which is steep.
Only thing you really can go cheap on is the PVC using sanitary grade instead of schedule 40 pressure tubing. The whole system is basically working under gravity so won't need high grade pvc except on parts like the venturi which require pressure to work.
Tanks & other such things are gonna be a user based decision rather than what can be cheap or expensive. It depends on your space & what you want to do with the system. I'm working on 6 hectares of land converting the whole thing to produce Tilapia & several other livestock options.
Thank you for the video, i always though that a vortex will add good oxigenation but i guess i was wrong
Respect!) Спасибо тебе еще раз за советы)
Very nice
How "Plug of Poo" is not printed on T-shirts is a mystery for the ages...
Nice job!
A single big venturi might solve the clogging problem.
Probably. I was trying to use the Infusinators where will be mass produced. 😉
@@Bigelowbrook Understandable, that you want to promote the infusionator, but otherwises, the setup seem terrible to me.
The pump may not last very long with pumping al this solids on top of the cloging venturis.
I would just have improved the airlifts.
The reason, why you have a lot of solid in the buttom pipe is the T.
In the middle of the T is no flow, solid build up and new solid build up on the old ones.
I would have only used one airlift with a smaller diameter like 1 inch, that would drasticly reduce the flow, but that doesnt matter much, because you only need to lift the solids to the top so they want settle in the tank.
The single 1 inch airlift could run with a 20 watt air pump.
It's actually working quite well. I did have an infusinator clog the other day because a fish scale got stuck in it, but besides that I haven't had any issues with it. The problem with the air pumps is they can work well with water, but once there's a lot of solids in the tank, it becomes more of a thick slurry and they become less effective, which then slows down the water, which then allows the solids to settle down. Using smaller pipes might help to keep the flow moving faster, but then it will still take more effort to move the slurry through the system anyway. I've been able to run a much thicker slurry in this setup vs the old one which I had to keep flushing the waste out to dilute it. Overall this solution is far more effective for me.
@@Bigelowbrook When it works for you it is good.
Does the pump has some sort of overload protection?
In case of a power outage, the solids will settle and block the pump.
Would be bad if you break the pump because you accidently switch it off and back on.
@@jonasstahl9826 so far it hasn't been a problem.
I am doing my CZcams research before building an aquaponic system in my yard. I'm enjoying the heck out of your videos! With my industrial and wastewater treatment experience, I was wondering when somebody would catch on to the venturi, and it's satisfying to see it working....though I'm wondering if submerging the infusinators down to the cone taper can help keep the DO higher? Keep experimenting!
I am using the same pump he used in this video & working on installing a DIY venturi manifold in my tanks today. We'll see how well they work at a meter deep in the tank though I don't have an oxygen meter.
I'm curious about your DO meter and tracking/harvesting the data. Such a crucial data point for analysis but there's very little discussion around it.
Awesome
Awesome video thanks for sharing
Just thinking if you made the infusornators larger you won't have the clogging problem.
Always interesting
Where does the water from the mineralization tank go? And how does it go to that place?
Have you thought about printing a lily impeller for use in the mineralization tank?
I've had a few people suggest it over the years. ;)
I'm new to aquaponics, but many concepts have been explored in the wastewater treatment industry. To help find comparable information, the wastewater treatment industry calls a radial flow settler a clarifier, and mg/L (ppm) is usually the preferred unit of control/measurement for Dissolved Oxygen. Is % DO based on saturation value at present temperature?
The hydro folks usually reference DO as ppm but my sensor reads as %. There's a calculation that can do the conversion based on the water temp....I just didn't feel like doing it. ;-) Years ago I was in wastewater and the terminology was "clarifier". Sometimes people will use that in term in fish operations...especially if they have done wastewater treatment work!
Another great video Rob thanks, do you have any thoughts on charging biochar in a aquaponics system? I was thinking of adding a barrel full of fresh clean rice husk biochar every month or so between the Radial Flow Settler and the MBBR to catch the smaller particles of raw fish waste and also charge the biochar with nutrients circulating the system, in your experience do you think it would have a positive or negative impact on an aquaponics system?
From what I have heard, it will work great as a bio filter because it has a huge amount of surface area. I have also heard that it absorbs much of the nutrients in the system until it is "charged". Based on that, if you keep replacing the biochar, you may be removing nutrients from the system. You may need to research it more to verify what really happens. ;-)
@@Bigelowbrook thanks Rob, yep another balancing act!
how does water return to the fish tank? or clean water in this case?
There's a small pump used to circulate the water. czcams.com/video/byGvLNjep1M/video.html
do you reintroduce the water from the mineralization tank to your floating raft system?
yes. every few days I drain a 5 gallon bucket from the MT, let it settle, and siphon the clear water into my media beds. The sludge gets tossed into compost.
Can you tell me about the infusionator? Parts and source?
you can go to infusinators.com and there's a design tool that will help with all the parts. Thanks!
I'm concerned you've swap reliability for power savings, that pump will not last as long and the air pump, and if those venturis block up :(