permaculture

[venaurafarm <venaurafarm@bellsouth.net>]

A very good reason for a home food producer to add aquaponics or 
hydroponics to his production system is drought and water restrictions. 
Catching most rainfall in barrels off the roof and in on-the-ground 
catchments would help ensure enough irrigation water for small garden 
beds and for hydroponics. Both would be better than just one of the two
even if the soil-based production is in containers.

In undeveloped nations with low income populations needing produce food 
locally in small gardens, water may well be a very big issue, especially 
when they rarely have rain and have access to drinking/cooking/limited 
washing water only with none or very little left over for gardens. A two 
part integrated system consisting of hydro-aqua + garden beds would, 
could make a critical difference in their supply of food.

I have a question about the comparison of nutrient/mineral/trace 
mineral/microbiology needs of plants and availability of those in
either soil production and aquapo/hydropo systems.

Since you have a huge nutrient bank in well prepared garden soil and 
with mulch and high OM all you need is a little water, how to you 
replicate this in a hydropo/aquapo system. How do you produce food that 
is equally nutritious using both production systems and how does one on 
a budget do that? I am sure there is a way and there are probably easy 
answers. A person needs to be a backyard garden/hydropo experimenter.
The fish/aquaponics option is a whole other order of magnitude as I see 
it, requiring a lot of risky investment is you are planning on 
generating a profit.

BTW there is a great mailing list/Google Group group called the Bio Sand 
Filter Group.
Biosand Filter Production
This group is maintained by CAWST (Centre for Affordable Water and 
Sanitation Technology) to provide udates, generate feedback and 
discussion around scale-up options for the production of Biosand Filters.
For more information visit CAWST's website, http://www.cawst.org/,
and learn about our training, 
http://www.cawst.org/en/what-we-do/training-programs, and services, 
http://www.cawst.org/en/what-we-do, as well as education material for 
download, http://www.cawst.org/en/resources/pubs.

These people work to develop water purification filters for people in 
countries with water quality problems. I will bet they
would know a lot about filtering and purifying aquapo/hydropo system water.

This is an organization I found reference to in their archives:
Quinn
Project Leogane - Leogane, Haiti
All Hands Volunteers
www.hands.org

You might enjoy this post in their archives from 2011. Seems to involve
a machine for separating aggregate components according to size, i.e. 
gravel from fine sand, etc.

Biosand Filter Production ›
CAWST Sand Sorter - Part 1 of 5
1 post by 1 author in Biosand Filter Production
        [Email updates to me] [Collapse all]
        Derek Baker     
More message actions
9/18/11
Hi everyone,

We have just completed the fabrication plans for the CAWST Sand Sorter!

This design is similar to the Beta model but includes all the changes 
that we felt would make it easier to construct and operate the sand 
sorter in a developing country based on what we learned in Zambia and 
India.    The design has been built and tested in Canada.  It is simple 
and robust.  It requires fewer sizes of steel to buy and the components 
should be available in most large centers anywhere.  Steve Begg, a 
designer and fabricator in Canada, did the design starting with the 
original sand sorter developed by Ron Ryde.  We are grateful to both 
these individuals.

There are several files (described below) that provide all the 
information necessary as well as pictures and drawings to communicate 
the design.  The Google group limit for posting size is 4 MB which is 
too small for all the files (the fabrication plans are 6 MB).  In order 
to remain within the size limitations I am sending this information out 
in two ways.  The first is through a free download service which you can 
access to get all the files at once by clicking on this link: 
http://ge.tt/8uZcDt7?c .  The files will be available through this link 
for 90 days.  I am also sending the files in 5 separate postings through 
this bsf-production Google group so that they will be accessible to you 
indefinitely.  The 5 postings will have the following files attached to 
them:

CAWST Sand Sorter - Part 1
Sand Sorter operation    - a drawing showing the sand sorter and 
operator and the stationary feed hopper and discharge chute.  Small 
platforms provide the proper elevations for operation
V1-view from side           - a picture from the side of a completed 
sand sorter.  The three screen levels have been spread further apart to 
give the operator more access to all three screens
V1-view from above       - a picture of a completed sand sorter looking 
down at the top of the sand sorter.  This shows the entire upper screen 
is accessible by the operator

CAWST Sand Sorter - Part 2
V1-Plans pages 1-20                - this file includes pages 1 - 20 of 
the fabrication drawings with annotations to help a welder fabricate the 
machine (the AutoCAD .dwg file is also available if anyone wants it)

CAWST Sand Sorter - Part 3
V1-Plans pages 21-41                - this file includes pages 21 - 41 
of the fabrication drawings

CAWST Sand Sorter - Part 4
V1-Plans pages 42-59                - this file includes pages 42 - 59 
of the fabrication drawings

CAWST Sand Sorter - Part 5
V1-Mechanical                  - provides the details of all the 
mechanical components required.  Details are given to help you get 
exactly what is needed
V1-Machining                    - provides the details to fabricate the 
bearing inserts and their attachment to the shaft that should provide 
all the information that a machine shop needs to fabricate this
V1-Cut-List                          - provides the dimensions that each 
steel piece must be cut to.  It is often best to do all the steel 
cutting first; before beginning welding
V1-Material List                - provides all the materials (steel, 
bolts etc.) that need to be purchased to build the sand sorter

By sending this information out I am hopeful that many large biosand 
filter implementers will consider using this machine to help improve 
their quality and productivity. I suggest we use this communication 
channel; bsf-pro...@googlegroups.com  as the method of exchanging 
experiences and developing best practices for all to use free of charge 
or fear of patent infringement - we only require attribution rights - 
that CAWST's name be left on the documents.  I encourage all 
implementers to pass along their experience with the sand sorter. Steve 
Begg, a designer and fabricator in Canada, did the design starting with 
the original sand sorter developed by Ron Ryde.  We are grateful to both 
these individuals.

I plan to travel to Peru in November to help an organization there build 
the sand sorter and other bsf facilities as well such as water recycle 
and bsf factory layout.  I intend to send out another Sand Sorter Update 
to the group after this trip.   David Putt, a CAWST volunteer, will 
travel with me to help with the Spanish and gain experience in teaching 
others to construct the sand sorter.  Hopefully, he'll be able to make 
more trips to help others if needed.

If anyone wishes any further information or answers to questions, 
contact me directly at dba...@cawst.org or post your questions/ comments 
to this bsf-prod group by replying to this posting.

Olivier Mills from CAWST made this challenge on facebook.com/cawst:
What's a biosand filter sand sorter machine?... I'll donate 20 hours to 
CAWST if someone (non-CAWST staff!) comes up with the right definition 
in a comment to this post in the next 24hrs.
Glynis Hunt with ACI*replied: The system includes an electrical sand 
sorting system which separates media into a variety of needed sizes 
while simultaneously using water to break up and rinse away grains that 
are too fine along with unwanted organic material and dust. Water for 
washing is reused via several settling tanks and pumps. Once prepared, 
the filler is dried, measured, bagged and stored on site before being 
transported to an entrepreneur in need of more supplies. From what I 
understand this machine will improve filter consistency and quality, 
while increasing the number of households the network can serve each month.
*ACI is Aqua Clara International working in Kenya and Nicaragua.  They 
have trained over 35 biosand filter entrepreneurs in Kenya.

Good definition Glynis.  Thanks for getting us those extra hours from 
Olivier!

Derek Baker, CAWST

<>

You also have artificial wetlands to use for prefiltration of effluent. 
It is just amazing how crystal clear water hyacinths will make murky 
water and in such a short time. I have overwintered them in a small 
freezer with a glass cover and foamboard insulation on top of that 
during the coldest times; polycarbonate will also work well, even the 
corrugated roofing panels, doubled up with the channels plugged with 
foamboard or spray-on foam.

Here's something else to consider to use in your aqua-hydro system
when you need sand or fine gravel: free rock quarry siltation pond fines.
Using this as rooting medium for your plants would ensure a constant 
supply of minerals to your irrigation water. These materials are 
typically microscopically fine to aggregates with largest particles
the size of screenings (used in making blacktop, asphalt). Where I am I 
have access to granite, pyrophyllite and a very hard rock (2nd hardest 
in NC) pulverized into microscopic particles (thus mare available for 
use by microbes and plants) that is basalt/volcanic tuff/feldspar, not 
sure which, must call the quarry and find out. When you feed the 
beneficial microbes in your system rock dust they thrive and plants will 
generate a larger root system than in any other rooting medium.

I would like to see a hydroponics system developed and tested that uses 
rock dusts either alone or mixed with other types and sizes of stone.
Forget the lavarock, that represents a huge carbon footprint as well as 
generation of air pollution.

LL
On 10/10/2012 4:40 PM, KAKerby@aol.com wrote:
> One more note along the lines below: yes there  are a variety of small
> scale, scalable, low-tech, "starter" systems out there.  One of the best is
> called Barrelponics, because it relies on using a few 55  gallon barrels for
> both the growing containers, the tank and the  reservoir.  The creator of
> that system, a man named Travis Hughey, set up a  Yahoo discussion group also
> called Barrelponics, to disseminate information  about this system, and to
> share information amongst small-scale aquaponics  practioners in general.
> Much of what I've relayed in the last few days, I  learned while a member
> there.  Travis' main job is doing missionary work to  bring self-reliant food
> production to various areas without such  abilities.  It has been his work
> which has taught me that so many peoples  are in desperate need of low-tech,
> inexpensive, diversified, scalable food  solutions.  For whatever combination
> of reasons, far too many people  don't have the ability to grow their own
> food otherwise.  He's  literally gone around the world setting up these 
> systems
> and teaching folks how  to produce their own food, then ensuring they have
> enough information and  training to keep it going themselves.  The work he
> does, and the design he  uses, is all documented on the
> _Barrelponics@YahooGroups.com_ (mailto:Barrelponics@YahooGroups.com)  and  is 
> free for download.
> If anyone on this list wanted to learn not only how  to build a small
> system, but also what it's capable of producing, that would be  an excellent
> place to start.