Embedded Files
Final Aquaponics.mp4For the Last Month of My project, I made a video of what I have been doing.
3/12/19:
3/7/19: Today I finished up the plumbing. Now the project is all ready to be tested. I also edited my digital portfolio.
3/6/19: Today I sealed the pipe ending and the parts that go through with fish tank water proofing caulk.
3/5/19: Today I worked placing all of the piping and connecting everything.
3/4/19: Today I worked on 3d printing caps for the ends of my pvc pipe. I made a mock up on tinker cad and then I transferred my file onto a 3D printer. Here is an image of my tinker cad file. I will use these to cap my project in order to keep the water from just flowing out the end of my tube.
3/3/19: Today, on a Sunday, I worked on hooking up my pumping system. The major problem was the size difference between the end of the pump and the size of the pvc pipe I am using. The pump has a 5/8" twisty thing, but the only tops are 1/2" or 3/4". The pvc pipe that I am using is 5/8th inch. So to hook everything up I needed a plan of how to connect the different sizes. To solve this problem, my mom and I found an adapter. Here is the picture of the plan. I went through a few iterations but here is the final plan.
3/1/19: Today I worked on the drainage system for my aquaponics system. This involved hitting pieces together with the wooden hammer. The original problems was that I the pieces that allow my to pipe through the wood and still have everything water proof have ridges where I would need the screw the pvc pipe in. I was unable to screw the pvc pipe so I purchased small pieces that had one end that enter the PVC pipe and the other end that screws in. Unfortunately the PVC entering end was to large so to get it inside of the pipe, I hit it with a hammer. This solved the problem. Then I had to add a media blocker to the top so that the gravel will not be able to ender the pipe, but if the water rises to the top it will automatically start draining. I also drilled small holes in the bottom of the pipe so there will be drainage from the bottom. To drill the holes, I clamped the pipe down and then I drilled. To finish up the day, I added my 3D printed piece to the bottom end of the pvc pipe. I have included pictures of the whole process.
2/28/19: I completed work on the lining process for the top and the bottom and then I poked holes through the liner that lined up with the holes that I drilled in the wood. I make sure everything fit and now I will start working on the plumbing system of my project which is the last part.
2/27/19: Today I worked on finishing up the top. To solve my problem I just over lapped the pond liner and added an extra piece. I also decided to line the bottom of the project where the fish tank will sit because there is a large probability that water could get on the wood from the whole cycling process. I used the same method with glue and a staple gun to secure the liner.
2/26/19: Today I worked on getting the sides of the pond lined. To solve the problem, I ended up folding the lining over itself in some spots and then just going in with an exacto knife to cut the difference off. Then to secure the liner to the sides I used my moms staple gun and just staples as close to the top as I could. Tomorrow I will work on what to do about the area that I wasn't able to cover on the far side of my project. As you can see in the picture, one end is not covered by pond liner. I also cut off part of the extra with an exact knife in certain parts.
2/25/19: Today I glued in the bottom of my pond lining using fish safe glue and then books and clamps to make sure nothing moved. I am still trying to figure out what I will do about the sides. The problem is once the bottom starts rising, on the slants, the lining needs to come up higher, but because it is cut is a square on the bottom it is not mean to line a shape such as my aquaponics tank.
2/19/19-2/22/19: Over the course of this week I finished the excel work. My certificate can be seen on my senior engineering page. Or CLICK HERE. I also brought in my Styrofoam cutter and cut the styrofoam to the right shape. This creates a hight difference which allows for the water to flow down to the center area where the drainage pipe is.
2/11/19-2/15/19: Over the course of this week, I have been working on laying out the pond liner over my project. I have been using this video CLICK HERE as a guide on how to secure the liner to the project and how to water proof everything. The major problem that I have encountered is that the growth bed is not a square shape. This means that the liner doesn't lay flat everywhere like his does in the video. Additionally, the liner is not long enough, so I will need to find a way to layer while making sure everything is still water tight. I have also been working on the drilling the holes to allow a training pipe and a pumping pipe to work. I have included picture below. I originally tried to drill the holes with a step drill, but it only went to .75 inches and I need the holes to be about 1.25 inches large, so Mr. Dubick showed me a different type of drill ending that I used as shown below in these photos.
2/8/19: Today I fixed my 3d printed piece because it was too big for the pipe and the support could not come out, I also made some modifications to make it better.
2/6/19: Today I designed a new piece on tinkercad in order to have a bottom piece for my pvc adventure. Here is a picture of the design on the left.
2/4/19: Today, I tried to install the pond lining into my project, but it was hard to do because I didn't have my holes drilled perfectly yet or the pieces that I need to get the pipes through the entire system. I tracked them and my order is still processing.
1/30/19: Today I order pieces that will allow all of my pvc pipes to fit together.
1/22/2019: Today I filled the wholes in the growth bed with air dry clay. Picture are above and that fixed my hole problem.
1/21/2019: During my long weekend (MLK), I worked on prepping my fish tank in order to be ready to start the cycling process. The pictures of my cleaning efforts are shown above.
1/14 and 15/19- Today I attached the other wall of the growth bed to the base. Over the course of this week I completely build the top portion of my bed. A few problems I encountered were the spaces between the wood and the base. This happened because the wood was warped and the tabs didn't quite fit in anywhere. In order to do this, I had to cut up pieces of the sides.
1/9/2019: I spent after school yesterday building side braces and the some wooden rectangle. I attached the side braces and then went home. Today I used the wood rectangle to put underneath the bottom base. This made it fit better on top of my wooden legs. I finished off today by attaching a side of the growth bed.
Problem: Base didn't fit on the four pegs equally because the four pegs were warped and didn't line up straight.
Solution: Add extra wood under the base to secure a perfect fit.
12/17/18: Today we saw the construction workers and worked on our digital portfolios.
12/16/18: On this fantastic Sunday, my dad and I came in and cut on the shop bot. I cut the base and one side. Pictures are below. I also learned about load distribution from my mother and now I need to change the location of my casters.
12/11-12/14: This week I spend working on casters for my aquaponics tank. I had some issues because the wheels where to wide to go on one two by four. For that reason, I had to cut another two by four into the bottom in order to have a four inch platform to mount my casters on pictures are shown below. I have also attached a base as a plat form for my fish tank. I was able to use left over wood from my last shop-bot experience for this. See pictures below.
12/5/18-12/7/18: Over the last few days, I have been working on adding brackets to secure my two by fours. They were really wobbly and so I used metal t's to get everything more stationary.
12/4/18: Today I worked on screwing in the base of my project to make sure that everything is secure.
12/2/18: On Sunday, I came into the engineering lab to use the shopbot. I was able to cut out half of the project and hopefully later this week I will be able to cut the other half. I had some issues learning how to use the shop bot along with being able to lift the wood. I relearned how to zero all the axes and set everything up. One major problem was that the shop bot computer shut off about half way through and then I had to figure out what to do. I was able to start a new cut with just the edges to finish off. Above are some pictures.
11/30/18: Today I converted all of my files onto aspire so that I can hopefully cut them on the shopbot on Monday or Sunday.
IMG_0898.MOV
11/19/18-11/27/18: Over the last two weeks, I have been working on building the base of my aquaponics tank. I built the original base and then the wood was too warped to continue. So I had to unscrew the entire thing, cut a new piece of wood, and then screw everything back together. I took a time lapse video to show the creation of the original structure that ended up being warped. Then I screwed the top pieces of wood which need to be secured to the base using some sort of other piece which I am going to figure out today. I also had to learn how to use the table saw and I had to take some time to go to home depot. I learned that the home depot people do nut cut the wood straight or the right lengths so next time I will do it myself.
11/16/18 - After bringing all of the wood into the shop, I decided to work on the project time line shown above.
11/15/18 - Today I went to home depot to buy some wood for my base. They cut it on their table drill in the correct shapes because 8ft pieces of wood do not fit into a Prius.
11/13/18 - I worked on changing the file from corel draw to v-carve.
11/12/18 - I got sick and went home today.
11/9/18 - Today I worked on reformatting the pieces so that they are ready to be printed on the cnc machine. Additionally, I changed the formatting so that the file could move from corell draw to v-carve for the cnc machine.
11/8/18 - Today i finished printing my prototype and everything worked out perfectly. Then I designed the actual box full scale but this time i took into account the size of the tabs and changed the width of the box by 1.5 inches to account for .75 wood that I will cut on.
11/7/18 - Today I started printing the tab length.
11/6/18 - Today I changed the width of the box and then it still doesn't fit together quite right so I will attempt to change the direction of the tab.
11/5/18 - Today I printed out the first version of the box. Unfortunately I did not account for the width of the labs and then I had to go back to corel draw to change the with by 0.26 in.
11/1/18-11/2/18: Over the last two days I have created the design for a prototype for my top grow bed. Click on the buttons below to see the sides, and the bottom of the box. I used corel draw to plan everything out. I had to the skew on the transform function in order to slant my box.
Design Specification Considerations
- What do you want your project to do? I would like my aquaponics system to use fish waste in order to grow plants in a self regulating system.
- What is the maximum that you want to spend? As much as it takes to finish.
- What are the dimensions of your project? 64 inches high by 40 inches long.
- What materials do you use? Wood, metal, and PVC pipe.
- Will your project be inside or outside? Inside.
- Will your project be portable? Yes I will put casters on the bottom.
- Will your project connect to the Internet? No.
- Will your project use Bluetooth? No.
- What are your project inputs?electricity
- What are your project outputs?electricity
- How does your project different from the project that inspired you? My project is a combination of project, however the overlap between the projects is original.
- Are the tools you need for the project found in the FabLab? Mostly, but I will need the metal laser cutter in my dads wood shop.
10/24/18: Right now there is a possibility of adding a second project to my capstone, but it is perliminary and secretive so I can say no more.
My materials are on the first page of this spread sheet, and my tools are on the second sheet.
10/14/18: Getting the parts list together
To start I needed to pic out a pump. I know that the maximum hight of my entire project will be 5.33 ft so my pump needs to be able to circulate 120 gallons in an hour and be pushing the water up 5.33 ft. Using the head hight chart, i realized that I would need a AAPW400 to be able to push the water up as high as I needed it. My fish tank already came with a light so I didn't buy one to start. Then I needed a timer to run my pump and I decided on a simple timer where not much could go wrong. Although the timer is harder on the pump that autosiphon, it is a good place to start. Next, I needed a media for my growth bed along with something to water proof the bed with. I decided on Expanded clay (hydroton) because it is half the weight of stone, ph neutral, easy on the hands, and is not the most expensive. To water proof the beds, I decided on flexible pond liner make out of PVC because it was cheeper than the EPDM and and not made out of rubber. Dura-Skrim would have been ideal, but it is hard to come by and expensive to ship. Normally, I would need to buy a heater and an aeration component, but the cregs list fish tank also came with these components.
10/2/18: After changing the position of the cap for the spinning part of the pump and adding enough water to the tank to get the water level up the word aqueon, the pumps are both working to filter out fish waste until I get the plant section of the aquaponics system set up.
10/1/18: I tried to get the filters working, but they would not start. I found a video on the internet about cleaning the pump and how it works. Then I found out the my water level is not high enough, so I have left some water to sit out, and I put in dechlorination drops.
9/30/18: When I got home from the rafting trip with my engineering class, my mom sent me a text telling to assemble the tank. Little did I know the "supples" included a heater, T8 lights, aeration pumps, and two filters. PICTURE OF ORIGINAL SET UP
9/27/18: I originally wanted a 50 gallon fish tank, but after some though about transportation and the amount of weight involved, I decided to start looking for a 30 gallon fish tank. I started searching on cregslist and found someone selling a 30 gallon tank with supplies. Since water weighs about 8 lbs /gallon, I decided that 30 gallons was going to be the max because that is 240 lbs of water. My mom negotiated the price from $100 to $80 and we bought the tank.
I ended up deciding on the Aquaponics idea as my top choice.
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