This page helps document my personal tasks and research throughout the project's course!
May 21, 2019
This week I made a prototype of our filter. I used the materials collected from last week and followed the sketches below. I tested the material under a few different flow rates and I am not quite sure if the material will work. The holes (2mm x 2mm) may be too small for our purposes and for some reason, a lot of the holes have a film in them as if the squares were not "punched" through all the way. The photos below are of the prototype. I will be implementing it and adjusting it at the garden this week. It was hard to figure out how to cap the ends and I tried to melt them on there but the shape isn't quite rigid enough right now when it is not around the filter. Hopefully I will be able to create and finalize a design at the location tomorrow.
Images of the prototype:
May 14, 2019
The past couple weeks I have been working on research for materials as well as brainstorming for designs for our filter. I came up with a few concepts but the ones below will be our first prototype and hopefully it works. We are using a plastic mesh and essentially folding it into a tube. I also finalized a schematic for the system as a whole which is below as well.
Figures 1 and 2: Schematics of the filter both as a completed part and unwrapped like when the filter will be cleaned.
Figure 3: Finalized schematic of the whole aquaponics system.
April 26, 2019
The visit to the garden was very successful. I was able to clear up the project for both ends with Alrie and determine what our project was going to focus on.
The visit started with identifying the IBC that was overflowing for no apparent reason. We used a bunch of makeshift pieces of PVC we found around the site and used those to drain the IBC as fast as possible. This process overflowed quite a bit of the overall garden but in turn helped water everything else. There are photos below of the process and final empty system. I was able to understand the system a little bit more and did some extra individual research in regards to an aquaponics system solely dependent upon gravity.
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I did some brainstorming on how to halt algae growth in the IBCs. I think a good idea would be to simply just spray paint the outside black with a outdoor paint to limit the amount of light that hits the bin.
Our makeshift drain system.
The IBC once drained and scraped clean of algae.