Cold Climate Home Garden Season Extender

If you have a large clay pot that is in the sun, you will notice how hot it gets in full sun exposure.  This observation is used here to build a mechanism to extend growing seasons.

The system is made up of a large clay reservoir filled with water (you could add mosquito retardant, or something to prevent algae growth) with a pipe connection at the bottom, a 12v solar water pump, and garden tubing (example 1/2" garden drip irrigation feed pipe).

The operation is simple.  During daylight hours the solar pump will power up and pump the cold water from the garden pipes into the clay reservoir.  When the sun goes down and the water is heated as much as it will, the solar pump will stop working and the water will flow back by gravity to the water lines in the garden bed. Note, one of the garden lines has a vertical element (sealed at the top and filled with water) that allows air to compress at the top to ease water travel back and forth.

A difficulty of this design will be connecting the water pipe to the clay reservoir.  You can simplify this by using a bladder inside the clay pot that has the hose connection and merely routing the piping through the pot.  Alternately, you can drill a hole in the pot, and install a bulkhead fitting like from here (http://www.jehmco.com/html/bulkhead_fittings.html).

Wildlife and the greenhouse aquaponics setup -- Precautions

About 1 week after the picture here was taken, Seed Bed, the picture below was the view of that bed.  This was from a visit from either a raccoon or a large opossum.  All the plants died except for the cee gwa.

This is the bed after I "fixed" it.  It was completely trashed. The creature dug through it harvesting snails that were growing in the media.  I suspect it was a raccoon because it was strong enough to pull unglued pipes that were pressure fit.  It completely scrapped my flood and drain piping.  I found out about the visit during a remote camera viewing, I noticed the bed was overflowing in water.  Since the drain system was foiled by the creature the water overflowed from this bed.  It is the only bed that the overflow doesn't fill into another bed -- so it effectively drained my water to a failsafe level I have (otherwise my fish would be gone also).

In order to minimize this disruption or worse, fish kill, you need to take some precautions. Steps to consider:
* first by following the construction techniques of the greenhouse series, Gazebo-to-Greenhouse, you get a significant lead because wildlife do not attack through the styrofoam.  Now this could be the variety of foam I have used (see pictures in the blog), or maybe it is the creatures in my area (doubtful).  -- it took two years for this first large creature to breach the walls -- and they did it by realizing they could climb an adjacent pear tree and come in through the open "window" area
* it is key to cover your fish tank -- the breach by a raccoon would have been much worse if it had gotten to the fish in my tank

* on evidence of visitation, sprinkling of hot chillie powder can be used to dissuade calls -- also hanging a sachel of bloodmeal may be helpful  -- here you see how I used the chillie powder around the base of the outside greenhouse including the door entrance and on the top of the styrofoam walls.  Chillie powder on the outside will only be good until the first rainfall.

* if you have a particularly bad situation with visiting animals, you may also consider using galvanized or insulated chicken wire on the window area -- this has the added advantage of providing a growing mesh for your creeping vegetables -- I have plastic insulated chicken wire that I may install if the problem returns. The chicken wire can also be used on the inside behind the styrofoam wall panels if you have creatures that are not shy about tearing the foam -- if really bad, or you don't care too much about aesthetics, you may consider putting the wire on the outside.

* once you have determined the type of rodent or creature that is visiting you, you can also place traps -- if you worry about this, consider that while rodents will eat excess food that may spill around the place, they will also nest and/or do additional damage in pursuing additional food -- this happened to me in a rat that ate through my fish food feeder looking for additional food -- the hole added more food to the fish tank and was the cause of fishkill during one of my trips away -- my raccoon/opossum problem above was alleviated by using the traps shown -- the small mouse traps triggered but didn't do anything, but the larger black rat trap caught the creature, likely it's leg -- it got out and away but it did get a good dose of chillie power and likely a decent scratch from the trap before it freed itself -- didn't have problems after that.

Benefits of Vermiculite Growth Media for Separating Seedlings

Two of my aquaponics vegetable grow beds have a top layer of vermiculite.  I have detailed this in earlier postings. [Grow-beds-and-media-stackup.]

Some vegetables are very sensitive to root disturbance.  An example of this are pepper plants and specifically bell peppers.  Normally, to cover less than 100% germination, a gardener will plant 2 or more seeds (depending on expected germination rates) for every seedling desired.  When the seedlings are at their first true leaf you would cut off (kill) the less desired seedlings in a bunch to prevent disturbing the roots of the chosen seedling.

I found that vermiculite does not hold to the fine roots of seedlings. What I have been able to do then is to gently pull seedlings apart from the vermiculite and place them in another spot (making a hole for them with my finger).  The ones remaining do not get disturbed, and the transplanted one continues to grow also.  I did this first with tomatoe seedlings that had reached their first true leaf.  Tomatoes are hardy plants anyway.  But after that, I successfully did it with bell pepper seedlings.

This is a picture of seedlings in a bed of vermiculite. The red circled ones have been transplanted and doing fine after 3 days.  Note the coir pots for some of the seedlings.  These are meant to be transplanted into other beds. Since it is all soil-less I can even put them into the hydroton beds.

This is growth after 11 days total.  Note the transplants are doing fine. If you lift transplants when they are bigger, you need to be do it more slowly and gently as they have more rootlets developed.  I separated the two larger peppers on the left side just after taking this picture, and the one pulled successfully with vermiculite attached to its rootball.

Remote Wi-Fi Monitoring, Part 2

This is a continuation of the post, remote-wi-fi-monitoring-of-your-setup.  This entry will discuss accessing the video feed from the internet (not from your home network).

Once you have the system running per the first post instructions, you need to go and register with either www.no-ip.com or www.dyn.com.  I used no-ip.

Follow the instructions given here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHTxuYa3Kzo

After that, I had to update the firmware and web gui on my FosCAM in order to view the video on my smartphone (Android) via 3G while travelling.

I was able to use port 80 for the port forwarding in my router.  I did configure my router and the FOSCAM for my no-ip account (I will have to wait a month to see if doing both will cause a problem).

When accessing your remote host name -- the name you registered at no-ip.com and what you use on your browser to access the camera -- brings you directly to the camera.  Thus when you are asked for a username and password, that is the camera asking -- not your router, not no-ip.  Be careful here as there are different configuration pages, and if you don't keep it straight, then you will enter the wrong password and think your setup is not working.

So, in summary:

1. connect Foscam to ethernet and program it the first time
2. power off the camera, disconnect ethernet and power on again, and verify it connects to your wi-fi
3. create an account at a DDNS site (eg. www.no-ip.com) and register a host name
4. enter the config page of your wi-fi router and do the next router steps
5. [router] set the IP address of the Foscam to either static and one you choose or fixed at current
6. [router] set the port forwarding address to be TCP port 80 and the IP address of the Foscam
7. [router], optional, set the DDNS settings to your DDNS provider and account
8. [camera], set the DDNS settings on Foscam to your DDNS provider and account
9. [camera], optional, turn upnp on (should be supported and on at router also)
10. Wait up to 4 hours if you used no-ip for routing tables to be updated
11. Turn wi-fi off on your 3G smartphone, and go to your hostname.no-ip.biz in a browser
12. at this point you should get the login page of the Foscam.

View of Foscam access page from remote internet access (after login).

You can see the feed here:

http://wolfenhawke.no-ip.biz

username: visitor

password: marksgreenh

Remote Wi-Fi Monitoring of Your Setup

I have a rodent eating through the plastic on my auto feeder.  This plastic was the extension I attached and not a manufacturers accessory.  The caused a hole that forced an overfeed and a minor foiled water situation.  In order to get an appropriate trap I used the opportunity to configure a FOSCAM Fi8910W wireless camera I had. After seeing a small rat last night, I set some appropriate traps around the feeder and also covered the feed extension with a $5 aluminum vent pipe.

The system works well.  I am running 802.11b/g about 20m from my access point inside the house. Once I get the rodent taken care of, I will configure the angle of the camera so that I can view the condition of the fish tank water.  This way I can see if it is getting fouled.

The setup currently allows me to control (360 degree motion and up/down) the camera, record, and view from my desktop as well as simultaneously from a smartphone.  Setup was a breeze.  I recommend viewing the following for instruction:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xKu4uZtt3M

I use an Android, and the apps I use for viewing and controlling the camera are "IP Cam Remote" (free) and "IP Cam Viewer Basic" (free).

Using this instruction, you can view and control the camera from outside your local area network.  That is while travelling and through the internet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHTxuYa3Kzo

View of feeder through my phone and IP Cam Remote.

The FOSCAM camera is here:

See Part 2 of this blog entry here, remote-wi-fi-monitoring-part-2

Aquaponics Failsafe Design

Failures happen.  It's part of life. Failsafes in your aqauponics setup are design considerations to provide safety and some level of protection (assets, fish, your own life) should things go wrong.  I will discuss a few precautions and their logic here.

Firstly, and most important is for the electrical feed in your setup.  This must be protected with a GFI plug.  You are dealing with water, many electrical appliances, and mains level electricity.  Either your feed should be from a GFI protected plug (shown), breaker, or extension.  The GFI will trip the electrical circuit should a   current be detected on the ground line (the start of a fault).

Secondly, should have an overall water circulation failure plan.  You can have the following failures, and I have listed my safety mechanisms:
1. grow bed drain failure (clogging) // overflow mechanism
2. sludge separator outflow failure (clogging) // overflow mechanism
3. water loss (either 1,2 above or pipe failure) // minimum water level in fish grow tanks
4. water in greenhouse // drain capability


My safety mechanisms are implemented as follows.

The overflow mechanism on the grow beds are either a drain to an adjacent grow bed, and/or an overflow directly back into the grow bed.

 bed to bed overflow allowance

over flow pipe on my sludge separator (the unconnected pipe on the left -- it is normally connected with a hose directly back to the fish tanks

 green overflow pipe directly to fish tank

The minimum water level in the fish tanks are provided by having the pump not be able to pump the tank dry.   My pumps are set to draw air at about a 6 inches (15cm) of water.  You do this by raising the pump at the bottom of the tank or situating it so it's input will hit air at your desired depth. This is important so that if you do get a pipe failure, your pump will not eventually empty your tank and kill your fish.

When you build your greenhouse or aquaponics enclosure, keep in mind you are dealing with water.  There will be times you want to empty your tank, have accidental spills, have accidental overfills, and other reasons why you will have water on the floor. Don't worry.  And don't make your walls waterproof sealed at the seam to the floor -- this will allow the water to escape.  If you did caulk or otherwise seal your wall seams, open a few water channels around the perimeter.

Third you need to have protection for overfeeding.  I have had the most trouble with inconsistent feeding.  This could be for a number of reasons and I have not determined the root cause.  The solution for this is to feed minimal amounts with your auto feeder.  I then manually top the feeding so that I can control it. What does this mean?  If I am travelling, I set my auto feeder to only feed once a day (in the afternoon).  I then feed the fish myself up to two more times during the day (morning and evening).  The fish survive fine with the single feeding.

Fourth, you need to have precautions on your air hoses.  This is to prevent water back pressure from returning along the air feeder lines and flooding your air pumps.  The precautions taken here are two.  First, and ideally you place the air pumps above the water level in your fish tanks.  Sometimes this is not possible.  If not, then the two methods applicable are to use one way air valves on the lines (of limited usefulness but part of the strategy), and a looping of the line (here you can also take the line first above the water level, but due to vacuum affects this alone will not prevent back feed). Even using these precautions note that a power failure in my home one day caused water backup into one air pump that caused a leak and, fortunately, triggered my GFI extension -- otherwise I would have stepped into a puddle of live power when trying to find out where the water was coming from.

In the future I want to connect the feeder, pump and a camera of my setup to the internet.  This will allow me full control while travelling.

Starting Seeds in Aquaponics Beds

Starting seeds for your aquaponics grow beds depends on the substrate you are using.  See this entry for options.  If you use vermiculite on the upper layer, you can just spread small seed on the surface and cover with a thin layer of more vermiculite.  Larger seeds can just be embedded in the vermiculite.  If you are using Hydroton, you can also embed larger seeds like beans just under the top layer.

For small seeds in Hydroton, or for more controlled planting in any media I prefer to use coconut husk pots with a vermiculite media.  I can germinate the seed either indoors or in the greenhouse, and then put the entire pot into the grow bed when ready.  This can be used in any media grow bed, including Hydroton.

The benefit of this technique is that you are not introducing organisms into your ecosystem that may be present in regular soil, you have control over the planting, and you can germinate the seed in optimum conditions for the appropriate seed.