Skip to content
Menu
Practical Sustainability Practical Sustainability
  • About Us
  • Animals
    • Goats
    • Pigs
    • Poultry
    • Rabbits
    • Vermiculture
      • Black soldier fly larvae
      • Earth Worms
      • Meal Worms
  • Bathroom
    • Compost Toilets
  • Building
    • Building with bottles
    • Clay or Mud bricks
    • Earthships
    • Timbercrete
    • Underground Living
    • Used Tires
  • Energy
    • Human energy
    • Hydroelectricity
      • Dammed Hydro
      • Run of the river
      • Tidal
    • Wind
  • Energy Storage
    • Compressed Air Energy Storage
    • Electrical
    • Gravity
    • Hydrogen
    • Kinetic
  • Food Storage
    • Bottling / Canning
    • Dehydration
    • Jam making
    • Pickling & Salting
    • Refrigeration
  • Growing
    • Hugelkultur
    • Mushrooms
  • Heating
    • Solar Air Heating
    • Solar Water Heating
    • With Compost
  • Water
    • Collection
      • Condensers
      • Fog Fences
    • Filters
      • Pre-filters
      • Slow sand filters
    • Storage
      • Barrels & IBCs
      • Rainwater Tanks
      • Swales
      • Underground Skeletons
  • Our Projects
Practical Sustainability Practical Sustainability
Nexus tank first draft. Click to enlarge.

Aquaponic Nexus Tank planned prototype

Posted on November 3, 2018November 3, 2018 by Christopher Pickering

The Nexus tank is a project to incorporate all previously built Aquaponic component prototypes into a single, compact, easily accessible  unit. Grow beds are not included in these plans, but any style of grow bed can be attached to the system as long as it’s lower than the Header (1) and higher than the water level in the swirl filter (4). The maximum height of the Header (1) is only limited by the strength of the pump/s used in the main tank. Every element of this system has been built and tested successfully in previous projects.  – Chris

 

Nexus tank first draft. Click to enlarge.
Nexus tank first draft. Click to enlarge.

 

1. Gravity Manifold Header 
The gravity manifold header is designed to route water throughout the system at low pressures, driven by gravity. It also allows you to assign priorities to all outflow pipes, in case of pump failure or pressure reduction. No moving parts or valves of any kind.   A basic version can be built for around $10-15. A Practical Sustainability creation.
Previous Builds:

  • Oct 2014: MKI 1.5L Prototype. – Retired
  • May 2015: MKII 2L 7x6mm, 2x8mm, prioritized flow, Manual start. (Click for article)
  • Oct 2015: MKIII 5L 9x6mm, 1x8mm prioritized flow, Auto start. (Click for article)

2. Feeder fish tank
This tank is for breeding creatures that feed your large fish. Planned for snails and guppies, or any other creatures than can feed on detritus and raise the Trophic Level of biological waste or other food your large fish won’t enjoy. Integration of a feeder tank into an Aquaponic system cheaply, with no plumbing, is already fully tested. A 30-50mm gap between the tank and the timber housing will be left so insulation can be added. Further testing may extend to fresh water mussels and carnivorous fish when we can afford it.

  • Oct 2014: 70L glass tank – Guppies, Yabby.
  • Mar 2015: 100L glass tank – Guppies, snails. (Click for Image)

3. Permanent siphon, drains to ‘4’
Necessary to avoid piercing the glass tank. Multiple designs have been tested over the years, and the best ones needed maintenance (flushing) every 3-4 months. This new design will hopefully never need maintenance.

4. Swirl filter, drains to ‘5’
Basic DIY swirl filter. New designs will also be tested where all fittings and plumbing are on the bottom of the filter, so it looks neat but can still be pulled upwards and removed easily for maintenance. All external fittings will be plug and play.

  • May 2015: Bucket Swirl filter (Click for article)

5. Bio filter, drains to ‘9’

  • Basic DIY Bio-filter. Planned designs are an evolution of the originals.  (Click for article)

Ad to help pay for servers:

6. Access hatch
Hinged access hatch, with optional fly-screen or other light permeable cover integrated for when the hatch is left open. Round Glass jar tops will be installed in the lid to provide daylight when the tank is shut.

7. Removable filter assembly
The support for the two filters will be 6-8mm ply clad with fence palings, so it can be removed as a single piece. Previous designs have proved the need for such removable sections, for both ease of access, and so alterations or repairs can be made to the filters and plumbing without spooking the fish.

8. Timber frame

  • The timber frame will be a lighter, lower profile version of the design used in the Timber Tank MKI. (Click for article)

9. Main tank

Tank walls will be made of 8-10mm fence palings, or other similar cheap timber. Tank lining will be two layers of cheap builders plastic, which remained watertight for years in two previous tank projects.

 

The progression from the first prototypes to current plans.

Ad to help pay for servers:

Thanks for reading! I’ll work on getting a Patreon page online to help fund this project. New Twitter account is up as of today @GreenPrototypes

-Chris

1 thought on “Aquaponic Nexus Tank planned prototype”

  1. Makmun says:
    July 22, 2019 at 4:24 pm

    Thank you for providing the opportunity to learn aquaponics in this practical sustainability group

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Follow us on Facebook!

Follow us on Facebook!

Follow us on twitter

My Tweets

Search posts by Category:

Recent Posts

  • Practical Sustainability funding and growth news
  • Aquaponic Test System (2014 – 2017) Design Review
  • D.I.Y Two level planter box tutorial, with free plans
  • Aquaponic Nexus Tank planned prototype
  • Gravity Header Manifold prototype #3 tutorial

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 13 other subscribers
©2023 Practical Sustainability | Powered by WordPress & Superb Themes