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Practical Sustainability Practical Sustainability

$20 DIY Aquaponic Fish Tank from Recycled Pallets

Posted on January 14, 2017January 19, 2017 by Christopher Pickering

  Project goals: Build a small Aquaponic fish tank for under $20. Integrate a Swirl Filter. Integrate a Bio Filter. Use recycled materials whenever possible. NO complex timber joints  – keep it simple. Leave space for easy insulation installation. Use simple hand tools whenever practical. Materials Required: 6 timber pallets. You can often get these for free, look in…

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Spray bars: designs & DIY

Posted on November 28, 2016November 28, 2016 by Christopher Pickering

Spray bars aren’t just for aerating your water, they also control the direction and flow of water currents in your fish tank. This article covers DIY spray bars, and some basic design options. The actual act of building a spray bar is easy, it’s just a pipe with a row of holes in it (see below). The hard bit is…

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DIY swirl filter #1

Posted on November 20, 2016January 29, 2017 by Christopher Pickering

Here’s the tutorial on how to make a swirl filter out of a bucket, some garden hose, 4 zip-ties, a piece of pipe, and some silicone! This filter was made for the Timber Prototype Tank #1 project. It was fed intermittently from a reservoir that pooled water that had drained from 4 prototype grow beds, totaling around 110L…

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Simple Aquaponic biofilter prototype #1 & #2

Posted on November 16, 2016November 19, 2016 by Christopher Pickering

This article covers our ultra-simple Biofilter design, D.I.Y instructions, plus a little bit of science to help you understand what Biofilters do, and why you need one. Biofilters are not essential for every Aquaponic system, as certain types of designs, or systems with a huge excess of grow media may not need them, even if they…

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‘Bottle top’ your pipes! Sustainable pipe caps.

Posted on November 15, 2016November 15, 2016 by Christopher Pickering

Pipe caps  are common in Aquaponic and Hydroponics systems, and are used in almost every Practical Sustainability project that involves water. This article will cover our methods for crafting the cheapest practical pipe caps. Commercial pipe-caps Basically, your commercial cap options are either; A simple cheap cap that is glued on – but cannot be removed for cleaning…

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Timber Tank Prototype #1

Posted on November 14, 2016November 3, 2018 by Christopher Pickering

The timber tank prototype was the fifth tank added to our prototype Aquaponics system in Sydney, Australia. It was originally going to have a vertical frame integrated to support grow beds directly above it, but this was abandoned since we had no space available for the tank with sufficient direct sunlight to make it practical. Weight was…

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New website!

Posted on November 10, 2016 by Christopher Pickering

We’re finally upgrading the website! The old website was functional, but it’s time to bring Practical Sustainability to mobile users and integrate social media functionality. Migrating the old content will take a while, but it’s high time for an upgrade. Stay tuned! -Chris  

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