Aquaponics - The no holes fishtank window

I've been thinking about adding a viewing window to my fishtank because I'm part way through moving and expanding my little system, and now would be a good time.

The new system is going to be a simple CHIFT PIST* with fewer points to go wrong compared to my current system.

The problem with adding a window is that it's another point that could fail. The side of the IBC fishtank is flexible, and the glass window is rigid, and that never ends well.

So I thought I'd run it through the invention engine and see if there was a safer way.

It came up with something it likes to call the "No Holes Fishtank Window".

Which is nice.



So, it turns out you could probably force an aquarium partially under water from the surface to make an interesting inside-out aquarium.

It's a little reminiscent of Wonco's house, "Outside of the asylum".

A better viewing angle would be made from a wedge shaped aquarium made from two squares of glass, and two triangles for sides. One square sits flat against the side of the fish tank (the side you would be leaning against when viewing), and the other sits at an angle of 45 degrees, so that it meets the other square 40cm underwater.

The entire device is mounted on a bracket that keeps it underwater. The bracket is an inverted U shaped bar of stainless steel (stainless steel, so the fishies don't get all dead). One bit of the U is siliconed onto the side of the window, the other end has a locknut to attach it to the frame of your IBC.

It could be easily removed to clean, or to simply add to land fill.

It will probably work, and might look a bit like this...

I might even make one for my boat.

Surprise!

120 Things in 20 years is still alive!



*Constant height in fish tank, pump in sump tank

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Epic adventurer - Solar boat progress

I made some progress today buy building the frame to hold the solar panel on my little boat.

Not a lot of progress, but a bit.

I was prompted by Dave, a solar panel exporter from China to make some progress, so here is the result.

I made it all out of 25mm aluminium pipe, and plastic plumbing fittings. It should work well enough once I tie or wire it down. I might add some wire tension as well to make sure it all stays where it should.

The best part of my new adult construction kit is that I'm able to adjust any of it on the go with nothing more than my hands and some luck.

At some point I plan on building a solar tracker so my panel always points to the sun regardless of where my little boat is pointing.

As a result, I?'ll need the design to be flexible enough to allow me to add electronics and some kind of actuators to raise and lower different ends, and sides of the panel.

The basic plan will see me sit at the end with the chair on the right, looking under the solar panel when I'm sitting, and looking over the top of the panel when standing. This height gives an unrestricted view when sitting or standing.

When sitting, I wont cast a shadow on the panels even when the sun is setting directly behind me.

The panel will sit on top of the two bars and form the final bit of structure.

That should work.

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Thinking - TV police chases

It's bound to happen sooner or later that a villain being pursued on foot will slowly gain distance on the police officer in pursuit and eventually, gradually, escape.

I think it's time Hollywood.

I think it's time.

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Epic adventurer - Fishing gear theft

Someone stole all my fishing gear from my shed, so the epic adventure has been postponed at least for another year.

Sad.

The only time I really shopped for quality was for my fishing gear. It was the backbone of the trip and had to reliably feed me every day I was away.

I hope whoever stole it cares for it as much as I did over the 6 years it took me to accumulate it.

It was around $500 dollars worth of small, light weight gear (4 lb line) that I had bought over the last 6 years, all based around what I would need to fish all day as I boated along. I bought reasonable quality stuff as I would have limited ability to repair it. Not "real money" quality, because that's way out of my league, but stuff that with a bit of care and maintenance would outlast me.

Now I spend my days wondering if there is any point trying to buy anything else because they will be back.

Even more sad, is the almost certain reality that the person who stole it suffered a desperation for the funds it generated for just that afternoon.

I guess their life probably sucks more than mine.

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Epic adventurer - Solar fail-safe kill switch

I've been worried about all my dodgy electronics on my solar boat, so I figured I should have a master kill switch that couldn't fail, and came up with a fuse holder and a 6mm bolt, tied to some artfully arranged paracord in the form of a survival bracelet that my brother made for me.

Cut the threaded bit off the bolt, tie a nice grippy paracord handle to it, then put the bolt in the fuse holder that connects all the electrics to the positive terminal.

One pull and everything stops.

It should work.

If it does, I should also be able to clip onto it with with a 2m bungee cord when I want to move around the boat if I'm under way. That way if I fall off, the motor will stop. I think it's called a dead man's switch. I was originally planning to create one digitally, and I still might if it turns out to be a pain, but if I need it, I'll build it on the boat. If I did it digitally, I'd make a simple sonic tape measure with a PICAXE chip that would notice if I left my chair. Then it would beep in 60 seconds, then kill all power to the motor if I didn't wave my hand in front of it within 15 seconds.

I think I prefer paracord and my bolt fuse.



120 Things in 20 years realises a solar deadman's switch sounds like safety overkill, but I'll have junk everywhere, no side rails, and 2000km is a long way to chase a boat moving slightly faster than I can swim on the Murray River.

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Epic adventurer - Lifestraw

My Lifestraw was delivered today!

A Lifestraw is a very cool device for personal water filtration. It's guaranteed to deliver 1000 litres of clean safe drinking water from any dodgy water source. The Murray River is one big dodgy water source, so a it fits the bill perfectly.

It looks like this, and weighs almost nothing.

According to the packaging, it does what all the other water treatment methods claim or better.

Apparently, my little Lifestraw removes 99.9999% of waterborne bacteria, 99.9% of waterborne parasites, and provides a minimum of 1000 litres of clean drinking water.

I also bought a PermaNet 2.0 mosquito net that not only claims to keep mosquitoes at a safe distance, but also kills them when they land on it. That means the world health organisation thinks it's ok to use me as bait.

Fair enough I guess.

So basically my Lifestraw is a stack of tiny straws crammed into a tube with a sippy cup mouthpiece at one end. You stick the blunt end into a stock trough, or creek you don't quite trust, and drink through the mouthpiece as if it were a gigantic straw, and bam! you keep living.

My PermaNet 2.0 is a mosquito net.

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Aquaponics - Silver Perch

It's been a while since I paid any attention to my Aquaponics system, but it was nice to find my Silver Perch have been busy growing.

I wandered out to the Aquaponics system for the first time in ages because it was making a slightly different sound, and it turned out to be a partial blockage of the pipe work.

Blocked with tomato roots.

I've been expecting some problems because when I pruned back the four tomato plants that are still growing from last year, I accidentally killed one by snapping it off at the base. The roots are all meshed together with it's three tomato plant buddies, so there was no way to get them out. I figured it would work it's way out in the end. It probably would have. The system was still working, with some water going through my overflow. The overflow exits from the surface of the fish tank water, where in normal operation, the water exits from the bottom via a solids lifting overflow. As a result it's unlikely that both would be blocked at the same time.

Anyway, everything seems to be ticking along nicely.

I don't really know how big this fish is (I'd guess around 40+cm), but it's in really good condition. They're not just long, but really heavy as well. Heavy looking that is. I wouldn't like to try to catch one, I think it would be a little disruptive.

I'm not sure if this is the bigger of the two, but one of them now looks like this...

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