New Idea: the Inside Out Aquapini. Help me make it better please!

I was doodling in SketchUp and I created these not-quite-what-I-wanted sketches.

Ideally I want an upper Warm Water pipe and a lower Cool Water pipe to create an exchange between the finger pond/dams. I wish I could use height differentiation and tube design to create a better filtration system between them. Having an efficient filtration, temperature moderation & aeration with the outer pond interchange somehow is the idea.

Having fish is great... if they don't use electricity to survive.

if the bottom tank is open to the atmosphere, it will overflow. To create the thermosiphon effect, you need a significant temperature differential, which will likely kill the fish.

Getting away from electricity is great, but it means very low stock density and really big ponds.

If the heat differentials are filters then you wouldn't want the fish in them. It's over a 100 most days of the summer here & rarely under 32 F in winter.

If the outside pond was a gravel bedded (2 ft) pond, it would cool the pond strip. If the areas separate from the fish habitat had the extreme temperatures while the exchange is where the fish live, you'd have oxygen (wind & movement) and temperature: yes it would take some doing to figure out the 'sweet spot' but that's any aquaponic system, especially DIY.

In Summer you could shade the outer pond, keeping it cool as well as shade the Aquapini which is something I'd need to do anyway.

I think pipe size, placement and shape as well as aqua-microclimate design can create an exchange. It's possible, but feasible and easily done is the real question that needs answering. I need to make a small prototype first...

Check out the work of Sepp Holzer and Geoff Lawton, they make highly productive ponds of various sizes without electricity, just good design. Most South Pacific Asian nations also have productive small scale aquacultures without electricity and it's about as normal as using a cellphone is over here.

It's really just about design.

You could add a berm on the front, shading the water, as well as having trellis over the water. You could have something that attracts bugs and then hit it with a stick to feed the fish. There are many fish in shallow waters that thrive in our area (smaller sized fish - not going for the trophy hunter thing). I think it is possible. If no one does it, I'll just have to do it myself to prove it. I just have my mainframe design on my lap at the moment, but when I finish or hit the limit of what's allowed, I'll start running experiments with the aquapini.

Matt Powers wrote:Check out the work of Sepp Holzer and Geoff Lawton, they make highly productive ponds of various sizes without electricity, just good design. Most South Pacific Asian nations also have productive small scale aquacultures without electricity and it's about as normal as using a cellphone is over here.

It's really just about design.

While they have productive systems in comparison to monoculture ponds, it's nothing compared to intensive systems like aquaculture or aquaponics. You don't need electricity when your fish density is low like those systems, but the OP is talking about fish in tanks, which require considerably higher population density and energy for circulation.

Creating a temperature differential is possible, no debate there, but creating enough of a differential to create a significant exchange to filter water would be nearly impossible, especially if you are talking about fish also living in the water.

Second that. You can do aquaponics without a lot of electricity. But with zero? That's just not possible, unless you have wind that blows all the time and an aerating windmill.

It could be mechanical using a fan on a solar chimney inside the greenhouse part. The fan would turn a paddle in the water aerating it? Or runs a water wheel?

That's right. There's another post in the aquaponics area that goes into it, in detail. The issue is that you'd need wind all the time. Two hours without aeration means dead fish.

No not a wind source. Solar chimney with a fan inside it. We are superbly hot here and that aquapini or walipini will need ventilation so might as well harness that excess energy.

That's an interesting idea. Is the weather really consistent? Building infiltration in my area can vary as much as 50 times depending on wind and temperature.

I'm in California: very consistent - no rain. It's hot and then too hot. I'm on the arid edge of the Mediterranean climate. If it was a walipini here it would be a furnace in summer unless shaded and vented. Maybe I can use the temperature differential to do something else other than fish. It's extreme here.

You've defined a model for the gulf stream.......however, both pools must be at the same height...... (water seeks it's own level).
The movement of water between a COLD pool (in your case pool covered from the sun), and a WARM pool is thermodynamics.
Here is an interesting experiement you could do. Put a small bucket with two holes (a low and a high hole) drilled (plugged with a rag) inside a larger bucket both filled with water. One is hot water, other is cold water. both filled to the same level (mark with a perm marker). Throw in some food coloring, pull the rags out, and see the flow into the other bucket.