Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I've got my eye on the one that goes in 2 days time (am set up to put a bid on at the end). If others are bidding, let me know so we do not just up the price

that all gets covered by contents insurance

im going to go buy a genarator 2day incase it happens again......

The power finally came back to full at 5 this morning

One of the big problems that can happen in a power disruption is that your bacteria in the grow beds dies as it doesn't get fed etc.
When we grow fish with a biological filter/grow bed we need to be concerned about both the fish and our filter as they work in unison.
Both keep eachother alive in one sense.
Reirculation systems all around the world have a generator on site incase there are power cuts.

Rob

The bacteria in your growbeds will survive a couple of days without a problem

i just went out and tested my water and it is as follows

PH - 7
Ammonia - 1 lucklily for low ph it is okay
Nitrite - .2
Nitrate - 5

So i have had an ammonia rise but that could have been the 20 4 inch trout i threw in 2 days ago

Hey vrssbt1... how about you start a thread in the members system thread, then all your questions and any replies will be in one area...

was tgoing to but the the system is pretty s**t atm n also i dont have any pics and thats not good as you all want pics lol

Start it anyway... you can add pics later

k will get onto it a bit later

if you are really concerned about your plants and bacteria during a power outage, simply water the beds with a watering can every few hours. You might lose a bit of water, but you can get that back later on.

thats what i ended up doing but it was more like every half hour go out and fill the grow bed up until it was at the top (no auto siphon) lol

My Boyu air pump arrived today. I ended up getting one for $80 (plus postage) the same as Jim. It is friggin huge - massive. Should have expected as much from the stated weight (6.5kg) and the size battery that is in the thing. Haven't given it a whirl yet - need to read the instructions to see if I need to run it for a certain period to charge the battery up for the first time.

VB-
just need to plug it in to 240V - it will charge the battery while running.
I initially set mine up with only one air outlet in use as I also bought a long leaky hose type air stone however I have found that I actually get more air out of the unit if I hook up 2 air outlets- probably less back pressure or something.

Cool. I've installed the fuse and plugged it in. I haven't turned it on yet, because I don't really want to. One of the lights has gone on so I assume it is charging. The instructions are less than clear . I'm sure I'll work it out by playing with it. Sounds like to get the thing to run on battery in case of power outage you have to have it on discontinuous mode. Have you tested yet Jim?

VB- easy to test- just turn off at the wall- it keeps running without any apparent change. I agree the notes are terrible- they do suggest running the unit on 240V for 12 hours or so to fully charge the battery- then running on 12V only for a couple of hours every month or so to give the battery a bit of a cycle. A note of caution- Lead acid batteries don't like being run dead flat- so if running on 12V only do so for a few hours. The battery is a 7AH SLA and the unit draws 8 watts when not running and 18 when pump is running so my guess is that the pump itself is about 10watts so should easily run for about 5 or 6 hours on battery alone.