Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Had a scare last night. Main breaker (GFI) tripped last night. Luckily, the wife heard, or more correctly, didn't hear the water running and alerted me. Not sure how long it was out, but lost at least 1 fish, and it would have been a disaster. Been putting off my back up, and now think that was my wake up call. Should I use a solar set up and 12 volt back up, or can a generator be used. Since the generator would have to be manually started, I'm assuming that could still be a disaster. In this area, sun is pretty strong. With my current system, Aquascape 45 GPM and 3 cu ft air pump, what kind of money would it require for a workable 12 volt system. I've seen some threads with a plans for a "control box" that switched on when main power grid went down. What are your experiences with back ups? I'm not wanting to spend tons of money, but realize not having a back up plan is just waiting for disaster.

Simplest for small systems is an ACDC air pump.. Runs when powered, then when power is out switches to battery and keeps the air up to your fish.

The little ones we use are cheap yet do a good job lasting for 8-10 hours on battery, then recharge once the power comes back on, and they are a simple all in one unit so you don;t have to mess around with charges, power fail relays, car batteries, inverters and/or 12 volt pumps etc..

thanks EB...any links or brand/models to choose from?
Sounds like a good idea...and not breaking the bank.lol

Coachchris,
For the small systems that can be kept safe with only a small amount of air pumping, the automatic battery backup air pumps are definitely the simplest way to go, unfortunately some of them don't provide much air volume when they switch to battery power and there are some makes/models where you can't replace the battery when it starts to get old and you have to replace the whole air pump (and unfortunately you can't always tell when that is until a disaster happens and you notice the air pump only runs for 1/2 an hour on battery instead of the time they advertize on the box.) I'm not sure if the Model BYAP sells is easily available here in the US but if you search Aquatic Eco Systems you might find that they carry something along those lines.

You might also look into Computer type UPS that could handle maybe just the air pump. Would have to look at the power usage of the air pump and what the UPS can supply for how long. (this may really only be appropriate for relatively small systems where running the air pump might only draw 20-30 watts I'm not sure.)

There are power inverters/charge controllers/automatic switch over units that can be used with solar panels and/or mains power but they usually need a separate battery and run in the range of probably $600-1500 depending on size etc but something like that could be plugged up with a battery and used with your existing air pump and maybe even water pump as well depending on how long you want it to be able to run and how big a battery or bank you set up but then could be expanded to charge the battery via solar as you have the money to install that. I want to get one or maybe a few of these systems for my farm but for now I'm living dangerously (I too had a CGFI trip incident once and lost over 100 fish because both the water pump and air pump were on the same circuit, simply having a separate circuit to plug the air pump into could save the day in some emergencies) and have a generator in case of storm or long power outtage.

When doing the figuring, you need to calculate the amps your equipment needs and the amp hours of the battery or batteries and then remember that you don't want to drain a deep cycle battery more than 50%.

Cheapest method for a medium to large system would of course be the battery, inverter, charger, and fail over relay to power say just your air pump but that is not necessarily easy or simple especially around here where I've had expensive battery chargers and inverters die due to my garage getting rather warm during certain times of year. You have to make sure you get a good WAY over sized inverter that can handle operating in the temperatures you will subject it to. As for the charger, you need one that can handle whatever type of battery you are going to get

@EB

I had a look at the AC/DC pumps you have on offer for $135 but there are no details on flow rates or power ratings. Can you supply more detailed specs on them.

You can also get 12 volt air pumps doing away with the need for an inverter

I guess there is no "right answer". I can go with a battery backup with a 12volt pump or a solar with a 12v or inverter. I'm leaning more toward a 12V battery back up with a small inverter to run when the grid power goes out. Now, I will need a contacter type switch to close when the 120V power goes out and then activate the inverter. From what I've seen, i think I can do this for under $200.00, not including the cost of the switch, which I will probably have to make?? A small trickle charger to keep the battery(ies) topped off should be adequate for the 15 watt air pump I need to run. Then a back up gas generator could be implemented if a prolonged outage occurs. Anyone else using this method? ny additional advice?

I use a UPS, I removed the small internal batteries and wired up some big deep cycle ones. Works a treat.

Charlie, that's GREAT idea! I may try that. What type of batteries did you switch out to? 12V deep cycle?

Yes you can but the 12v pumps I've looked at are not continuously rated. That means you have to have a AC to DC switch for when mains power goes down.

Setup I'm looking at is a 240v air pump for general use (aeration of FT, some airlifts and DWC) such as:

http://www.aquasonic.com.au/product/hai ... -68lpm-1m/

or these:

http://www.aquasonic.com.au/product/kam ... p-55lpm1m/

with one of these to switch over to DC if the power fails:

http://www.aquasonic.com.au/product/aut ... -switch-2/

to then run one of these:

http://www.aquasonic.com.au/product/hai ... omp-55lpm/

If anyone has any better ideas then I'd love to hear them.

I use a UPS I found on ebay for about $20 and only have my air pump (less than 10 W) hooked up to the battery backup outlets. The couple times the power has gone out, it has run for hours.

Chainsaws 12 volt backup system thread is excellent read. I did it his way and it saved my system this year when we were down for 6 days no power.

Edit read through my thread.

I don't think that's necessarily the case at all, at least it hasn't been my experience.. depends on the brand and manufacturer I guess, but a lot of air pumps run on low voltage anyway and have the electrical gear inside of them to drop down from 240v.

I've had a couple of low voltage pumps running here continously for over a year no problems at all

edit: Just checked out your links Stuart, which I notice are all quite large air pump, I'm referring to smaller air pumps around 300 litres per hour sufficient for average sized backyard systems

Another idea is to run the air pump continously, even when grid power is up, off a sufficiently sized deep cycle battery, solar panel and small charge controller, doing away with a relay etc

If you are going to go the UPS route, try to get one of the old APC ones, like the old smart power series. They are pure low frequency sine wave with the ability to modify mains if its a bit dirty without cutting over to batteries.
You should be able to get one for bugger all.
As far as batteries go, try your local powered wheechair (Gopher)store. They tend to change batteries out for no good reason and you could pick a couple up cheap.