Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I find the less you give a shite about the fish the better they go. Just leave them alone until the next warm day (assuming its is soon) then feed them.

My silvers were absolutely smashing food above 25 degrees for the past few days. One cool day of rain, tank temps down to 20 again, and they are not interested.

+1 My silvers have only just started properly feeding again after last weeks cold snap. Would like to get a few (5) largish Barra now its warmer, where did your's come from BTB?

I'll try for some pics, Charlie - mainly to show off the exceptionally clean FT!

I've just got a letter from Western Power telling me that my power will be off for 6 hours next Wednesday. I've got two pumps (115W and 60W). Any idea how big a generator I'll need to keep the pumps going on a 15/15 cycle?

You'll only need a small genny, one of the little 800w or 1kva camping models would be more than ample... might even be able to keep your beer fridge cool with the excess power... waste not want not!

In fact I know (with a 1kva at least) they tell you to leave at least a 60w light, or similar, switched on to put a little bit of load on the genny... don't leave it running for extended periods with no load.

I would have thought a small 1 kVA unit would be plenty - would still give ~5x running capacity of the pumps.

edit posted at the same time - +1 maybe run CF in leiu of the lightbulb.

Sounds like a plan.

If your really desperate... and Ive done this before. I bought a cheap 12V to 240V/600W invertor from ebay a long time ago and if the power ever went out Id run the car into the backyard and plug my pump into that and every hour or so Id start the car to recharge the battery for 10 mins.

Worked a treat and cost bugger all.

+1 charlie - that's my backup plan as well. Will be getting a 120W solar panel soon for camping so will be able to park the ute in the garden and go off grid - will hopefully be enough to keep the engel going too for cold brewski's!

@Mattyofa:

I borrowed this panel from my dad for some testing:



It is a Lorents (LA90-12S).
Specs are:
Max Power: 90W
Current: 5.1A
Voltage 17.6V

It is good enough to keep a deep cycle battery charged and at least one 35 litre Engel fridge running (I'm not sure if he runs both of them off there at once).

I never got it set up running my AP system as I have decided to concentrate on other things (like moving so I can build a larger AP system).

I've got a PV system, but (of course) when the mains power goes off, the inverter shuts down for safety reasons. All that electricity and and I can't use it.

Wouldn't it be nice if the PV systems provided a way of obtaining a couple of power points which could be used while the grid is down while not feeding power back to the grid (therefore protectnig the linesmen)?

I don't know how it is in Australia, but in the few systems I have seen you have a separate disconnect for the the grid you can shut off. Then you can use your PV for all or part of your house.

I've also seen setups with 2 breaker boxes:
1) priority box fed by PV and mains, if mains goes off PV keeps it running. This would be your lighting, important electronics like your freezer, AP air pumps, a couple of outlets, etc.
2) secondary box fed by PV and mains, but if mains goes off PV doesn't try to feed it.

LowCarbTNPer, of all the systems I have seen in Australia the inverter sync's with the grid. If it can't sync with the grid it wont work.

I think the ones here do too (I guess they would have to or else there would be problems), as long as grid power is available.