Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Ok, I thought you were running the main pump off it

I wish, would be cheaper that way
have six small pumps, one for each Green Barrel FT + sump + the oxygenating one

glad to see they are still swimming Steve. Only feeding my 200 a tablespoon 3 times a week with the drop in temps.

me too, TT, me too , giving them only a little every second day and they still leave some of it
but are grazing on algae

Not much new for now, last night water temp down to 9oC going to 18o during the day.

Had to make a vacuum cleaner to suck out the uneaten fishfood.

That siphon thingy is excellent idea but a bl***y cheep s**t.
Wouldn’t mind paying good money for a decent product
Had to glue and tape all together to prevent the air sucking in.

PH up to 7.2, thank to 3kg of shell grit
conductivity down to 1.66mS because of the rainwater overflow flushing the sys.

Ouch!!!...that's a pretty big swing Steve, hope the fish are big enough to cope with it

That’s what worries me a bit but the SPs look OK and are very active,
at least at nite, when I can see them clearly with a torch light.

Their size, a rough guess only - 8 to14 cm
went to get a shot of them

Can you pump less at night to reduce heat loss and the swings?

OO, have six pumps running in sequence circulating the water to the GBs,
I could turn the whole lot off for the nite, leave on only a small pump that is on permanently, circulating the water within the FTs to oxygenate instead of airpump.

Right now the temp is still on 15oC , it will be coldest early in the morning.

Working on easier (simpler) way to control the lot and will ad to it a digital temp sensor.

Bought another min/max thermometer yesterday to compare water/air temperatures.
Today’s check (from yesterday midday) max temp. 18oC each, min 8oC air, 10oC water.

Today have put airstones in the FT and turned pumps off for the nite but at midday today
it was 14oC here and coming down, both air and water at 14o so don’t expect any diference.

Had the litle fishes on airstones for two days while mowing the pumps control sys.
into a bigger cabinet.
Instead of being everithing crammed, now have plenty space to spare.

Didn’t have much leftover from two 6x4’ 1mm sheets used to make the box
and the partitions.

Also made a new controller, based on only one, higher specs Picaxe
and split the relays board into two, the pumps relays and emergency // B/Up relays.

Still have to make and connect to the controller a water level detector.
Will use a float connected to a microswitch, all housed in a tube.
As all the FTs are interconnected at a midlevel, will need one only to cover the lot.

On Monday got four digital thermometer chips and some other goodies.
Do have two option available for their use.

With a small 8pin picaxe use one to put the controller into a emergency mode
when water temperature gets too low – water pumps off, air pump on,

or as the temperature goes down, gradually increase the time-off period
between each pump.
This would mean reprogramming the micro, changing the program’s structure
and as I didn’t use that temp. chip before, wander if I’ll be up to it.
Will take some experimentation.

Fishes are all OK.
When cleaning up the food leftovers, have to push the goldfish out of the way
but the SPs go into a panic mode, hiding behind a pump. Still very shy.

Impressed by your new enclosure Steve.
Very neat

Nice Steve



I was looking at using something like this hooked up to a Pic-8 and then have it operating an electric actuated valve to top up the tank when water level drops below the set distance

http://www.robotparts.com.au/srf02.htm

Thats very shiny

Angle grinder, tin snips, piece of 1’ L, file and a hammer,
that’s all I had to cut and bend the sheets.


Yes, saw it already on another thread, going hi-tech here.
Can manage the Picaxe somehow but the pics, that’ to much for me.


Not on the outside OBO, painted it dull grey