Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hey guys, starting to think about a back up system in the event of power outage. Can i get away with just an aerator in the fish tank?? If serious outage say more than 6 hours, i can hook up a generator so looking for a solution to cover me for short term.

Op 1, run my aerator full time off battery and inverter hooked up to solar panel? The aerator only uses 5W so bugger all.

Op 2, use an Auto Transfer Switch such as the one in the pic, mains power into switch than have a battery hooked to a solar panel for trickle charging, powering an inverter hooked to auxiliary power in on the transfer switch. Havnt done the math but am assuming i wont get much more than a days running depending on a few things.

I will have 2x 80W pumps and a 5W Aerator.

Any thoughts??? Op1 is appealing due to simplicity and low cost but not sure if practical or not.

Auto Transfer Switch on Ebay

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/390585076877 ... 1438.l2649

Keep it simple, have a look through my thread for what I did which is a copy of Chainsaws 12v backup system. Simple easy and cheap, use site search for chainsaws 12v system

Hey ccBear thanks for that, i had read about this style but heard of the relays burning out?? Hows yours going??
With the cost of inverters and solar panels now days, running full time on battery might not be a bad idea??

During the black out for 6 days in February my backup worked the whole time. During the day from 8am to 6pm I ran the small $50 Masters special generator for 3 hours then 1 hour off before refuelling. This ran the 10,000 litre 120 watt pump, the 60 watt air pump and the battery smart charger.

During the 1 hour off period and during the night the emergency air pump operated of the battery. I had no problems what so ever during the 6 days operating like this.

I test my emergency air for a 8 hour period every week and run the generator for 3 hours every two weeks to ensure the back up system is working.

Would be interested in what you work out if you decide to go solar but remember for the past 3 years here we have had very little good weather, mainly overcast and rain. Cheers

I use a UPS although we rarely have power outages here for longer than a few hours and even thats only once a year.

Ahhh yes forgot about those, i assume you are referring to the UPS that you use with a PC. How does that work for you?? I had my PC hooked up to one but it only last nearly 2 years so didnt see the value.

Cant see much but has been time consuming work, small bang for my bucks from here on in i think.
Stage 2 has cycled so will attempt sending some fish over to it this weekend.
Stage 1 with the 80 fish is stable and coping well . Ammn, rites and trates stable at 0, Ph still a little hi at
7.6-7.8.

Both systems are still quite cloudy, about 1 ft vis, and the sumps all have sediment on the bottoms, i have been stirring them up to get the sediment through the system but its taking ages.

Time is on your side it will all work out.cheers

Cant see much but has been time consuming work, small bang for my bucks from here on in i think.
Stage 2 has cycled so will attempt sending some fish over to it this weekend.
Stage 1 with the 80 fish is stable and coping well . Ammn, rites and trates stable at 0, Ph still a little hi at
7.6-7.8.

Both systems are still quite cloudy, about 1 ft vis, and the sumps all have sediment on the bottoms, i have been stirring them up to get the sediment through the system but its taking ages.

Yea thats the one. I removed the small battery from mine and tapped in a couple of large deep cycle batteries. I tested it some time ago and I think from memory I got about 4 or 5 hours before I gave up waiting. Its saved me a few times. Not sure how long it would last but its only got to support about 100W.

cool, great idea, more food for thought.

Mate with the way power comes and goes in the SEQ area look at something which will give a min of at lest 24 hours.

For a 24hr stent would air only be sufficient and if so-- how much air say per IBC/1000l??
I doubt my current air would be sufficient as it is only a boost on the venturi. I forget the specs.

Approximately 1 litre of air for 1 litre of water per hour, include sump water in total water. As long as your fish are not to big and do not feed for that period of time. You do not wish to be adding more waste to the system untill you can filter.

The best thing I bought was the cheap 700 watt generator, has paid for itself a thousand times in value already.

Thanks mate, yeah i got a couple of Hondas for work, but we tend to go away camping a bit in the summer for a night or 2 and so wouldnt be home to hook 1 up.