Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

If you are worried that the tank will get to hot.. Wrap it in insulation.. Make sure that there is no air gap if you can help it..

the main issue with the Poly tunnel is the heat.. It might get to hot over winter.. so you need to protect the fish from the heat..

If you want your FT out side.. use a piece of fixed Ply board and have you Pipes going thru the ply-board and sandwich the poly That way it should not be to stressed out..

Juergen..

Juergen, that is a brilliant idea! Wish I'd asked you before we went ahead and put the FT in the polytunnel...but now, maybe we can put another FT outside and 3 growbeds inside...
I'm fine with peeponics, already started, but would prefer to have fish NOW. Would give them time to grow before harvest, if the system is all OK...
All that advice on DC is FABULOUS!!!! The polytunnel is only a few metres from the battery shed. I'll have to ask Peter (husband), but I thought we were 24 volts...what does that mean as far as trying DC?
Mark, same story here with power. A few months ago, in a big windy storm, some power lines came down. I was driving home and thinking how dark it seemed (no street lights out here, but no lights from houses), found out about the power outage, drove up to our property, and it was a lovely snug cabin all lit up, nice and welcoming.

Hmm...I was going to buy another air pump, but now maybe I should check out DC ones...any recommendations?

OK, I'd love what everyone thinks about the following:

trout fingerling: $3 each Is this expensive????
We also have to purchase a permit and the trout must be delivered (delivery fee per hour).

Cheaper to just buy trout for dinner.

Those rules were set up to prevent trout fingerlings being illegally introduced into the wild. The delivery driver would witness the fish going into the private farm dam to see they had gone into the water they were intended for. The rule seems pretty stupid being applied to aquaponics as you could easily net them out of your IBC and move them to wherever you wanted if that was your intention. The permit and the high price per fingerling is again a deterrent to prevent illegal introductions. Have a look at TasV post on the Ulverstone high school system as he is intending to use the native Blackfish to power the schools systems. Could work out a cheaper alternative and may survive the hotter water temps in your igloo a bit better

If the Battery system is 24volt you can step down the voltage to 12 volt.. You just need a 24dc/12dc converter..

Do not take a 12v connection from the system as this could/will cause the batteries to play up...

With putting the FT outside yes.. definitely give it a go..

What is the current output of your [LPM of the Air-pump]..
I did a spot check on DC pumps and I can't find any low power one's..
- Min size is 25w Which defeats the LEAP principle..

I'm trying to think of way to make sure you don't need to have to use the inverter..
- could always try for a Lower Wattage inverter.. that has a Lower switching wattage..

Juergen..

On regarding the Fingerling.. How old/size are they, sounds a bit steep..
- here we can get yearling[5-7" long] for $2.00 and I did not hear anything about a permit.. but I might be wrong in Vic..
J

Can you get rosy red minnows, also called fathead minnows? We get them cheap from the pet store($.13 a piece) here as feeder fish, which is all they would be eventually, but you could use them to get the system cycled. They have a rather broad temperature range.

And the aquaponic setup too!

Awesome! Great looking system with a wonderful energy footprint! Congratulations!

I was always trying to figure out how to put the airlift on the GB side of things, so it would pump back to the FT. This would give the FT the fastest moving, most aerated water. So, then you would just have a SLO from the FT to the growbed. In your setup, it would probably require a sump to make this work, and I don't know if it is even needed.

You might consider running another 5 watt air pump just for aeration. Or at least have it on hand. That would also take care of the inverter issue. I would personally add a smaller inverter just for this system. I know it is an added cost, but since it will be running all the time, it might be better to have it on it's own.

Just out of curiousity, could you post your airlift specs, including size of pipe and fittings, length, dept of air, etc? it is nice to have data for others who might want to copy your setup (like me).

Good work!

by the way, Blythe, my solar system is smaller than yours (around 350 watts), and we have a fridge and a deep freeze, both 12 volt!

We've been off grid for over 11 years, now, and after a while, you just get used to it. I can't imagine living with an electric or water bill. I don't know how people do it.

sometimes DC converters are inefficient, so check this out before doing it.

I believe they are using the 9 LPM rebranded resun air pump, like what Jimbo had.


Yeah, I looked for smaller DC ones, too, and couldn't find anything. What is the LPM and psi rating of your 25w air pump? a 25w pump would be fine if we could run a few systems with it (still qualify as LEAP). It really boils down to kg of fish per watt.

I think this is the best route for now. I have seen small inverters for cars in the 20-50 watt range that would probably work.

Blythe,

I did a sketch of a system using a "pull" airlift here: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=11704&start=240#p317164

basically, have your drain return back to the FT through the bottom, and put an airlift in this return. Do a SLO to go FT >> GB. This will give your fish the most aerated water.

Rather then have to go down from 24 volt to 12 volt just get a 24 volt pump have a look at these ones http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-24V-DC-Cool ... 3cc338a2eb
right at the bottom of the linked page is a wattage flow per hour and different model comparison so you can look for the one that bests suits you....

Once you start swapping voltages or inverting you are losing or making the system less efficient

By the way good to see what you are doing and I will be doing something similar when we move in the month ..... Will be a big redesign with simplicity & efficency on the top of the list....

Your trout man had better tell everyone that's growing trout in IBC's that they are imagining how delicious they were

Your system looks great!

And never under estimate silver perch. They cope with a large range of temperatures. They take up to two years to grow, but those two years really mean two summers because they don't grow in winter. If your grow house is too hot for trout, that counts as a summer

And I'm guessing you don't have a lot of freezer space with the power system you run, so growing a fish that you don't need to harvest all at once might be a better option as well (although perhaps you can grow trout all year in Tasmania). Silver perch grow at quite different rates even when they all start at the same size, so the greedy ones find the way to the plate first. Also from what I understand, they dont eat the young ones so you might be able to mix them up. Even if you cant, a small fry tank would be an easy addition. The result should be that once you wait out that first year or so, you should always have a fish or two ready for the plate. Fresh is best.

And you rock for living on 525 watts! (you could make another 104 systems with that )

those little water pumps are inefficient (3 times the power for 1/2 the flow rate) and probably clog easily.

You'd be better going with an inverter, but if you could find a 5-10 watt 24 vdc air pump, you'd have it figured out.

What are the limits of trout or perch in terms of temps, ammonia levels, O2 requires, etc?

It occures to me that you should be able to run more systems off the same 5 watts.

If you connect them and alternate fish tanks and grow beds it should work without having to pump more air.

And re: oxygen, you should be fine as long as there is a current from down to up in your fish tank. ie a whirl pool might see more oxygen at the top, but whatever a whirlpool turned on its side is called will work a treat. From what I can tell you are turning over that top layer of water and replacing it with the bottom layer of water, so everything will be happy.