Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Good point Pete, gravity, we use it or it causes us trouble!

Little bit confused now. My fishtank pump will be sitting on the same floor level as the base of the fishtank. It pushes up an incline of a couple of feet over a distance of 13-14metres. I am thinking bc of this it will be primed when off bc of that slight gradient.
I am no plumber but guess it is a pressure from the fishtank thing v gradient to determine equilibrium when the pump is off.Does this sound right?
My lowest point is the sump on the return side which sits below the whole system and pumps back to the fishtank via float switch.

300mm of fall will produce 0.40kg of pressure(not exact) which is enough
to draw water up and over the side of the tank.
provided there is enough fall on the other side( only needs a discrepency of height to get the water going!) 100mm could start the ball rolling so to speak!

Careful if you have a 4 ft fish tank with a pump sitting on the floor pushing water 2 ft high when you turn off the pump the water keeps draining through the pump to the 2 ft height you wont be able to fill the tank any more than 2 ft.are you home all weekend i think we are going to ocean grove would like to call pm me

Thanx for your helpful prompt replies C1.

If i get u right, the fact that the fishtank pump is on the floor beside the tank, would be enough to have water drawn up over the edge of the tank, given the tank is 1.2m in height. So we have a fall of 1.2m to the ground from the top of the tank if you like. This being the case we would always expect water to be in the pipe from the top of the tank to the inlet point of the fishtank pump, ie primed.

We do not have a fall from where this pump is located but rather an incline to the top end of the gh where we T off to the 3 rows of gbs. It will be interesting to see if the pressure of 5500lts of water when the pump is off, is enough to push up that incline and into the gbs. I will watch this closely, but of course our sump pump gives us the redundancy we need if we don't have things quite spot on to begin with.

No probs...with replies!

The water in the tank 5.5Kl is what you might call latent.
Though once the flow is started it is the same as the auto syphon and wont stop til the head of water is even with the outside.

gotcha C1

Check ur inbox FF.

Phew.. glad about that.

Got the taste for it now.

Most plumbing sorted to get 8 tubs in the middle of gh underway.
Sump tanks joined and sited in sump pit.
Got the fishtank plumbing etc sorted in my noggin, (thanks C1 and FF, nice to see you again.)
Got a door sited in the gh. Looks funny, cause nothing around it, just a door in the middle looking lonely.
Dad has been putting in the big ones too, thanks ol fella.

Really concerned about water quality. Reckon it needs to be as spot on as possible to begin with. I have lost a few fish lately in my trial setup and had put it down to cold weather. However, there has been some pitting around the gills that makes me a little suspicious. Gotta google 'fish gill damage'!

With this in mind, i have decided to have a charcoal filter inline from the water tank, to the fish tank, easy enough to rig up. This should take care of the heavy metal side of things.

I will also place a UV filter inline. I will have a teensy pump in sump just pushing water thru the UV at a slow rate and returning to sump. This is bc the UV filter would not be able to handle the flow rate back to the fishtank at the rate the sump pump will be operating. This should take care of the pathogen side of things.

Tankwater is soft, but will buffer up nicely after a period thru the gb biofilter. I may place some shellgrit in the sump tank that has no pumps as required to buffer pH.

FF has convinced me that having sufficiently warm water for the silvers will not be a problem, so breathing a bit easier there.

Have i left anything out? (Note to Les, gravel washing.....it's on the list.)

Post some progress pics tomorra.

use activted carbon for filter not charcoal

is similar but not the same

now u mention it Delgrade, that is what the aquarium guy said. Been picking his brains and better start sending a few bucks his way, so he will get me for that, the UV filter and perhaps a teensy pump, unless i get one from the Sunbury tip.

Tragic you dontneed to run a uv filter on the whole system [no good for plants] i only run one on my hospital and purging tank you do not need a charcole filter eather if you are worried about water quality use a bio filter [200 litre drum with scoria or shade cloth wrapped up

always saving me money FF, thanx.

Looking better

We will put some form of hinged and latched lid over the sump tanks. It was a bit fiddly patching up the old pipe work and adding bracing but it is done now.
Lotta caps in the middle picture where the old piping was.
Just about ready to rock(wash.)