Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Sorry Bree... didn't mean it to come across that way....

Meant ... it would be nice, but I don't have anything that would do the job ...

Have you got something that'll do the job... or know how it could be done?

Wow - I go away for 3 days and look what happens!

Sorry to see Rupe - I dont know whats worse, the fish being all dead at once, or dyeing over the course of two weeks.. Neither way is fun.

Once of them change over relays would do the job Rupe - Just hook it up to one of them little strobe lights - power to pump circuit goes out, strobe light (running off another circuit) comes on.

Hate those power boards. And the surge can be tripped by the load as well, not just storms. And after a while they seem to get more sensitive. If you find a better one let us know.

Always thought they were a bit dickie.... hence the new dedicated circuit going in....

Also the main board is an old wire fuse type... although it has an earth leakage trip...

The subpanel will be all RCD's.... two power circuits and a light circuit.... the existing light and power circuit will remain as a backup...

Just going to have to pull my finger out about getting either a battery backup to run a backup pump or a small genny....

Although the power going on & off wasn't really the problem... other than the load and/or a surge tripped the board.... it was only for short periods...

But there's no way I'm going to get caught again...

AS OBO said small plug in change over relays will do the job, u will need normally closed contacts on it and it rated for continuous use, with the warning device I like sound type ones as strobes can dissappear in the sunlight (u cant see them), there are a heap of cheap sound ones out there, ill have a lok at my Jaycar cattledog, they are normally very cheap. With the supply of power again 2 options as OBO said supply control voltage for the buzzer from anther cct or from a battery and keep it independant of the supplies, then if u have a complete mains failure u will get a warning, also u use low voltage here and its a lot easier if u want to monitor airstones and presures later on u can extend the cct.
Backup power supplies - I havent done the cals but from what I have done at work in the past I think a battery backup system will be prohibitive in cost for u to run pumps and blowers, I know it will be, backup gennies are good and relatively cheap these days, there are 2 options here as well, auto start and manual, the auostart ones are good but more expensive and require a bit more control wiring although we can sort the wiring out and the manual start, very cheap but u do have to pull them.

LAst major power outage we had here was for 3 full days after the june flods last year, no battery type backup supply will do that (unless supplimented with a wind turbine or solar array), genny with gerrycans will .
Hope that wasnt to confusion

Ahhh "confusion says" .... it's all as clear as mud Bree....

Yep, been looking at all these things over the last couple of years... and need to set a backup system in place....

But it wouldn't have helped in this situation... as the power was actually only out for very short periods... it was the surge protector within the power board that tripped... causing the problem... and needed to be reset...

Something I never thought of.. and wouldn't have dashed out into the storm to check... all other indications were "normal" ....

Priority.... get a dedicated circuit in place ... and remove this potential point of failure...

And incorporate one/some of the ideas you suggest.... thanks ...

I have to dissagree with the battery backup being too expensive.

I have posted many times in the past my backup system, but here it goes again.

1 x 300w inverter = $80
1 x 200AH Battery = $250
1 x Battery charger to suit what you draw from the battery = $25 - $100.

Very easy to put together, and most inverters have a low battery alarm (even cheapy dick smiths) that is very loud.

I dont see this as being cost prohibitive, compared to loosing your fish.

A 65w 4500lph pump draws ~5A @ 12V DC. A very large AP system could be run from 300w inverter, using low head, high flow pumps, like the Tornado's.

There are so many variables here, I was looking at running a 240 volt system as it was designed and existed for my comments above, not actually in a hospital sort of mode


Ok heres the calcs

if we have a 200 ah battery that is 12 volts - lets say we have 2400 watts
Inverter efficiency - some are 95% average 90%
Inverter drop out voltage - 10.5 volts
Total power * inv eff = 2400*.90 = 2160 watts (if running 12 volt pumps then this isnt taken into account)

If we running a basic 250 watt pump and thats all in the system a basic flood and drain back into main FT, then this without taking inefficiencies into the system would be approx 20 A 12 volts from the battery, this puts us on a 10 hour discharge curve, u should get 10 hours run time for this pump before the inverter 10.5 volts is reached, start to add more pumps and air generation supplies like a lot of systems I see here and u loose currant at a higher rate as you would expect also u loose total battery storage capacity due to the physics of the battery, so the loss are sort of 2 fold, now if it is running on a cycle on off on off then this has to be built in as well and will depending on the battery selected will give u longer life. I wont go into DOD of batteries as I imaging ur talking Deep Cycle batteries

So yes If u have a hospital system setup or a minimal current drain system then battery backup is an option but if u have a large outage like we get from time to time 12 to 24 hours then more batteries and bigger inverters or a generator

Anyway food for thought for those thinking of a backup system, mind u im still trying to get mine up and running lol

Bree

Please be aware that a 200Ah battery (if Lead acid) stores 200Ah is discharged over a 20 hour period. for NiMh it's 4 hours I think.
If you discharge faster than this rate, the amount it will store is less. This is not linear, it's a curve, so the faster you discharge the bigger the losses - exponentially (or some other curve)
If you discharge longer than this rate you MAY get more current.

Unless you are putting your AP system 8 metres above your fish tank there is absolutely no reason to be using a 250w water pump in your normal sub 10,000 litre AP system.

No reason to run the whole system off the backup either - a small pump running to only a couple of growbeds will keep the nitrification going for days.

But anyways, off topic for Rupes thread...again

Well with only a day to go before a new year... I'm debating whether or not to take down the Xmas (lettuce) tree....

It has reached it's appointed goal.... roof height (over a metre) ... and adorned itself with Xmas decorations....



Or should I leave it to completely seed.... ???



P.S .... does anyone know if Coriander is self seeding... or when the seed is viable to plant???

Currently the plant has green seed pods... but I've never let one go to seed before, so I'm not sure when they're seed ripe???

i have a huge corriander plant that went to seed and died, so if u want seed I have oodles Rup

Not sure on the seeds. But they are worth saving as it likes AP. Saving seed from plants that go well might open up the door to seed lines specific to AP. Or until Monsanto buy you out.

should be viable...
you missed my post in another thread Rupe.
Coriander is a 3 part plant
coriander leaf
coriander seed, powdered
coriander sprouts

Figured it was seed time C1... just wasn't sure when it might be viable to plant ...