Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Run the charger off a timer

Yes all up I draw around 12A dc @ 12v. To allow for recharging I would need a 15A charger. I run pumps ~ 12 Hours a day now, and have about 6A of charging - keeps up ok.

Thanks OBO, gives me good food for thought.

One last question for anyone before I go to bed. Taking OBOs idea of running my aerator full time from my inverter:

My solar panel is 20 watts, my aerator is 5 watts .

My battery is 50 amp hours

With the differential of 15 watts would my solar pannel give much charge to the battery when running the aerator full time?

How long would the battery run the aerator without any charge i.e. how many cloady days could it suffer?

I don't know that much about batteries and solar chargers but my guess is you probably wouldn't get by for long on cloudy days running full time that way. I still don't have much of a backup system in place. About all I have is a second pump I can put into place if the current pump dies. (the second pump being not very energy efficient.) I have a few little solar powered bubblers but they only run while the sun is hitting their panels.

using

http://www.powerthis.com/inverter_sizing.html

you can get 50 hours (@10w for waste) (i assume running the battery dead flat) = 25 hours @ 50%.

from here :

http://www.rickly.com/gsa/SolarPanels.h ... anel%2020W

you get 14 AH/Week from the panel.

Thanks for the links OBO.

Did some more research and if I use just my 20 Watt Solar Panel to charge the battery, the largest aerator I could use continuously would be rated at 2 watts. This would mean a tiny single outlet unit. Not worth a cracker

Suggestion for anyone considering using Solar Power in an AP system. Get a lot of panel

I think I will go with the fail switch and use the battery purely as a backup. I can then run a decent aerator for up to a day, possibly longer.

I was beginning to think all of my fish must have constipation but did some tests this afternoon and finally got some Ammonia. A little too much actually (0.5) so I swapped some water out. I thought that I may have some bacteria working from my initial small setup. I guess I thought wrong. Typical rooky mistake huh.

I have been reading up on the salting issue and maths is not my strong point.

If someone could tell me what how to work out parts per thousand (ppt). Is it as simple as saying 3kg of salt is 3 ppt of 1000. 4kg is 4ppt etc.

you got it

+1

Thanks guys.

Don't need to salt any fish yet, but better to get it right if I do.

at least its an easy ratio to remember

Since you guys are all metric, I'm assuming you mean 1kg/L is 1 ppt

1kg in 1000L is 1 part per thousand (working on grams per litre)

Gotta love that metric system, even a dummy like me can get it right occasionally.

Did some testing today, results as follows:

Ammonia .25

Nitrite 1 ish (very pale pink, probably less than 1)

Nitrate 10 (yippy, finally got some nitrate)

PH 7.2

Hopefully the caulis and brocolli will start to grow.

With 1 heating wand running from 9pm to 6am, and lots of insulation on my tanks, the temperature seems to hold at around 18 degrees. I hope that is enough to keep the fish feeding and the system ticking along over winter.

I did separate the SPs and goldfish. Poor goldies were copping an absolute flogging so I had to build a tank divider out of PVC pipe and mosquito netting, I used a design I saw in Gnash06's thread, it is amazing how much inspiration this site holds. Any problem, just look and you will find an answer.

With this level of nitrate would it be safe to increase the feed just a little?

Has your system fully cycled yet fishfodder ?