Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

So what will buffer to that? Shells are obviously too high.

I have 20 kg of shells and 15 kg of calcium carbonate buried in the beds and still read 6.4

The maidenwell pulls down to 5.8, Rupert could probably tell you why(something to do with what it is made of), so the 3kg of shell grit perminently in the sump pulls it up to the 6.8. There have been occasions when the shell grit would not pull up quickly enough so we purchased some PH up from the pond shop.(only used it a couple of times)

Morning All,
we had a small disaster last night. Our float pump decided to chuck it in during the night. So we woke to 69 fish swimming in 2 inches of water .....again.

Of cause as per usually, the panic sets in, you wake everyone in the house whilst rushing around not actually doing anything. Finally you remember that you should put some water in the tank.

And after all this..........where did you put that damn camera.

Bugger.
Fish look OK.
Let me know if you want a hand wiring up a low-water cutout switch!

Glad to hear you saved things guys...

So far so good, we havent had any death from shock. But as you would expect, they are not feeding.

We cant get the system running until tomorrow. Have plans on taking the pump back and see if they can determine whether it is the float at fault or the pump is just stuffed.

Thanks Scott, Muzza was only talking about finding out how to set up a low water cut off the other day, and then we wake up to no water. Funny how things happen sometimes.

We are open to ideas.....so now we place the first question out to the wide world.

What do you all think is the best way to have a low water cut off?

A simple option could be to use one of these... in your fish tank, with the piggy back adapter supplying power to the fish tank pump.
http://www.creativepumps.com.au/work/fl ... itches.htm.
or
you might want to consider a low voltage float switch, 240Volt relay and audible alarm. Possibly connected to your backup air?

Thanks Scott,

we had a quick look at them when we took the pump back for warranty. The pump was returned to us, apparently in working order. Hooked it up last night, watched it through a couple of cycles, (it was working) so walked away.

Midnight, checked to make sure everything was ok before heading off to bed......... 2 inches of water and fish flipping everywhere. Another 3000 litres down the drain.

That will teach us to um and ah about back up switches and systems.

owahhh bugger..

I must admit I have only had a quick breeze of your system, but I'm guessing you have the standard flood and drain setup with a main FT and a sump?

If that is the case I have been working on the similar issue after experiencing same type of issues (low water levels in FT due to a system failure).

What I have done in my system:
- raised the float on the FT pump as high as possible
- increased the size of my sumps
- intend to put in a backup pump in the sump (you need non-return valves on the pump line for that)

The main thing I wanted to protect against was sump pump failure, as that is where I lost my water from (overflowing sump). The larger sumps was so that if the system was fully flooded and power went out, I could hold most of the water from the beds in the sump, and when the power came back it would be returned to the FT. Both pumps in the sump will be float switch controlled, and the sump pump floats will be set at different levels, so the second pump only kicks in if the 1st pump cannot cope (is dead, inlet blocked, etc).

The higher level FT float switch, was an added measure against a dual sump pump failure (and to get me through until I purchase the second pump for the sump). Also will help when we are away on holidays, and someone else is looking after the system in summer, and forgets to do a water topup.

Other measures I am working on is:
- further increasing the volume of air to the FT, and
- some sort of backup pumping in the FT to keep the water moving in a power outage (likely a DC bildge pump).

Just a bit of an update.

We have added an extension to the hydroponic system in the greenhouse.

The trout are doing very well, growing heaps. We got a bag of skretting over from Perth and they just love the taste.

We are going to remove the top 1/4 of maidenwell in one of the beds and replace it with the clay balls. The aim is to see if this will lower the incidence of fungi grow that we suffer. Initially believing it was a lack of ventilation in the greenhouse, we now believe that it may be a condition of the maidenwell. We have already timed back our cycles by half. Once every 2 hrs, however the internal biofilter in the fish tank is continually running.

just in case you would like to know, there is a weeks difference between the photos.

Nothing too shabby about the way things are growing... don't mess with too much...

How is the "fungus" manifesting itself??