Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

On the topic of temps - I notice that today, just a moderate day, the temp in my 1000 litre in shed tank rose 4 degrees. Most of this would be from the sun falling on the gravel in the yet unplanted grow-bed. I been placing some foam over the top at night, but I'll expect to lose all 4 degrees tonight through the uncovered (planted) grow-bed.

With my 8 blue barrels, I was getting 37 - 38 deg c by midday. once I transplanted mature plants in, went straight to low 30's

Shade is good.

I have left one row of beds unplanted for winter

Today I finally connected my battery backup system to provide upto ~20 hours of aeration in the event of a power failure.

*frack* I hate soldering!

Pump is a Johnson 12V 2A Bilge Mate, 30L/min.

Backup for my backup system.

needed for those pesky power point turning off tradies

Hehe! In my line of work, it's usually the Electronics Technicians who are the culprits.

even worse!, they'll look at the power point, then at the system then at the power point and determine that they can turn it off for a period with out any trouble

Scottie, if it turns out those techies can't read and turn it off anyhow, you can get padlockable switches

Kuda put your glassers on they are loclable switches

Oh... yeah... whoops

Scottie, one of those unknown thought of - but take credit for happened when I put in and used the car door actuators for diverting the water flow to consecutive GBs.

When I started on the power back up system, I realised that all I needed was a 12v bilge pump (instead of an air pump) and my system could just continue on normally with a power outage (also have 20 hours backup).



Like your setup - coming together nicely

Scottie,
I also used the same Johnson 12v. bilge pump for my backup, but have sent it back for a warranty replacement after I discovered that it did not always start reliably. This was after 3 months of it sitting in the fish tank.
I suggest you regularly test it to ensure it will start as that is the whole point, whether using as a bilge pump or for backup aeration.
A drowned boat or dead fish are equally distressing.
BTW those exposed 240v terminals on your changover relay look a bit scary so I assume you intend to enclose them.

LKB - yep, using a small water pump instead of an air pump was pure inspiration! I thank you, sir!

Peterall - thanks for the tip about the reliability of the Johnson pump - will definitely check it periodically.



Yep, it is encased in an upside-down polystyrene box (with a couple of holes for heat to escape). In my picture, above, you can see the backup system sitting on the lid of a polystyrene box.

12 water pump! way to go

Dear All

It's Jacinta, Scottie's partner, here again - again seeking advice while Scott is overseas and I am trying to keep his aquaponics system afloat...

I have fished three silver perch corpses out of the rainwater tank on Thursday morning and again this morning. I have checked the water chemistry and am getting results of temp 9oC, pH 7.4-7.6, 0 mg/L nitrite, 0-0.25 mg/L ammonium and 0-5 mg/L nitrates, which doesn't seem too bad.

The pump is working fine so the system is well aerated...

I am particularly concerned because I think I can see a pile of corpses on the bottom of the tank and the six corpses that I have fishes out looked a little furry which means they might have been in the water for a while. Is it possible that the dead fish would sink before rising?

Any suggestions as to what I can do?

Thanks! Jacinta