Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

5ms man that must be sum pump. How did you clock such a fast speed.

Good to see it's going well.

Hi Stuart,
the tank only holds approx 800lts.
The pump is a Daf submersible with float switch and is very good.
Sav still have not made up our minds to what fish we will stock with yet. It is too late for Trout as they will not be finished before the hot weather next season.

Alex as soon as your water gets under 25 deg you can put trout in seeing up around shepp you will have a shorter growing season i would recommend buying larger ones to start with also start some silvers now i am currently running 4 sizes of fish at the moment you could run trout in the fish tank and silvers in the sump

Hi F&F,
thanks for the advice. Trout are an option but I only like Browns to eat and they must be feeding on yabbies to be at their best.

Stuart the pump is a Nova 180 X, .03 hp 25 mm outlet. The main problem with it is that it has a fixed arm float switch and cannot be adjusted.

We have two GBs filled with washed gravel one planted with mini caulies, celery, cos let, broccolini and one tomato self sown in the earth garden one week old. These beds are round, 1250 across and the gravel is 300 deep.
One fish tank is filled but no fish yet and now in the system it is round, 1800 across and 550 deep.

The pump is in the sump and pumps up into the GBs it takes 3 mins to fill both GBs. (which fill at the moment approx 10mm above the gravel. It takes one or two mins to drain below the gravel surface.
Do any of you see a problem here ?)

The GBs drain via a syphon, both empty into the FTank in 10 mins. The FT drains via a syphon back to the sump which takes 21 mins a total of 31 mins before the pump starts again.
The syphon from the FTank never stops running but has a air hole 50 mm below the current static level which cuts the syphon should the power or pump fail.
We have around fifty yabbies in the sump some big ones but mostly bait size. The PH is 6.2 and the water is dirty, any ideas on clearing the water.
When the GBs are full the water levels drop about 50% in the sump, 25% (cannot go below 75%) in the FTank.
I could correct the over filling of the GBs by fitting a tap into the pump line or putting more gravel into each bed.
Your comments would be most welcome.
Alex
should have some pics soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Keep the flood below the gravel surface or it will slime up.

at last we have some pics

This wouldn't leave home.

Alex can you explain your PVC "loop" siphon for me... I'm having trouble visualizing it from the pictures....



From what you say, am I right that you operate your sump pump cycle on a timer??

If so, the easy way to prevent the growbeds overflowing would be to cut the timer back so that it only floods to within 25mm below the gravel surface... or as you say, fit a tap and slow the flow over the timer period.

This way you wont have any problems with algae buildup on the gravel surface and possible root rot from the plants being flooded/partially submerged for a period of time

The pump works via a float switch which is a solid arm type and you cannot change the setting. The arm at top is on and at bottom is off. It does not shut off soon enough and if I lift the pump up onto a brick to shut off when I want it to it will not switch on at all because the sump will over flow first. I have come up with the following idea which should work.
I am going to put a cap on the end of the fill pipe near the bottom of the GD as I fill about 25 mm above the bottom and drill holes in it until I have it working OK. If this works it will save $s and only take a few mins to do. Fingers crossed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I will make up the syphon I use and put a pic on the thread as it is a little different to what I have seen being used, IE poly loop. This looks neater and operates very quickly when the water reachs the required level.
I found the poly loop unrealiable it either ran well or just dribbled slowly or if knocked the level could be changed.
This one can also be knocked/bumped without changing the setting. It can also be inside the tank or on the outside. I put it on the inside, protected from the gravel with 150 mm sewer pipe as it looks neater..

We now have over 100 yabbies in the sump. The system is settling in well. Still some flooding but will fit two 20 mm pvc taps next weekend to complete control of this. Have started replacing gal roof with smoky acrylic sheets.
Will leave gal roof over fish tanks. Should have the South wall filled in next weekend and the East side covered with white hot house woven cloth.
The product used to seal up the tanks is Gripset Multi Purpose Liquid Rubber @ $20 Per lt. Two lts used so far with only part of one tank to go. Gripset Primer was applied first (Bond Crete I think) @ $40 for four lts. NO LEAKS.
The PH is holding between 6.8 and 7.2. Have no other testing gear yet but as both the let and cel are growing we may be heading for Silver Perch into tank shortly.

Happy Birthday Alex

Thanks Jaymie from this one I am going backwards maybe this will make me fitter and more able to do the things I used to be able to do!!!!!

PS.
Jaymie they tell us you missed all the March rain. How did you Fare?
Alex

we actually got about 26mm for March, and it is raining right now