Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hey, I'm a noob here but getting into it and loving it!!

Decided to setup my system fully solar and on a budget, so far been going without failure for over 2 months fully solar and on a budget of under $500.

Bought a second hand IBC and did the standard cut, 500 litre fish tank and the rest grow bed. Running a 400 litre 12vDC pump off of a 20w solar panel with a charge regulator and 7a/h battery. Havnt had a hitch so far and rarely goes below 2/3rds battery power, running 24/7.
I am running a separate 12vDC solar air pump for a backup but this only works during the day with a 6a/h Nicd battery for running after dark.

Got a few perch given to me but been catching Carp for the time being to stock the tank, cheap and effective as they are very tolerant of any changes.

Using a affnans siphon, which has been pretty easy to setup, had a few issues and may change to a loop siphon for a try soon.

Growing strawberries, potatoes, leeks, chills at the moment but want to make it a fruit bed mainly. Just using what i had laying around.

Would be interested in anyone else's solar setups and how they go thru winter. I am confident with 1 more panel i can get thru a week of cloudy winter days no worries but would like to know anyone else's stories/ideas.

Ill put some pics up soon!!

Nice work, can't wait for the pics. I have been contemplating a solar powered IBC system for a while now.

Where did you get the solar panel, pump etc from?

Welcome to the forum.

Be careful on the carp..

you might get a knock on the door for having them..

Juergen

I am interested to see how you get on with the carp ,how they grow and breed and if they taste muddy after being in AP for a while.I presume that yours would be europen carp.I wouldn't worry too much about the nock on the door but let us know if it does happen.

Thanks guys,

Yeah not worried about the knock at the door, i have no intention of releasing them, they will be eaten or become chook food, they love fish, thinking about blending them with some other stuff to dry and make pellets(more free food). Yes will be trying to eat them also, not worried about the taste, friends have set up an IBC setup and noted the change in colour of the carp within days, so a few extra hours in a bucket of water then on the bbq i reckon. Bit bony but I'm sure i can work it out. I get them out of the torrent in Adelaide city, quick trip and easy to catch. Just got to watch them for jumping, mates found 1 next to the tank, but bonus is, who cares, they have to die anyway coz they can't go back into the wild.... throw it too the chooks.

I got all my items from EBay basically, IBC was from a large salvage yard.
IBC $89 -junk yard (they have hundreds just need a clean)
Battery$39 (battery world)
Pump 400l/h 12v DC .35a $30 (ebay)
Charge controller$14 (ebay)
Panel 20w$69 (ebay)
=$241 +$50 for cable, pipe and gravel =$291 total
+ but not needed
solar Air pump $45 (ebay)

I am no electronics guru at all, just a tradie ( not even an electrician) but it seems simple to me.
i googled solar calculations and did the sums.
20w panel does 1.29amp p/h max (this is why i may need 2 over winter, calculate for max 4 decent hours of sun in winter, full charge in less than 3 hours, my panels still charge easily with cloud cover)
battery is 7a/h so takes <7 hours to fully charge on good day. (never goes below 1/3 atm so 2.5isha/h remains)
Pump is 400l/h 350Ma (0.35a) (so will run for 20 hours straight from the battery) pfft, doesn't happen always get a charge from the panel.

IBC works out like this i reckon
Top GB section is around 180litres
so as it is filled to a 30mm below the lip make it 140L
fill it with 7mm rock (density would have to be 2/3 of total bed) so 46L is actually all the water u need to fill to the top of the gravel.
with 400l/h max so say 320l/h pumping max of 8 min to fill the bed ( there is no way mine takes that long, maybe 3-4)
Then auto siphon dumps and aerates the water with the solar air pump(if its on/sunny enough, its raining now and it just started pumping air, so that'll tell ya the story). Fish love it.

I also have some water plants in the FT to help and protect the fish.

I have a spare pump on hand just in case, but it is a 240l p/h that was on the initial setup ($9.00 Ebay)

i used some conduit and a 600ml coke bottle i had lying around for my siphon, works well but keen to try a loop siphon.

got pics but dunno how to upload them.... show just how un-tech savvy i am haha.

oh by not worried about the taste of the carp i mean I'm sure they will be fine, most eaten fish worldwide if I'm correct, just get them to stop filtering mud and I'm sure they will be fine.

oh yeah, and I'm contemplating running a water turbine generator on the siphon outlet as added charging power to the battery, can get small modules off ebay for around $40. I reckon it will make a small difference. But it all helps when ur not running off of mains power.

Please let me know if anyone has done this yet? seems there not many dabbling in full solar setups.

Nice self maintaining set-up... Just a query - What happens if the weather is terrible for a week or so, will the batteries juice be all used up without much solar input?

At the moment it can get low but thats with 1 panel, hasn't failed yet, with 2x 20w panels it would shit it in. And i only say 2x20w panels coz its cheaper to buy 2x20 than 1x30 or 1x40 panel... silly eh.

Panels have 25 year warranty too, made in Victoria Aus.

I reckon with the turbine generator input it will help too.

BTW its raining today and very overcast/cloudy and its still charging. It is summer tho so i assume the sun is quiet strong. I reckon overcast in winter maybe 3 hours of charge time but with 2xpanels this would be 6a/h charge time, and thats allowing for the panel to charge at a lower rate of 1a/h instead of its 1.29max.

Like i said, i don't know much, just trial and error but it hasn't failed yet.

Solar setup in Adelaide

White box is the solar air pump

Hey TB, I think I just purchased the same little pump as you are using to run my DWC bed. I already have a 40w solar panel not in use so I'll just add the pump and a battery and should have 24hr water rotation in the DWC without too many issues. Hope your pump is still going strong!

Great little setup dude! I'm thinking about doing a similar setup with solar too.

Just a couple things you should know (if you dont already know).

Solar panels never put out as much power as they say. For example 120w panel running at 12vdc caluculates an amperage of 10A But you will never ever get 10A out of it. My 120w panel here in Karratha on a sunny day will only produce about 6A. The voltage regulator and voltdrop in the cables and the inefficient panels are reasons for this.

I know you are on a budget but to make the system run longer you just need bigger batteries, which im sure you know.

Have you thought about a small wind turbine? Charges battery at NIGHT!!

Check out this website for some ideas and products on solar and wind

http://www.energymatters.com.au/