Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

The build for this system started earlier this year , we finally got fish into it around March. I took the bio filter off the pond and attached it into the system to get things up and running. I really haven't a clue what I'm doing pure guess work for the most part. So far tho we have only lost 6 out of the 40 trout. 3 of them had jumped out.

Trout will have to come out soon as a couple of days this week the water temp has reached almost 20. Have thrown in an air stone and covered with shade cloth in hopes of keeping the water a little cooler for a little longer.

Looking for any advice on adding a swirl filter inline somewhere. Too many solid in the tanks with the trout.

I would also like to add more growbeds.........somehow. To be able to cope with larger amount of fish. Have just put in some silvers. Also has a few yabbies and muscles.


Any advice much appreciated. like I said totally new and A lot of it I'm still trying to wrap my head around

Cheers

Forgot to mention...does have venturi's attached to each tank. Does not appear to do much. Pump may not be strong enough I'm guessing (3500l/h) the system is continual flow. The pipe from pump which is in the sump is only 19mm could this be an issue. Pipes in tanks are 50mm pressure pipes and all other pipes for outlets are 25mm

19mm is way too small! 32mm or more would be better.

Is that treated timber around your GBs? If it is, be extremely careful not to get any dripping rain or run-off from it into the GBs, as it can poison the fish, and wont do the consumers of the produce much good either.

You could wrap air-cell insulation, or other shiny material around your FTs and any other system components to reduce solar heat gain during the day, which will help keep the water temp down.

I think that I don't have enough pressure from sump to tanks will changing to 35 lower pressure. I'm not getting much air through my venturi's.

Would I use pressure pipe? One of the reasons I have 19 is because I could take figure out how to attach anything else to the pump. The 19 soft garden irrigation pipe just pushed on. Slack I know.

Smaller pipe size means more frictional losses, ie less flow. Going from 19 to 32mm reduces those losses. How much head is there between top of sump water level and pipe outlet in the FTs? If it is 1m, that's a whole 10kPa, or if you prefer, ~1.5psi, so no pressure pipe required!

Relying on push on soft poly pipe is asking for trouble when the weather is hot, they are liable to come off. At least use hose clamps.

I've never bothered with a venturi, you should be able to get a decent splash of water into the FT to provide some aeration. However, I recommend using an air pump as well, preferably with battery backup, so that if the power fails, the fish have air. Relying solely on the water pump for air is a bit risky IMO.

okay, now I'm really going to sound dumb. How to I go about getting battery back up for my system. I have just put air pump in. I didn't realise you could get battery back up.

And thank you, I did a little more reading on pipe size it makes sense and I'll take on board what you said about the softer pipe. I just have to work out how to connect the harder plastic pipe to my pump.

What pump do you have? I use to use the flexable pond pipe but switched to pvc for my line from my pump.

Most pumps have a standard bsp thread on them. Ypu might have to unscrew the poly pipe bard from the top. I just bought a 32mm pressure pvc socket and screwed it to the pump outlet. Then ran pvc from there.

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Nice system by the way!

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If you have a 240V air pump now, a couple of options: either a separate 12V pump with battery and solar panel and/or 12V charger for complete backup, or else a battery and inverter to power an existing 240V air pump, which will be less efficient, and only protect against power failures, not pump failures. You can also buy air pumps with a battery built in for ~10 hours or so I think, but they are only low delivery volume.

Rural poly is what I use in most of my system- thin walled rigid, and not too expensive, although fittings can add up to quite a lot in a large system.

I did have an oase on it 3500l/h but I think the impeller is going so I have taken it out and put...can't remember. Was from the pet shop..bad I know, but an emergency. Going to try and get the oase fixed if I can get the part.

Of course screw it on....duh. Duh to me, not anyone else on here

Rural poly - is that the black pipe with the green or blue striping? If so I know where I can get some, may even have a little left over from connecting fire pump to tanks. As for fittings, hopefully I'll get away with two maybe three elbows and a T piece. Oh and a threaded socket of some sort.

Guess I know what I'm asking for Christmas...back up power for AP

Yep, green stripe.

For the air pump depending on the wattage and runtime you are happy with for a backup you could buy a UPS and plug the air pump into that.

Sounds good...but ah....what's a UPS

uninterruptible power supply, They are typically used to keep computers/servers running for a short period of time if the power goes out.

Where do I get one and how does it work? If you don't mind.....