Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi ajajaj

welcome and yes this will cost you a little of your time
and some money to setup then it is only the fish food and the pump cost to consider

and if your system is big enough all the fresh veggies you can eat with some fish thrown in

Oh and Nocky....

I thought the thread hijack was very slick....

No worries AJ, but cost can be minimal, I got a 2000lt tank for a carton of beer 4500lph pump for around $80 and scrap made up the rest, so for under $200 you can get something reasonable, the addiction of AP has put the price of the second system up (a lot) but unused holiday pay and Mr. Rudd paid for that. Grow Beds can be made out of anything that holds water, Check out Outback Ozzies system thread for some idea's. Trout are cheap in SA (around $1 ea) and a 20kg bag of floating pellets will set you back around $60, I have 50 trout and figure by the time I eat them they would cost around $3 ea, bought some in Coles that were about the same size as my fingerlings for $6 ea, and you get bonus veggies that cost you the price of seed or seedlings, People ask me how long before I recoup the cost, probably never but it is the fun of it, and once set up your costs are minimal, not many People are into AP to make or save money, but again I suppose you would save on veggies and eat more fish, I think after the initial setup fee you would run at least even, in the end the best part of AP is making something found or scrounged fit into an ap system, my missus's little system consists of an old bathtub $50, a stainless steel sink as Grow bed $5, both from salvage yard, 1200lph pump $30 (ebay), poly pipe free, so for under $100 we have something, she has a Gooseberry, Blackberry and now Brussel Sprouts 6 huge gold fish and some mussels, Grow Bed medium is blue metal and blue metal on bottom of the tub, also free (amazing what you find on the side of the road)

point taken re cost there nocky....

but i want something f'n big.

i found an 8'x12'x4' fibreglass tank for 400 bucks....
after i figure this all out, that is my fish tank : P

nice price AJ, your next biggest cost will be the pump but GB's again can be made from anything even 44's cut in half long ways, grow media I find in heaps on the side of the road, main roads leave it lying around everywhere

Bunnings has a 400W pump capable of 30cm solids for $69 - is that a good price? says it can handle a 6m head. (I think it said 60L/min)

AJ,
Without trying to be a party pooper, please don't compromise your enjoyment of your planned system by using a cheap, unreliable and under rated pump. The most important piece of equipment is your pump. It is the heart of any selected system; Flood and Drain, Continuous Flow, DWC/Raft etc.
Your pump needs to be designed to suit the system capacity that you decide on. I note you say you want to have a frickin big system! Well, then this small dirty water pump will be next to useless!! It is not a "clean water" pump and has corrodable CI parts which will rust and foul your system. It will also have impeller, shaft and seals not suitable for Clean water applications. I looked at the model you are refering to and would discard it even as a standby unit. There are plenty of wonderful pumps for our purpose in the market place and really, you don't want to consider this standard of unit as being anywhere near "fit for purpose".
Design your system first, decide on type of system, whether you will have a sump or not, whether it will be F&D or whatever, what size Fish Tank you will be using and Grow Bed size etc. This will determine the size of Pump required to give you at least one Fish Tank water volume change per hour, given the GB volume and times for emptying etc.
Then size you pump accordingly, taking into account minimum static head required, pipe and fitting friction losses and final flow rate. Once you do that, go shopping to find best price for duty required.
Please don't try it the other round, that is, trying to size your system to suit a cheap pump!
You will be very disappointed and could end up giving Aquaponics a bad name when you start expressing your disappointment!!!

Cheers IanK

well put.

Thanks for that - right now I am playing

I figured that the cheap pump, for my initial farting around would suffice.

I also note that bunnos have their 500 litre round tanks for 99$ on sale right now and was looking at getting 2 of them and a cheap pump like this.

I have a mate in the industry (water pumps etc) who will organise me a stainless decent pump of about 8000l/h when I am ready for it....

you think this pump is better or worse than a $70 aquarium pump with no solids handling ability? remember I am just playing right now to try and get a handle on things - I learn by doing...

AJ 60lpm is about 3600lph doesn't matter about the solids being that big as fish shit is a lot smaller, sounds cheap and the thing with the cheaper pumps is firstly the seals, one we reviewed in another thread said it was fine for PH of 7, in AP we get PH up to 8 but around 7.6 so seals are gone, also they don't stand up to other elements like Ammonia, another problem is they are generally lubricated by grease or oil another thing you don't need in with your fish, it could probably stand a head of 6m but you would be almost down to 0lpm as the higher you go the less capacity, here is a link that is a good pump, but gives you an idea on if you increase head how many lph you loose, http://www.rockaroundtheblock.com.au/pr ... 227&cID=83
average head height for ap would be around 1.5mt I suppose, You should work on turning water over every hour, I have around 5000lt of water and a 12,000lph pump that pumps at about 9-10,000lph at my head height, I run it 40min on 1 hour off, if you have 1000lt then look at this one on ebay http://cgi.ebay.com.au/4800lph-Submersi ... 1|294%3A50 under $100 and gives you plenty of pumping (The more the better) they do a 8,500lph model as well for about $20 more, the other good thing is they use under a 150 watts of power which is almost 3 times less than the B store one, in my opinion I wouldn't buy the B one, and 35mm solids will suck up your fish as well but the seals and lubricant woulkd also be a concern

I just notice........pump capable of 30cm solids

must be a frigging big pump to get solids through about one foot in the old money!

or should that be 3cm (30m/m)?

I recon its more likely 3 mm
Has to be a pretty big pump to handle 30mm would at least need 50 or 60 mm connections

doh - i meant 30mm

Whatever! Dont buy it!!
If it can pass a 30mm lump, it can't be efficient and it is obviously a "dirty" water pump. All dirty water Centrifugal pumps "pump pressure", not lumps! It must have a macerator function, which allows lumps of 30mm diameter say, into the casing, and then "chews" them up so they can pass through the impeller space. Not good for fishes!!!! regardless of length or diameter!!
Don't buy it!!!!!!!
Cheers IanK

i assumed 30mm, have seen them, and as mentioned above there are a few reasons it isn't suitable, better off going with the Jebao above a bit dearer but not much, ideal for AP and 2 year warranty, I had a 1200lph I ran 24/7 for months and never missed a beat, and has been running the missus's bath tub system for 12 months hour on 1h off, FYI I ran it 24/7 because of making the fatal mistake of getting a pump that was 2 small

OK OK OK... dont beat me any more please......


I wont... WONT buy it....


**flinch**