Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi everyone, I currently rent, so I am limited in what I can do. I dream of my own land someday.

I would love to meet others who are using aquaponics, hugelkultur, or just plan gardening. If you are local to newport news or hampton, Va, I would love to get to know you and what works well for you.

Last year I designed and managed my first aquaponics system. I got off to a slow start with it, but it developed some limited functionality, I grew the heck out of some cilantro, a small amount of romaine lettuce in a very small grow area. I grew an okra plant and a tomato plant in it but it grew mostly plant, and no tomatoes or okra, so clearly I would have some study and perhaps modification to make that work.

By august my fish tank was finally well established and the 3 guppys turned into 7. but my pump broke and I did not notice, and they all passed. So, I cut my losses and started designing this years system.

I am super broke, so I try to do everything as cheap as I can. I have a 45 watt solar system to run the pump, however the charging time in the winter does not keep the battery charged enough to run it constantly. The new pump is a bit bigger and stronger and the flow rate is too high, so I have to figure a way to lower the output without drastically increasing pressure. Also, if this works, I will have a smaller grow bed draining with a bell siphon into a larger grow bed and it may take two or three cycles of the smaller one to fill the larger one and get the bell siphon going.

And I haven't even bought my fish or put grow medium in the larger bed yet, so I still have a lot to do, I a particularly interested in what plant you think might do best in this type of environment, but any suggestions are welcome.

Welcome to the forum

Welcome APmark!

Hey I also go by sonarmark I am not sure the APmark is going to take.

But you can check out my system and videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/sonarmark I am not an expert but I'm learning.

Hey Mark,

A 45 watt solar system really isn't going to be enough to run anything specially if you naw have an even bigger pump. Can you run it plugged into mains?

bed with a siphon into another bed with a siphon, won't work.. Siphons need fairly constant flow to work reasonably..

Gees I'm not sounding very positive...

earthbound, thanks for the sanity check.

I got the solar system toward the end of last year, I am using a DCM battery and with the smaller pump I had, that broke and the air pump, I still had to charge the battery every 3 days or so.

The pump I am operating now is a little bigger than the smallest pond pump like I had last year. So, I expect that I might pick another battery up and alternate them as needed. I have electricity as a backup. If I would have bought a new pump I would certainly look for a low wattage option. I have a charge controller for the solar panels, but it does not seem to me that the battery can be charging during the day at the same time it is discharging (running the system). I think I might review the manual on that again.

I think you are right about a siphon into a siphon and so I am hesitantly letting that idea go.

My fish pond is probably a 50 gal size, and my flood drain cycle is about 1.5 min flood/1.5 min drain and that is with the valve restricting the flow of water.

I am anxious to get some plants in there and start getting the tank established, spring is right around the corner, but it is pretty cold right now and I think a frozen grow bed will not be conducive to plant growth.

Anyway thanks for the tips, sometimes knowing what doesn't work well can be as valuable as knowing what does.

PS. Visited Perth once when I was in the Navy, it was very memorable. Cheers.

Mark,

I took a look at your video. Your 45w solar setup looks like a HF unit like I purchased. The charge controller is really a piece of crap. If you look at the documentation, it will only charge your batteries when the voltage drops too low. So all day long, it will not charge your battery until the voltage drops! I had this problem with my camping trailer. I purchased a ~$35 controller off eBay and it works a LOT better. Try that before you go get another battery.

Also, what is the amp draw on your pump? As someone else posted here, remember West Virginia (WVA). W=VxA. If your pump draws 5 amps at 12v then the wattage consumed is 60w. If your solar cells are only putting out 45w (at best), you will slowly discharge your battery. If, using the above draw, you run your pump 24hrs, you will need 60watts x 24 hr / daylight hours to give you the number of watts of solar to just break even. Just assume 6 hours of good daylight in the winter, you will need 240w of solar! Using Horrible Freight components, you're going to spend a lot of money! You need to look into some better cells if you want to go down that path.

John