Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Yep, and people never learn! Look at me, i lost 20 odd silvers, and my indoor jades are just about the same size now, and i still havn't got back-up........you get very "into" it when shit happens, then you forget about it again

Mate, I think you are guilty of not reading the posts thoroughly (again) . I guess it is a forgivable offence these days with so many posts to keep up with. As you will see from my earlier post, I am saying that the pump on the failover would not feed the beds, simply a waterfall to provide aeration.

You're right, i do tend to skim posts sometimes.

Still reckon that bubbler would be more efficent due to surface area of bubble in contact with water over time to rise to surface, but that just speculation. I have the feeling AA may disagree with me? AA? only way to know for sure is to use one of them new fangled DO meters

mmm, a DO meter sets you back a couple of thousand though

and the membranes arent cheap either

950 watt camping generators then you could run say a pond pump and an air pump$165.00 nightingales and that b store has then also at a simular price

Have 2 be there to turn them on though.

DO meters you can get for around the $700 mark, you're probably thinking of process line models that are designed to be "in solution" permanantly.

I think the ultimate redundancy would be a combination of both. A UPS or inverter setup for auto switch over and short term (4 to 8 hours) running of a bubbler, and then a genny on hand for the longer outages or if you wanted to run your pumps and stuff. Probably more suited to a larger set up (2000+L)

I do like the idea of trying a UPS. Looking forward to results of your trying it simmo. Air bubblers take very little to power. This might work well for my tank at home, the larger system will need a generator with so many tanks. I am also looking at a solar system to keep air going.

I'm going to buy a genny this weekend thanks for reminding me Steve.
Hoping to be able to run the house water as well.
Only thing we miss when the power is out.

Air compressors (for cars, tools and such) are dirt cheap these days.
With the kind of air flow we need, a tank should last a week :-)

David I already run a 14 cfm compressor as a backup air supply, I keep it running all the time. It pumps back up to pressure about every 45 minutes and if power goes off will supply a very good supply of air,(possibly much more than is needed) for 3 hours.

At the "B" shop they have ones that are about 1/3 the size of mine for 99.00


Murray

excellent

Could we just use one of these? How much litres per hour is required?

www.ageofaquariums.com.au/prod1485.htm

Stu, that looks great, and its 6V which mean you can wire in a 6V lantern battery for incredible run times.

I found O2 requirements per kg of fish once, god knows where that data is now, but basically its still a best guess without a DO meter.

Only prob i have with that pump is that it looks to be a diapram type, and it runs cont. not just when the power goes out (unless you hook it to a power fail relay) Diaphram pumps are not known for long life spans.

There are many ways to do this air redundancey thing

On the compressor idea........... you could buy a "fail-open" valve and put it inline with the compressor. That way when the power is on the valve is closed. when ihe power fails the valve opens, supplying air. A new compressor will hold air indefinatly (nice new valves) so it will never switch on until after a power outage.

I'd also love a DO meter to take quantative measurements. I'm surprised how well a 15W water pump bearly breaking the water surface facilitates gas exchange in my 200lt aquarium with 7 perch. maybe much less than 30L/min would be fine. Then again, when i had 20 silvers in the same tank i probably needed 30L/min. its not just the bubbles in the water that add o2, when they break the surface there is natural gas exchange happening too. We just can't know except for looking at the fish or getting a DO meter.

"Only prob i have with that pump is that it looks to be a diapram type, and it runs cont. not just when the power goes out (unless you hook it to a power fail relay) Diaphram pumps are not known for long life spans"

I thought when it said automatically shidts from Ac to Dc during power shortages means that it only runs when the power is out, but you are probably right.

It's got a 12 month warranty, so that's a start I suppose. I would still like to see the end result and your product using the UPS

There's this one too, bit more grunt

www.ageofaquariums.com.au/prod747.htm