Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

My $49 B pump died after 18 months continuous use, Cant really complain when it wasn't the fault of the pump. Found a K1 had jammed the impeller, strange how these little things can find their way around a system and fit through holes smaller than themselves. Anyhow down 2 B's and bought another 2 (one for spare) and modified with some gutter guard srewed to the bottom. So that should solve that problem.

Where did you get your K1? I've been looking for a while for a local (cheap?) supplier.

What is a k1?

Kaldnes K1/K3 is a "self cleaning" biofilter media with a very large effective surface area used in MBBFs (moving bed biofilters).

[edit] the surface area term should be "specific surface area" in lieu of "effective surface area"

Why do you have the K1 in your sump/yank... that you're pumping from??

Air lift biofilter maybe?

This is my Barra system, purely aquaculture during the winter months as keeping the water temps up around 23-24. Here is my Radial Flow Filter, I believe is more efficient than Swirl Filter as can handle a lot more flow rate.


It then flows to the Bio-Filter where the K1 Kaldness is (about 50 Litres) in another blue barrel. There is about 4 airstones in the barrel to keep the K1 churning over, which is carrying out the nitrifying process. This older photo as RFF was updated.



Flows into the sump which has various pumps and allows switching between summer and winter and to pump extra water around if needed. Note that the Barra tanks are wrapped up for winter. Two of the other tanks have Jades and Silvers and the other 4 tanks are full of gravel to act as Bio-filters as well. Even inside the shed the Jades water has been getting down to about 15.



Bunson, Paul at Earthan Group has Kaldness on special at present. You will find an add for it on the AquaponicsHQ site under For Sale section.

What do you do for heating chainsaw?

Cool set up.

Hi Charlie,
Well I have 4 aquarium heaters (2 in each IBC) but they are only for backup. My main heating is with 300mtrs of 19mm poly on the top of the tank, which handles it most days. I pump the Barra water (24 deg) into the Jades tanks and then the water is taken from a Jades tank further down stream and pumped through the solar heater back into the Barra tank. Water can come back at 50deg depending on sunny day, mostly about 30-35 which I do twice a day 11am and 2pm. Its great, works out about a 300 ltr water change each day, and the Jades like the extra warmth sometimes getting their tanks up to 19deg. That includes the 4 IBCs full of rock, so plenty of thermal mass there. Although it is a 250W pump it only works say 50% of the cycle.


Then in about a months time when temps get up a bit they will progress into this tank, like my batch last year. Twenty of them largest was 3.4Kg.

Beckett Corporation

600 gph pond pump kit
Max head 7.8 ft
115v 60

Beckett Corporation

600 gph pond pump kit
Max head 7.8 ft
115v 60hz, 34 watts
15 ft long cord

Runs constantly, ebb and flow design of system
put into service 7/20/12

Purchased at Home Depot for $35

Ok Pump arrived late this afternoon, Creative Pumps in SA will get an appreciative email from me (no association with the company).
Haven't had a chance to take it to bits but it was changed to an Oz plug and the first writing on the box and instructions are in Deutsche. The warranty on the box is five years?
It looks potted but I will check it out tomorrow if I get time.

Ok, definitely German made. They have changed the faceplate from ss to plastic, rest is ss and ceramic,potted the motor and cap . Same highthrow impeller and I am now beginning to wish I had paid the extra $30 and got the MP8000 I suspect the parts would have been interchangable.Have not stuck it in water yet so we shall see.
Good news is after I cleaned the crap out of the old pump it spun up, not sure if the cap needs replacing but been there and done that.

any reports on laguna pumps I'm maybe looking at the laguna max flo 5000lph I suppose its got a 3 year warranty

My Laguna is still working. Then again, it has only been a couple of months...