Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Just be sure to thoroughly soak the shade cloth in hot water (and perhaps some bleach) to remove the anti-mould coating that many "new" shade cloths have.... then rinse thoroughly in hot water once or twice.

The anti-mould stuff isn't fish friendly.....

Be too late for that by the looks

URGENT HELP REQUIRED PLS!!!

Hi there! It's Jacinta here - Scottie's partner and caretaker of his aquaponics system while he is in Hawaii (aaargh! the responsibility!)

Everything has been going very well until today when I decided that I would divert some of the welcome rain into aquaponics system - but it coincided with the automatic cycle and to stop the water baths (not growbeds) overflowing I had to turn the pump off. I am now having a problem getting it to work automatically again. It is a HPM timer. Scott told me that I need to have the 'bar' on the auto setting and that the red light needs to be on. The red light is on when I put the timer on 'on' and then to 'auto' but the cycling doesn't actually seem to stop (had to turn it off again so the baths didn't overflow); when I go to the auto setting after having been to 'off' the red light isn't on, which I think means that it won't actually do the cycles automatically.

I am hoping that someone can assist me so I don't have to get up every two hours or so to turn it on tonight! Any assistance gratefully received.

Sounds like you have it all around the wrong way Jacinta. With a timer, the auto setting is to have the timer operating on the set cycles. When you switch it to on, the power is on all the time. Perhaps the time is now out. What are the cycles (ie how long on and how long off). I think you will find that if you put it to auto, then it will turn on once it gets to the appropriate time - unless all the programmed settings have cleared.

Jacinta - re read your post. I see you were putting it to auto, but didn't ever turn off. Hmmm...what are the cycling times meant to be (ie how long on and how long off). One wonders whether the times have cleared somehow. Probably best to ignore me as all timers I have ever used are not digital ones, so I have no clue .

Thank you so much for responding! I don't think I haven't explained it well. The timer has been 'on' (i.e. has had access to a power source - mains for the most part and a battery backup when I turned the pump off) so the settings should have remained. When on, it has three settings wrt the cycling: Auto and On and Off - which we can use to control it manually. I have had it on the Auto setting for the last few hours and it hasn't turned on - for late evening it should switch on every hour and a half for six minutes. I have no idea how to reset it - maybe I will just stay up for another few hours to see if it does switch on. Hmmmm.

Whatever you do - make sure that there is still some form of aeration being provided to the fish as you work out this issue.

Can't you ring scottie

What's the Model Number... any idea??

I know the exact timer and dad had the same problem

it goes like this:

if the pump was running and you set it to off then back to auto it will STAY off until the NEXT on time

press the mode button a few times until its over the ON setting then again to go to AUTO.

it will now be ON until the next oFF time.

dumb stupid timers, thats why i like the dial ones

Unfortunately Scott is not contactable by phone - D'oh! He did actually ring much earlier in the evening - just after I had to turn it off - and I thought it was sorted... but then realised it hadn't automatically turned on again. I am turning it on manually to ensure the fishies still get their oxygen supply. The next time it shld go on automaticlaly is 1 am so I am hanging to see what happens then.
Not sure if this is the model number but on the back it says Cat D817/2. Does that help?
Cheers, Jacinta

http://www.nt.gov.au/infrastructure/bss ... ons2.shtml
Is that the one?
Press the “MODE” button to override or resume a preset program

This the one Jacinta.... http://www.nt.gov.au/infrastructure/bss ... ons2.shtml

Thanks Steve - you do know exactly what I am talking about! However, my concern is that when I go through the 'on' setting to get to 'auto', it acutally starts cycling the system and there isn't room enough in the bath tubs for it to cycle for a long period of time. I timed it last time and it was still going after six minutes (which is the length of the pump cycle).

Thanks all - I'll have a read of the instructions!