Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I haven't the $ to buy your book or kit (just too poor), but everyone seems to have or want tanks that are about 30cm x180cm. Is this an optimum size for operation, or just a convenient one, or does it work best with the available equipment or is it simply arbitrary?

Barrels aside, is there a size that is too deep or too small across?

To tell the truth, I can understand about tanks, but I don't really understand the electrical stuff --- as far as I'm concerned, electricity and magic are the same thing. I think I understand watts, but amps is beyond me. And hooking it all together so it runs... My brain just seems to shut down when I read about this stuff. It's not you... it's me.... sigh.

I don't suppose you've talked international libraries into buying your book? (we need a hopeful emoticon here). Libraries buy tons of crap every year -- they could buy large numbers of your book/dvd and get something useful for once. You need to check into that, Joel.

Sue

Sue,

From my understanding the is no "magical" size for the pond / barrel / tank.

A few things to consider from my point of view;

* A very tall barrel would make it hard to look inside
* A barrel that didnt hold enought water would swing in temperature almost with the outside temp.


So i guess i would say, get the biggest barrel you possibly can, thats not to tall

As far as all the electrical stuff goes. You'll be pretty safe as the timers people are talking about are just like a double adapter but with a timer on it and all pond / aquarium pumps have leads on them. so its just PLUG and PLAY.

If you don't know where to plug what into who then just post a "HELP ME" somewhere in the forum and i'm sure someone will give you a hand.

Steve

Electrical Engineer On Board - Willing to help
Power = Volts x Amps
You probably don't need to know much about current (amps). The only issue would be here is Oz a power point is usually only capable of 10amps, which at our 240V means 2400watts. So you wouldn't run a number of pumps off one circuit that exceeded 2400watts. Not really an issue for back yard systems that would use significantly smaller wattage of pumps.

More important is the flow curve of the pump. This is shown a curve with flow rate vs height being pumped and is usually on the outside of the box or a datasheet for an on line purchase. A 1000L/hour pump only flows this much with no restrictions and with very little head (height). If this pump has to pump to 1m higher than the pump the flow rate would significantly less. Joel would be able to tell you a flow rate (ie. 500L tank may need flow rate of 250L per hour, for full recirc every 2 hours). You would then size your pump based on the head (height from pump to outlet) to get the flow you need. Basically taller tanks need bigger pumps to get the same flow.

Yep, theres no real magical size though one important aspect is the depth of the grow beds, 30cm has been found through experimenting to be an optimum depthas a minimum. This gives the bacteria lots of space to grow away from the sunlight.

Joel

I can understand why 30cm is considerred necessary - but for my test system I have a bed that I can use which is only 20cm, but is already available.

In your opinion would it be foolhardy to use this bed in my test setup. There are things I can do to try and mitigate the risks related to depth, such as putting some foam insulation around the outside of the bed to reduce temperature.

You should go with whatever you have available at the time VB, a 20cm grow bed is better than not having any system at all. I think one of the main reasons for the depth is to keep away light from the bacteria. Just go with what you have, I'm designing the half barrel system at the moment and the half barrels aren't 30cm deep, and they have the curved base.....

[font=Arial] [/font] Does the shape of a tank have any bearing on the fish swim pattern? Do they prefer to swim in circles can they turn tight corners ok...I know size is a factor and number of fish...just wondering if a 2.0m long x 1.2m x 0.9m high tank allows mature fish to get around / along together? without too much stress..

LB, As far as i know, circular is better for keeping clean, square ones tend to accumulate crap in the corners.

Not sure if the shape has any bearing on fish happiness

Steve

I was stummped by a question from a Great Barrier Reef official yesterday ... he asked if there was any sort of 'reaction' between the fish and the galvanised tanks shown in 'the book' and on 'the DVD'... are tere any initial things to watch for, should you scrub your tank first if it is a new/ custom made setup??? The bloke I spoke to had only seen cement and fibreglass takns used for fish, no galvanised ones like you have.

AM, the galvanised tanks that I have used are aquaplate. Yes, they are new, and custom made by a rainwater tank manufacturer. The inside surface of the iron is lined with a plastic coating, so the water is never in contact with the actual iron, so there is no reaction of any sort.

The main reason I have used them is because of price, at the time I was looking for tanks the cheapest plastic/fibreglass one I could find of a similar size was over double the price of the aquaplate. At the time I was experimenting and could not afford to spend so much on an experiment..

ahh, that helps... lets see, aquaplate - a new word to add to my vocabulary so as to be able to exprees my addiction better

help
should i be concerned about my tank,because it is galvanised with out an aquaplate coating.should i start my system over and put a type of liner in the tank. if so where can i get this from. i have seen them before, but can not find the web site.the type of tank i have is for cattle.

personaly i would either line the tank with a pond liner or with a Potable water paint to seal it
Cheers

where could i find potable paint? is there a web site i could go to?

Here is a link to a place to start looking for supplies. I won't say to go to them for everything but they have just about anything for fish you might want so looking there can help you learn what to search for to find better prices elsewhere. For some things their prices are good.
Aquatic Ecosystems
I believe you can find liners for round tanks there as well as the appropriate paint for sealing tanks.