Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I have read the magazine and watched nearly ten hours of instruction, but now that I have talked to aquarium people and hydroponics people I am now utterly confused!

I am building a small system from a 175 gallon cattle waterer (rubbermaid) for the fish tank. I am using inexpensive goldfish to cycle and a growbed that is another cattle waterer or feed trough. The trough will be 6 or 10 feet--haven't decided yet. I am figuring on using a very simple system where the water is pumped to the trough elevated above the tank with an overflow hole and a standpipe drain back to the fish tank.

My question is what pump to use and what timer. The aquarium people said I have to filter the pump to the max or I'll suck the fish up and he talked about heaters and other filters, etc, etc. He also went on about how I couldn't use a timer because it would burn out the motor...

I need a suggestion of a small submersible pump that will suck poo and not fish and a timer that will work without killing the pump.

We are in AL, USA so any suggestions available at a tractor supply or Walmart, Target, Lowes, Home Depot, etc. would be so wonderful.

Thank you!!!

WElcome to ap madness as for the questians we will let the American contingent answer all the questians as our prices and brands will be different

Edited by CL

Timers and pumps throws up a big debate theres pumps and timmers have been running over 2 years and theres some pack up after 1 or 2 months

some pumps are built to run 24 hours a day, every day. Others are built to handle being switched on and off at regular intervals.
The first type are called "continuously rated" - to run continuously
You want to run one on a timer, on and off, so make sure the pump is NOT continuously rated.

I'm not sure about pumps for intermittent pumping. Our system is actually using siphons so we could have a continuous running pump with flood and drain. If you have much rise in your system, plan on a pump about twice what the calculations tell you to get to make sure you have enough power to get the job done.

I've done well with one of these pumps:
http://www.petsolutions.com/default.asp ... ID=FROOGLE

Available at Petsmart...not sure about other locations. I run my pump continuously with autosiphons. I originally used timers, but like autosiphons better.

Hi Mom!

Aquarium folks have different needs, some of the advice is not relevant to AP. You just want to pump the water, with solids and everything up to the gravel. There is no other filtering necessary. Remove any foam filters from the pump inlet so that they don't get clogged up. You only need some kind of screen around the pump to keep it from sucking in the fish - a net basket planter like for pond plants works well for this.

I have been using pond pumps from Lowe's running continuously. I had two of the $40 340 GPH ones, one of them burned out after about six months. I also have a 220 GPH one from Lowe's that I hooked up to a 90 gallon goldfish pond outside, up to a 90 gallon mortar tub with a standpipe, on a timer. Very simple:

http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum ... 1611#81611

You only need a pump that is sized for the system. You can go larger but if you are just experimenting for now I would suggest getting a pump that is less than $50 for the size of system that you are talking about. I started out with 1/3HP and 1/6HP sump pumps ($100 each from Sears), and it is pretty funny to consider I had both of these running in a 130 gallon system! The 1/6 HP pump pumped up to two 20 gallon planters, then those drained into an 18 gallon storage tub, then the 1/3 HP pump pumped from that back to the 100 gallon tub ($60 from Tractor Supply). Imagine a jacuzzi tub with twice the needed pumping power, the poor goldfish. I redesigned that to use just the 1/6 HP pump up to 55 gallons of planters and draining directly down back to the fish tub. I haven't used the 1/3 HP pump since.

Anyway I am running a 250 gallon system now with just one 40 watt continuous pump, using siphons in each of four gravel beds (four 25 gallon Sterilite tubs from WalMart).

HTH!

What kind of siphons are you using--bell, loop...? Thanks so much by the way!

Dave and I use looped siphons, although I think he is working on bell siphons for his next system.

Be sure to check out the Members systems...there is a thread each for small medium and large systems where you can see 3 pics and a brief summary. Saves sorting through 40 pages of stuff for some of us more talkative folks.

Jaymie,
I would have thought that continuously rated pumps would be more durable - or are you just talking a cost factor?

Normally the larger pump are not rated for continuous use and timers are used to switch them on off (along with float valves)

The smaller fountain pumps and those 3,500lph or less are used in BYAP setups to run continuously and thus it is best to make sure the manufacturer recommends this type of use.

Don't think durability comes into it when comparing continuous/non continuous use

Theres the problem!

nah, seriously with pumps ones like "power heads" are designed to move huge amounts of water at near zero head pressure. Pressure pumps often move low volumes at mains pressure (head)

the ones we use are a mid way with reasonable flow at 3 or so meters head.