Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Just got 4 IBC's for 1 x Carton of TED's

Great score OBO! That's a good "problem" to have, too many IBCs.

My SPs have complained about their living arrangements and heating has become a necessity. My water was at 8 degrees this morning and the lowest overnight temps here are around 3 degrees in mid winter so the water will only get colder in the coming months.

Had a look at some aquarium heating wands but was a little confused about what size (wattage) I should get. What size heating rods do others use in relation to their tank size. I would rather buy a larger one now to allow for expansion.

Thanks in advance.

fishfodder ,, you may want to see my thread , Two sysetme one cold one hot NO compromise.

I will not 'go on" about ideas ,, you need heat and you need it fast.
I suggest you get 3 smaller heaters , rather than one big one ,, make sure your tank is well insulated and has a good insulated cover. Save money ion the long run id you fit these heaters to your "off peak" supply ,, it's usually about 35% of cost of normnal power.

I copped a fair bit of flack when I first started here and staed " in my opinion most Aper's do not pay enough attention to temperature and oxygen levels".

3 x 300 wattt heater are better than a bigger one in my opinion.

They are cheap ,, $14.95 each with temperature control from an ebay supplier , I can pass name if you would like ( he's situated in Canberra).

Oxygen , warmth , quality food , good environment ,, the 4 esssential in my opinion.

Thanks Chappo

One of my tanks (rectangular fibreglass) is buried. I was going to make a lid out of old boogie boards. The other (blue drum) I will have to find some way of insulating (ceiling insulation batts?).

How many 300 watt heaters would I need for the current 400 odd litres I have?

The Ebay dealers details would be great.

(Edit) Can't locate your thread you mentioned?

I ran 2 in a 600lt spa last winter. It kept the temp 12-13 in the morning and high teens during the day. It was enough to keep my silvers feeding and growing steadily over winter.

Thanks TT2, sounds like the way to go.

Spent last night sewing an insulating cover for my blue barrel out of an old doona. I used the offcuts to make a cover for the rectangular tank. I draw the line at making individual woolly jumpers

Couldn't believe the variation in costs for heating wands. Managed to get one 300 watt heating wand without breaking the bank (made in china so I hope it lasts). Sorry Chappo couldn't wait. The morning water temperature was 11 degrees, maximum temp 17. Will probably need another wand when things get really cold.

Fish seem much happier . The SPs were stealing the goldfish flakes so I gave them a small amount of their own pellets, all gone in flash.

The SPs seem to be giving the Goldfish a hard time, is this normal? I thought they would be OK together from what I have read.

Hi fishfodder,

I'm also in the gong. My SPs also gave my cycling goldies a hard time, so I eventually took them out because they were getting beaten up pretty bad. My afternoon temps seem to be about 17 at the moment. I am not heating (bit worried about the cost), but my IBC tank is sheltered but facing north so gets a fair bit of sun.

I just picked up a dozen BIG SP's from John in Jamberoo for $50. VERY good value, the SP's are 25-35cm.

I currently have 3 8 in long goldies living with about 20 10 to 12 in long silvers no problem

Hi Skygazer

John mentioned that someone else was coming to get some fish. I was tempted to get a couple of bigger ones myself but stuck with the littlies.

I hope my goldfish don't suffer to much, they look pretty defenceless.

Some have had no problems with mixing SP and Goldfish...I found that they DO NOT co-exist and my goldfish took some serious injuries before I pulled them out...seems they are okay if there is a big size or quantity discrepancy on the goldfish side, but eventually the SP got larger and hunted in packs

OK all you electronics gurus. I have a backup system question.

I read through the Backup thread and have seen the 12 volt fail safe switch. Have also read through a couple of other threads (OBOs) where back up systems are mentioned.

I was originally going to run my system off a solar panel and deep cycle battery through a 240 volt inverter. I have abandoned that idea and know run pumps and heaters of 240 mains power. I would however like to use the solar panel and battery as a back up.

My initial thought was to run my current power lead to a double adaptor. All the normal gear would run off one outlet, the other I would use for the switch.

This is where it gets murky for me. I dont necessarily want to run a 12 volt pump. I would prefer to run a small 240 volt aerator through my inverter. Could the power out line from the 12 volt switch be connected to my inverter so I could then run the 240 volt aerator?

My other option was to simply put a trickle charger onto the deep cycle battery and then run every thing from the inverter. I gathered from my reading that there were some issues with that option that I do not fully understand i.e. wave form problems from the trickle charger and capacity problems.

I run a couple of battery chargers into the batteries/inverter. Everything runs from the inverter unless I am running the pumps on contiuous to clean the water. 240v 250w of pumps + air pumps = ~12 A from the battery (12v) If I wanted to run the pumps continuously - and from the inverter I would need around a 15A charger.

Have you considered connecting an air pump to your inverter and use the battery / inverter / charger to run that continuously?

Run an airlift to give water circulation, and that should tide you over for most power outs, unless you run a ridiculous amount of fish. Also gives you the option to run a pump from the battery if the power goes out for longor. Or plug your car into it

Excuse my ignorance. Are you saying that all of your pumps etc use 12 amp so if you ran continuously you would need a 15 amp charger to keep up . I gather you don't run continuously.

I like the idea of hooking the battery charger to the battery and running the aerator full time. However that means I would not be using my solar pannel and I am determined to be a little bit green.

If I ran the aerator all the time with only the solar pannel I would probably have the same problems I have now. Couple of cloady days and the inverter screaming at me at 2am.