Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

VB, Steve.... I used to use these Growlush in my little hydro house.... can be set to cool or heat...

In summer I'd plug a fan in... in winter, a heater.... need to check the probe but....

Can't see why they couldn't be used to turn your water heaters on/off????? ....

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll ... 3DWatching

s'pose youll want a sensor too.........greedy bastard. it accepts 12 different types.

gnite, got a course on the other side of town in the morning and am already sleep deprived only 3 days back from my week off

If I recall my info, water has about twice the thermal mass/kg as dry soil/sand/gravel so you are far better off with that....unless it leaks *grin*

Blue barrels of water would be another option for thermal mass.....

+1 for blue barrels

Questian for steve the thermostat in a walltype air con dont they turn on the 1 1/2 hp conpresser motor when it gets hot [cant one of these be adapted]

Regarding the barrels for heat sink, I agree that this would be a good option and it has always been my plan to have some balck ones in my final greenhouse (have even got my hands on a couple already). There is simply not going to be room in this temp strucutre.

In the big system - I'd look at putting these on the back wall between beds and also under beds where possible (in areas where they will get some sun).

The best thing is that the black barrels will normally be ones we would not be willing to use for a food grade purpose due to what they have previously stored. They are cheaper. Old metal drums are also an option.

Jim had a barrel heat sink in one of his glasshouses[he man have info ]

Time for an update on temps - for those who have been following. Bit hard to follow with all the discussion in between, but it's all good.

Okay - this morning at 8am, fish tank 23.7 and sumnp 18.8 (before pumps turn on of course). Tonight at 10pm, fish tank 23.5. Nightime temps have rissen slightly (though will fo course fall steeply soon) so the 2 heaters (150 watt and 300 watt) are keeping the temps quite steady - turning on and off as required. At least one if not both would be on most of the night - but hopefully the is currently some good off time during the day.

Will push ahead with structure this weekend. May not get to putting the cover on (easy bit anyway) so amy not even get the plastic before the weekend. If I do, I'll just go with the builders plastiuc for a temporary thing and replace it if needed before the temps get better in mid autumn.

Since you are offering So do you actualy have any of these controllers

AHH may i suggest spring?

geeze I thought that AUD $11 per metre , 7.5 metre wide commerical grade cover would have peaked your interest . Seemed a nice price to me.

Not sure if youv'e build frames from conduit before ,, but one good tip ,,,use a larger sized pipe on the under-ground bits ,, it helps keep the sides from arching too low ..... more like an archway , rather than a half circle.

Chappo - am interested, as I was when looking at them on ebay last night, but timing is an issue for me. Ideally I was hoping to get this shelter built this weekend. I'm willing to replace the cover with this or another fabric down the track. I'll look into the freight price.

As for the use of the PVC - I know it is likely to be a bit flimsy so will use at regular intervals and will also provide plenty of cross braces. It will nto be an arch as such - more a half tunnel - given that one end of the PVC pipe will be secured to the shed wall about 2.5 metres up adn the other to the ground. I plan to drill holes in some wood the same diameter as the pipe and secure the pipe into these holes. The wood will them be bolted to the shed wall. I will nto actually put the pipe into the ground, but rather will drill holes in a sleeper or something, peg this securely to the ground and put the ground end of the PVC pipes into these holes - bending the pipe into a half hoop in the process. Is meant to be a temporary structure - just to get me through this winter and early autumn.

i know i have atleast one stashed somewhere, just cant remember if i converted it to 24V for car use..............will make an effort to enter the dungeon tomorrow after work.

The dungeon thats not the room you have to clean for the visiters

Bugger, bugger, bugger, bugger. Just when things looked to be improving on the heating front - today I went out to the system at about 11am and discovered why I had been having increased success with the heating.

You may recall that on about Tuesday night (I think) I discovered that the pumps to the beds were on at night and decided that I must have buggered up the timings earlier that morning, meaning the pumps had been off in the day but had gone on at night. At that point I fixed the timings - setting the timer to about 10pm or something at night (which was the correct time at that point). It seems the timer is stuffed and has not been working since at least Monday I suppose. The short end of this is that there has been no pumping to the beds since Monday or Tuesday this week .

Turned the pumps back on - been going for about 2 hours now. Didn't have the time to check the ammonia and nitrite levels - but will take some water shortly and do it (should still give me a good indication).

I don't think there are dead fish - but then I can't really see the bottom of the tank at the moment due to all the stirred up crap.

This is why I don't like using timers. Eventhough I've been out to my system most days at both day and night - these visits are outside of when the pumps are on, so I didn't notice the problem. Didn't think to check to see the timer was still turning.

I guess I can only hope that the 20 litre in shed biofilter was keeping things at levels where the fish have not been harmed. If it has - this is a good sign that I can run the beds for a shorter period during the day which will conserve even more heat. Another positive sign is the temps I was finding the sump to be at my morning readings. By Friday the sump was down to 17.5. The temp drops - with no heated water being pumped through at all - were only about .3-.5 degrees per day (from recollection) for an outside sump (albeit insulated and half dug in to the ground).