Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I'm in mourning , whllst on holidays of course we had a series of 40 degree days in Sydney and one of my systems suffered 2 seperate pump failures . One due to user error (insufficient instructions to the neighbours) and the other due to the cheapy air pump I had giving up the ghost , so no water circulation , no air .... = dead silver perch after sounds like 2 days. Great time to find out they were growing happily

So the relevant question ... I have had a couple of cheapy chinese 240v air pump just quietly kark it after being in service for a fairly short period of time... My setups are outside so air pump needs to survive outside conditions and needs to aerate around 1000l of water (an IBC) .

People's experiences /recommendations ?

rgds DJ

Try Rupe or the BYAP shop

How many outlets do you need Reggatadj? ... and how far away from power and/or cover are you??

I use a blower. But that maybe over kill for a 1000ltrs.

or Monya

Dont buy one of those cheapy electric with built in battery bach-up jobs. Mine died after a year. My thoughts are think of what size air pump you need and then double it, and then get the next size after that - I seem to have a problem underestimating all of the time.

I have a 240v extension next to the tank (and also playing around with solar and 12v), no cover except what I build for around 8-10 metres. I was running a single large airstone off the unit that gave up the ghost. I'm holding off transferring fish from my other setup till I ensure a continuity of air :-)

rgds DJ

I've PM'd you

don't use air pumps or blowers
use water pumps

frank

Maybe you need to explain that you use the water pump to splash the water around or cascade it from a height. And "don't" is not the best word to use in describing equipment that the majority of aquaponic systems use. And all beginners rely on to keep there fishies swimmings.

A little less conversation, a little more action please
All this aggravation aint satisfactioning me
A little more bite and a little less bark
A little less fight and a little more spark

Ooooohhh yeHHH...

Nah Rupe - Elvis would leave the building.

Someone's started to troll on the Yahoo swimming-pond group now (some dribble about pump efficiencies...) - perhaps finally we will see less of it here

I've been looking around various websites trying to find pump curves for air pumps.

Does anyone know any stores or manufacturers that post them online.

Basically I want to know how many L or air will be pushed out a pipe Xm depth.

I'm keep looking but I've already gone through about 10 different sites and the best I've done is found one that gives the maximum depth a particular air pump will pump to. Not very useful.

Stuart the box that my Hailea ACO-318 came in had the graph on it. The only one I could find quickly is at the bottom of this link.

It shows pressure (MPa) on the left and l/min of air across the bottom.

0.01 MPa ~ 1 metre
0.02 MPa ~ 2 metres

So for mine (ACO-318), you need to follow the line from the pump code to the actual graph line, at 0 metres it pump 60 l/min, at 1 metre it pumps 30 l/min, at 2 metres it's close to its limit and pumps bugger all...

Think its harder to work out a curve with an air pump dew to the different stones. The blower I have does 300lpm of air at a specific psi.
Model: HGX-180
Power:180W
Pressure:9kPa
Output:18m3h
Weight:5.8kg
http://www.aquariumproducts.com.au/cata ... 3&catID=47

But the amount would have to change with the different stones. eg wood, sand, stainless streel, plastic disk. Or a straight tube.