Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi all,
I am still doing the research for my system, as i live in west oz would like to give Barra a go. I understand they would be fine in summer but not an option in winter. Has anyone tried coils of black poly pipe connected to pump to heat water like swimming pool systems but using the cheap poly pipe?? is it food grade??

Any thoughts
Cheers
The Mandurahguy

"is it food grade??"

I think that was the million dollar question from what I have read in previous posts. There was also mention on the health risks of copper and to an extent PVC. So it would be very difficult to cover all bases. I remember someone talking about heat exchangers, but it wasn't too in depth.

Pesonally, depending on the size of the fish tank, I would suggest the good old glass or stainless steel heaters for aquariums. The down side is they probably draw more power than the pumps but they are reliable(most times), simple and you have more control over them.

This tank belonging to Roskar has a copper coil on the bottom through which he will pump diverted hot water from his home HWS.
I think it will work very well and it bypasses any problems that could arise from the use of poly or copper pipe if used within the tank.
Tank can be seen here

http://www.aquaponics.net.au/category2_1.htm

Muzza

we did discuss this in a number of threads earlier this year ... i used it to heat water with limited success. I also emailed the poducers of the black polly pipe several times asking the same questions, but they never bothered answering me even once.

I eventually went with 2 glass water heaters which worked well(but I also covered all mp ponds to reduce the loss of heat to the atmosphere, pluss I covered the sides to reduce heat loss) - I have Barra and they were not feeding, but once the temp came up I saw a BIG improvement!

Thats actually the same system we use to heat our house in Canada. Works really well!

It just seems obvious to use the free suns energy, in Perth even in winter the temp generally isn’t to low and is often sunny, to slowly recirculate the water should slowly slowly, increase temp, more research……………….LOL

I agree with the more research - especially in the quality of the water comming out of the pipe -
with my compost heater it took 20m of polly pipe to raise the temp 1 degree - it may be a case of needing a lot of pipework with water moving through it SLOWY from a timy pump indeed.

Friends of ours use black poly pipe to heat their spa. They have a huge coil of approx 300-400 m of black polypie. The water exiting the coil is too hot to have you hand under. It does work, however the issue is the possible chemicals that may be leaching out of the plastic.

that is why I originally emailed the company that makes the stuff (TWICE)- but they never bothered to answer - perhaps they were avoiding some sort of bad news???

AM, did you actually find out out what it was made from specifically...?

You could alawya run the hot section of poly tube through a food safe liner and keep the water in a closed system loop so you have a heat exchange.

Nope - that was part of the email I sent to the manufacturers - I asked for chemical composition as we were curious as to its level of safety with regards to being safe to house potable water at high temps...
In the secong email I simply aske if it was safe to drink water from their pipes if they had water in them which had reached temps above 30C
Not once did they reply

I tried it that way (similar to what you described) - the transfer of heat was poor, I got much better results with the heated water mixing directly with my system's water!

Hi All,
I have called the water board here in VIC and asked about poly pipe and portability of water. They said they trying get the same info as many people here in VIC use poly pile in their houses. The water board is unsure if the water is still potable after leaving their system and entering the domestic house with poly pipe.

But what I can confirm the water authority uses poly style pipes and if you are worried about the poly pipes leaching chemicals into your water then look for new water source – I strongly suggest not your urban roof that would be very high in lead, car tire chemicals and other chemicals from the road dust.

At a guess I would suggest aged poly pipe will be pretty safe to use (After it gets a protective slime coating on the inside over time).

WOW GUYS, I have opened a tin of worms, most new homes in WA use poly pipe to run water around to wet areas externaly I think it is a better grade than the standard retic pipe. One would asume that in cold water it should be safe but hot water another question............then again they said asbestos was safe (