Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Usually only diesel generators for automatic switch because small petrol motors don't usually have an automatic choke.
Easiest way if you don't want to stuff around is use a UPS that can take an external battery pack. Some IT places just dump them. A reasonable one will charge and float SLA's and put out pure sine wave when kicked in.

UPS Sh_t it self after a year
New bike battery on a float charge lasted 2 months
Mower battery was lucky I couldn't get the darn thing out cos it was going over the fence.

Never had a lot of luck with batteries.

Never had a lot of luck with batteries.

I am not particularly fond of them myself, too much maintenance.
UPS are usually fairly reliable, well the "commercial" ones, they are not designed to hold up power for long periods of time. However if you are only pulling small wattage v the capacity of the UPS they are ok. Problems are usually cooling that can be sorted.

Took the RV battery out, the charger I have is this one. It sounds like it could do the job as it has settings for deep cycle and it adjusts the charge automatically:

http://store.schumachermart.com/sc-1200a.html

From what I can tell the battery is a deep cycle one as it makes no sense to not use those in an RV. There aren't very many marks on it though.

Dave that should work well as a battery maintainer, it is automatic. If you want something better you could look at what is in bass boats and such with the on board marine deep cycle battery chargers/maintainers, at any sporting goods outlet.

Thanks Bill!

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templ ... d=cat21276

So this was my dream system. Plenty of room for fish and plants, using four pieces of pond liner, and CHIFT PIST. The flood and drain bed could distribute to what I call the "gravel field" which is like a wide gravel-filled NFT thing , the goal to make sure that the gravel field channels get wetted as evenly as possible. The gravel field would have ribs on the bottom under the pond liner to keep water in a given channel. I have several ideas for distributing to the gravel field, one is the rotating drain using a slow clock motor which I like a lot, the other would be to use a strong pump on a timer to produce enough flow to serve all channels at the same time.

I also tried to keep it compact enough to cover the whole thing with a cold frame.

Reality intrudes though. I have about a $300 budget to finish this year's expansion. I need to buy a small pump, an inverter, boards to frame the gravel field, fish, and fish food. Not having all the pieces of the complete system really results in a revisiting of the configuration. I could use the tubs I have now, and I almost bought another 110 gallon tub for a sump to do the full system but using tubs for all but the gravel field. However, I could buy pond liner from here http://www.webbsonline.com/catalog/liner/index.html for the same price as a new tub to make a sump and keep the fish in that until the more complete system can be built up. So the plan as of today is to get more liner and dig to put the sump in a 9' x 4' hole. The gravel field remains the same, which is a 10' x 10' x 1' square with a slight slope and the ribs in the bottom to guide the flow down the field. There will only be one and fitting required from the gravel field to the sump. A continuous pump will keep things aerated and circulating, and another pump on a timer will cause a somewhat flood action on the end of the field and move solids out of the sump.

I can also still put the tubs to the left to add capacity. I can try different things to get flood and drain and the gravel field wetted evenly.

1. Rotating drain to distribute to say 8 channels in sequence.
2. Divide the end of the field into say 8 enclosures, each with a siphon, similar to the 4 siphon beds I had in the basement that siphoned out of sync with each other. The sump would be big enough to not run dry depending on how big they are.
3. Split pipes using tees and elbows and try to distribute the flow as evenly as possible, not likely with the continuous pump but with the timed pump there should be enough flow to wet all the channels. Small grids over the channels could help to wet more of the gravel but still wouldn't be as much as enclosing flood and drain areas.

Things would improve when the larger fish tank and flood and drain bed were actually in place and the sump was just a sump. I also plan to use the area above the sump for a planted wall for lettuce, herbs, and strawberries. The flood and drain bed would have fruiting viney plants like tomatoes, melons, beans, etc.

I'm assuming the gravel field will be your grow bed? How do you plan to reach across 10 feet for plants or did I miss something? Stepping stones?

Hey GF! It's a like a gravel patio, I'll be walking on it!

This was a previous iteration, the fish on the left, a flood and drain bed in the back, flowing down to a void space under the gravel used as a sump.

BTW, I cut up a water bed mattress that we were not going to use anymore and it makes a nice sturdy liner, 10' x 6' which could be a 6' x 2' tank or a shallower and wider duckweed pond or something. It is a silvery rubbery stuff, not sure what it's made of.

Mad props to Nico our Brazilian exchange student, I couldn't have gotten this far today without him!

Just another hour or so digging and this hole will be ready. It is 9' x 4' x 2 1/2' deep, up to 500 gallons/2000L when full. I'm trying to get it deep enough that the outlet from the bed is well above the water line so it can be filled completely.

exchange student. Got to get one of those when I need to dig a big hole. Like the soil there, here its black and not a lot of fun.