Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

we usually get our trout fingerlings in march (once the water temp drops), we can then usually grow out till December January. Once the water temp starts to hit around 24.

This year we had to deal with them early due to the heat wave in November, we culled them down at 10 at a time over a period of a few weeks. We made sure we had plenty of oxygen pumped into the water. Most of them were plate size, but must admit would have been a bit larger if we could have waited another month.

We then use the gold fish to hold over for the next lot in March, however this year i bought dumb fish that didnt seem to know how to eat so they died off one at a time.

How does your goldfish rotation work? Do you sell them to pet stores when you're done with them?

no, we have another pond in our cat run. Our eldest daughter is a vet nurse, so we use the excuse that the goldfish are a stimulation exercise for the cats. The fish dont do too badly, we have some in there that are about 3 yrs old. The cats might be lucky once every 3 mths, at which time they have to bring it inside to show us how clever they are.

This year we had 20 goldfish in the acquaponics system and were planning on leaving them there to see how the faired with the trout. Unfortunately that is not going to happen now.

I'm about to buy an air blower. It needs to cope with up to 5000L of water (though the number of fish is more likely to be the determining factor). In TCL's 'rules of thumb' page it suggests that they are more for tank cleanliness and as a battery back up than the system needing the oxygen. Does this mean I should get a 12V one? I was hoping it might drop my water temps a bit too. I'm looking at the http://www.aquariumproducts.com.au/ site. I was thinking the HJD-330 for the moment and buying more if I need them. JHG-090 Air Blower is probably overkill

Whahoo!! Water down to 16 overnight. I kept cycling all night in the cool air. I might win here yet!!

Water regularly down to 16 overnight with this cold weather. I have some seedling that need to go in today. 2 weeks till first fish release.

Well I am not familiar with actual use of the air blower, but I assume it does the same as an air pump, providing aeration in the water via airstones.

You do not need to get a 12V air pump, they are not cheap and not very effective. Instead just yourself a battery backup system that consist of a (or 2) 12V battery, a 12VDC to 240VAC inverter and a 12V battery charger... See the thread below or search battery backup on the forum, it has been discussed a few times now...
http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6779

For air pumps check out this thread,
http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=5632&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=90

Many of us have bought an ACO air pump from guppys... Good value for the volume of air... and you can never have enough air ...

Thanks Ivan.
Looks like Guppies and AVK are the same company. Guppies have the ACO-05 Magnetic Air Pump for $64 and the ACO-06 Magnetic Air Pump for $68. It seems logical to get the bigger one for $4 extra. There are no output numbers on the air bubble products but the air curtains look to need the least plumbing. From the picture it looks like I can hook them in series. Does it matter much if I don't have enough outputs for the size of the pump or am I better of having too many for the pump? I might get out of this for under $100, not including the inverter, battery and charger that I will most likely get up to once I've lost my first batch of plate size fish because of a blackout.

Thanks for the help. This are coming together nicely.

Well why not get the ACO-07 for $70 or the ACO-08 for $80? You cannot have too much air, especially if you are intending to keep trouts.... I believe I bought (from memory) the ACO-70 for my 1000L tank and had heaps of aeration, trouts survived 26degC water temps...

Fair enough. I hope to have a 4000L system when I'm done, so bigger is better. How many air curtains though?

Well I have two air curtains in my 1000L round tank, 1 on the opposite side of the pump and 1 through the middle of the tank. Some members have indicated that they stay away from air curtains because they tend to clog up over time, and they do, but a bit of hot water and a clean... it seems to unclog them... apparently good size airstones do not clog up as bad..

Your choice... you can always try both...

Yes I should do that. The curtains and the air stones aren't very expensive. I just need a few packets of those joiners and a roll of tube. I should buy a small 12V pump too for the transport tank, when I find one. Spending up like a chick in a shoe shop.

That's 100 posts....... but I still don't know everything!

I've settled on the ACO-07 pump. Has anyone bought one of these from Guppys and got some air stones or curtains too? They don't have any ratings so how many stones or curtains did you buy, roughly, to go with a 90L/m pump?

Had problems with a battery powered aerator for the transport tank once and I reckon the next time I transport fishes, I will hook up an small inverter (12V to 240VAC) to the cigarette lighter port in the vehicle and run an extension cord to power a 240VAC air pump... In that way, as long as the vehicle is running... the air is going...