Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

hey people, ive had a standard vegetable garden and had medioka success with it. plus its a pain in the ...back.. trying to weed it and maintain in general. after reading a bit i thought id give this a go, bloody impressive wat some of u are up to. i want eating fish too,,, impressive

i have a 2ft x 1ft x 1ft fish tank, i went out and bought 2 similar sized plastic tubs. whilst buying the tubs i looked at pumps..
what size pump do i need,,, is it to much to have a 1000lph pump for that size setup??
i was checkin out ebay and came across http://cgi.ebay.com.au/200W-Submersible ... dZViewItem

i did a search of the forums and i cant find anything about that, i hope i never missed it and just rehashing old topics.

what sort of prices should i be expecting to pay for a reliable pump.
thanks everyone

welcome dbb, I'll let some others answer your pump questions, they have more knowledge than me.
There are lots of people in the Brisbane area, you may get to catch up at the next meeting.
Have fun researching!

Hey dbb, good to see you here...

I would think that a pump that big might be pushing it a little, it's pretty large for a small aquarium.. I guess if you go much smaller your then getting into aquarium sized pumps rather than pond/dirtywater type pumps. I don't know much about aquarium pumps, but I'm sure there are a few people on here that may have suggestions.

Might be an idea to just try one grow bed at first.. If things go well and the system matures, then maybe down the track you could look at adding another bed.

Hi dbb, welcome to the forum, I'm no expert but what is mainly taken as a guide line is turnover of tank water on an hourly rate (tph), your tank is ~55 litres and rule of thumb is 1 - 3 tph, mine works at 5tph and that is plenty, so your pump should be rated around 250lph for that size tank.

Most of us plan ahead for a larger system and go for a bigger pump, but don't forget that fish need to live in the tank and having a high tph is not a setting for a tranquil environment (1,000lph is 20 times is somewhat humungous).

The pump on ebay is 4,200lph, like putting a V8 in a mini-minor (or a VW).

Hope this is of some help

Welcome dbb, I would suggest a small fountain pump slow feed your grow beds and let them syphon back into your fish tank. I'm running two small systems with little aquariums and small fountain pumps. The little grow beds work fine for a bio filter but as yet due to sun limitations I have not had much luck with any plant growth.
Seems you went with the 2:1 ratio in your grow bed purchase. You wont really need two unless your going to fill your fish tank with fish, IMHO. and I mean fill. A suggestion is to set up one and get things cycled, fish happy etc, If you find at that time you need a another grow bed add it.
So in a nut shell I agree with EB.
1). A small pump (fountain one will do)
2). One grow bed (you'll find its easier to grow without packing your fish like sardines). and you won't be draining you aquarium every time you fill your grow beds.
Good luck and Happy AP ing

cheers for the replies
a tad excessive. silly question.
my poor fish would be in wild seas lol

thanks

Nah! - not a silly question dbb, a newbie question (big difference), just keep em coming

don't forget with a lot of pumps, you can throttle them back a bit if required, and the 1000 lphr will be at zero head, so pump it up a metre or so or even half a metre and that rating will drop considerably

right.... knew there was summit else I was supposed to add, on 1,000lph this would drop to about 500lph dependant on pipe size (on a larger pump it won't be 50%)

If you go to "B" and check out their pond pumps, height and lph are stated on the box, this will give you a better idea

i went and bought myself a 350lph pump from bunnings...20 bucks.
isnt as powerful as i thought itd be.hope it works ouit ok
cheers

Seems they're never as powerful as you would think, dbb, come up with a desirable number, then double it and you will be closer.

Very true, but power wasteful if you can't find a use for the 1m head