Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Ok, been some discussion on another thread after there was a forgotten tap running lots of city water into a system and the worries about the Chlorine hurting the bacteria/fish.

So I thought it was time to start a thread for people to share how they deal with topping up their systems in different situations.

Other thread is http://backyardaquaponics.com/forum/posting.php?mode=reply&f=1&t=7022

And I'll link back to it from here.

Pictures and diagrams would be useful, I intend to share some of mine for this as well.

I'm lucky, I have well water so I don't need to worry about chlorine or chloramine in my tap water. I've also started collecting rain water for use in topping up the system but it tends to be cold in the barrel this time of year and my tap water is much warmer.

Anyway here is a diagram of how I usually put a float valve for topping up in my sump tank or below the normal low water level in a fish tank (if no sump in system.)

I use the plastic stock tank top up valves (only one metal part, the pin that the float pivots on.) This way the system is only likely to top up a little at a time and the float valve seals off the flow when the water level is high enough.

I have a "header tank" which has a tap on it. It's got a bubbler in there to help with dechlorination. It's 500L, I fill it from the tap, leave it a day or two, then turn the tap and let it drain into my main tank. Dechlorinates but also means if I leave the tap on it doesn't flood my tank.

As BartonRougeBill pointed out in another thread, if you use a sump dug into the ground, this is as simple as a $100 500L B* tank sitting next to the sump.

I use mostly rain water....... but when I dont have enough rain water, I use well water......

jT

I do have a 50 gallon rain tank collecting water from the top of my greenhouse that I have a hose into the sump and a tap I can open. I still haven't hooked it to the top up valve and am not sure if I will yet.

i used tap water in mine, i have seemed to lost all ammonia nitrites and nitrates, ph still good, allthough i was using crappy fish flakes so this probably impacted on the nitrite nitrate levels.
Ive had a set up for 3 months, still learning what to do and what not to do.

I use scheme irrigation water out of the river. It's a bit cloudy these days, because of the floods up north probably. I just manual top up at the moment and I watch it while I'm doing it now, after the "turn the tap on, mow the lawn while I wait then go to basketball then to bed then wake up and remember the tap" incident

I'm thinking of setting up an overflow out under the fruit trees and a float switch to top up, for when (if) I install enough GBs so as there is 2:1 GB:FT on a continuous rotation. If the pump stops then, all the GBs would be empty at once and the FT would flood.