Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

That's a real bummer WD.... but yeah, individual circuits, or at least individual RCD's are essential...

The old saying about the chain only being as strong as it's weakest link eh?...

Hi Rupe

Each tank has its own circuit but now they will have to have their own RCD or RCBO as we now have to call them.OH has ordered a warning system which will operate when the juice goes down. It is battery operated with a strobe light on the premises and a klaxon to sound up in the house 60 metres away so hopefully we wont get the problem again or if we do then we can sort it out quickly.
It has given me a chance to clean the tanks of all the crap that accumulates around the sides and clean the large air stones. All is not lost.

WD and OH.

Some pictures to show that it was not a bad dream!

These are just a few of our lovely trout.

That's really terrible news WD! I'm sorry for your loss...

So you will be able to freeze what proportion of the dead fish?

We managed to sell some at a discounted price to a local smokery - some we gave to our neighbours and the rest we managed to find room in our freezers ( which already had pork in! from earlier in the year)
But of course that does not make up for the price we shall now have to pay for replacement stock!
The UK price for trout and feed seems to go up all the time - a bummer! But perhaps that is the same world wide.
I think we shall be eating trout instaed of turkey for xmas!
Unfortunately accidents do happen - even though we have been poodling along nicely for some time now -with everything growing and doing well.
Poor old WD is knackered and is just waiting to have a hot bath and an early night!
As some die - new life appears - we had eggs in the incubator and they have deceided to hatch early so we have some chicks on the scene now!!!!
This is country living!!

OH

Damn, that's a real shame, they were some nice big trout you have there...

I guess there are some things that you have to learn the hard way through "shit happening", just unlucky..

Oh well, back on the horse....

Nice to hear you have chicks on the go, I think we will be looking at putting some into our incubator soon..

i feel for you
nice big fish

Back in business again!
More fish delivered (rainbow trout again) on Tuesday afternoon - 300 fingerlings and 80 slightly larger ones.
They appear to have settled in but are very frisky and we had to quickly put netting over all four tanks as they were trying to jump to freedom.
The dogs were hoping to have some tasty morsels to eat and managed to have a couple of the smaller fingerlings and one or two of the larger ones! This was before we realised why the dogs were loitering- waiting patiently just in case any more managed the break for freedom.
Anway - we are keeping our fingers crossed . The plants have not suffered for the few days without fish so that was something.We were lucky that we already had fish on order and that our fish supplier was able to help us out .

WD and OH

Good news ....

Sorry to Hear WD!! But...great looking trout!

Have you ever thought about buying a pure O2 tank, running the line through a normally closed solenoid (Plugged into power source), then flow meter, then ceramic ultra fine pore diffuser for back up aeration? Power goes out, the solenoid opens and delivers air to the diffusers. That way, power or not the fish should have enough oxygen and it's not as loud as a generator would be.

I don't know the cost of these components in the UK but I figured I would mention it.

And sorry, that should be "Normally Open" solenoid (open when no power is applied). Always confuse myself with that!

see http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=10335

Hi Ryan,
Thanks for the tip on the solenoid - I think you`ll find that when the power is on the relay keeps the flow off - when the power is off - a spring opens a solenoid. We view them as normally closed. For what its worth.
WD

Hi WD, Just finished reading your thread. That is the best looking setup I have seen in a while of reading these posts. Solenoids are normal when power is off, either open or closed depending on the application.

Earlier in your threads you said had many visitors seeing your system, Are you getting them to get on the BYAP forum as part of your spiel to them. That should help with getting them in the AP business.

I was also thinking about your problem with the freezing grow beds. When it seems like it might freeze at night you might just bypass your grow beds and recycle the water into the fish tank full time till next morning. The fish would like the turbulence and water flow to swim against. Another thing, have you set up all your returns and recycle flows to cause the tank to swirl around like a whirlpool? That should move all the solids to center of the tank. Also the SLO should have entrys in the middle of the tank. That removes the solids to the grow beds more effiecently and you do not have to clean out the tank. That is the beauty of the SLO. I did not learn enough before I built my system so I do not have a sump tank. My pump has eaten more fish than I have. I now have my submersible pump in a 5 gallon bucket with saw blade width slots around the bottom to suck in the solids. I moved the pump to the center of my tank to remove the solids. That has helped my tank stay relatively clean.

Some of us went the other way. Registered here before trooping off to see his (very impressive) setup.

AP is beginning to get a little more notice here in the UK. There are now about 6 of us who regularly peruse this forum, and some of us are also active (sort of) on other forums. Either way we tend to end up on places where we can get the best information and have the backing of a good community.