Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Ok went and checked out some more equipment and am thinking the following
Pump
http://www.urbanponds.com.au/component/ ... -4000.html
Has anyone used a reefe pump would this be suitable or overkill? They want $125 at the shop here in town I thought the model below this one would work fine but the guy in the shop said because I'm pumping about 4meters flat and 1 meter vertical I would need this one. What do you guys think?


For media I can get enough 10mm natural river pebble to fill two 30cm grow beds for about $60

It Looks interesting..

The question you have to ask..
- not used that pump..
- One of my main things in Ap system is to Keep the Running cost down to a minimum..
-- So I recommend that you do your research into the most effective pump..
-- Take into account whether the pump is running 24/7 15min/45min or what ever cycle you decide on..

My own pump of Choice is..

http://www.absolute-koi.com/prod1102.html - My absolute Best choice of Pump..
12,000lt for 93w.. - 4.6m Max head

http://www.creativepumps.com.au/zpumps/ ... neptun.htm - Ultimate choice..

http://www.rockaroundtheblock.com.au/pr ... 911&cID=83 - The smaller Version Of What I have..

I'm using the 8000lt as my mian Pomp and have a 6000lt as a Backup Pump..

All I can say for Pump Choice is To Look at the volume pumped/ Max head[Or the max water pumped at what your highest point is..]
And also what time frame..24/7, 15/45min or even on demand..


Ok some maths/ power usage..

Say a 100w Pump Running 24/7 with a kw/h rate of say $0.25 [For a Billing Period 3months']

100w x 24hr = 2400w/h or 2.4kw/h

2.4 kw/h x .25 = $0.60 per day
Over a billing Period of 90days

that is $54 Dollar's.. Just for the Pump..
Add to that your Air supply...



Juergen

Thanks Juergen,

I'm not sure at this stage how active the pump will be, I am planning on doing flood and drain. So basically run the pump until the ft overflows and fills the beds and then switch off and turn on again once beds are drained.

No idea at this stage how long one cycle will take.

Cheers Linc

Just hoping for a little advice, I have decided to build affnan siphons for my grow beds as per affnan's how to video on you tube. On the underneath where the siphon comes out the bottom I will need to run the dump pipe horizontally for about 500mm to get the water back to the sump.
Will this affect the siphon functioning correctly?

Cheers Linc

Hi all,

I am pretty excited just tested my first siphon and it works, it actually works lol. The only thing im not sure of is it cuts off and there is still about 2inch of water in the bottom of the grow bed, there is no media in the beds though yet. Is it normal for a certain level of water to remain or should it suck the bed dry?

Cheers Linc

Hi linc,

You probably want to base your timing on the volume of your fish tank, not how long it takes to fill the grow beds. The recommendation is to run the entire volume if ur fish tank through the grow beds once per hour. So choose a pump that will pump more than the FT volume in a
fraction of an hour, then adjust your grow bed outlets to drain completely in the remainder of that hr....or something similar

Ok yep got it, but us it an issue that the siphon stops with still some water in the bottom of the grow bed? I don't have any media in them yet just testing

An auto siphon acts a bit differently when there's media in the bed compared to when there isn't.. there's a lot more water able to get to the bell a lot faster when it doesn't have to flow through the media..
There'll be a little bit of water in the bottom no matter what method is used, but it gets diluted and spread around and flushed out with the next flood/drain cycle.. the height of the air tube at the lowest point on the side of the bell, if you have one, or the highest part of the holes in the bottom of the bell, is what sets the height that air gets back in and the siphon stops..

Thanks amph, yeah I'm nit using an air tube at this stage it's an affnan siphon, the water seems to stop about 10mm above the top of the holes in the bell. There will be about 6-7inch of dry media depth before the left over water after a drain cycle, assuming that the siphon behaves the sane when the bed is full of media.

Really happy with the affnan though, I haven't even got the bottom pipes fitted it's just draining straight out the bottom of the gb into the sump but works great and sucks very well.

You might be getting air coming back up through the dump pipe as the flow slows down.. Put another 90o fitting on the end of the dump pipe and adjust it to point somewhere between straight down and sideways..

Yeah I will definitely add the bottom pipe and see what affect it has, is it normal though to have some water left over in the bed?

yes

^-- What he said..

Sorry I was just trying to determine what is too much, thanks again

A small amount in the bottom is not a prob. Basically you just need to drain enough of the bed to get oxygen into most of the root system, on the next cycle the oxygenated water will get to the lower roots at he bottom. Consider a constant flood system for example, as long as there is enough oxygen/movement in the water the bed can stay constany flooded

Sorry... Total missed that Affan syphon post. If u are going with syphons you can use a smaller pump (volume of FT/hr) and just run it continuously....it's up you. If you were to go with a larger pump I probably would not bother with syphons, in this case u can just do time flood and drain, mch easier.