Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

i was looking at these...
http://www.bl-led.com.au/store/index.ph ... e283fa591f

will buy some and test them out, basically wire them to a waterproof switch and run them off the same 12v power supply that runs the pump

Be interested in seeing what you do and how efficient they are.

i have ordered them... so when we get everything setup i'll get some photos

Thanks

Ps, i understand that bilge pumps are not designed for 24x7 use , I'm fairly sure they will burn out.

the bilge won't be running 24/7, it will be controlled by a float switch running for possibly 20 seconds every 5-10 minutes depending on how i setup the flow of all the sumps

Nice!

I'm doing a similar system except with auto siphons , so the pump goes 24x7..
I have been looking into the float switches etc.. Not sure which way to go yet

Silly question,

If your pump is only going for maybe 1 min an hour, how is your water getting dO? Are you going to run an air pump as well?

Mine I'm thinking a constant flow water pump into a spray bar for aeration as well as a big air pump into air stones in ft..

Trying to figure out the pros and cons of a 24x7 pump with auto syphon, vs timed pump systems

BYAP did a trial between timed flod and drain, flood and drain with syphons and constant flooded.

Heres the link viewtopic.php?f=51&t=8621&hilit=BYAP

i hope this will clear things up a bit...

each of the four growbeds are gravity fed and will auto siphon (probably implement an affnan design) and will drain into each of the four sumps directly under the growbed, this will add a little bit of DO into the system. Each of the four sumps will be interconnected and in turn will drain equally into the main sump that will have the auto bilge inside. The sump also has the outlet from the swirl filter setup draining into it, also supplying some extra DO into the system. The bilge will pump the filtered water back into the FT via a spray bar of some description.

If i start to have issues with low DO levels i'll implement an aerator... provided i can find one to run on a 12v system as the plan is to ultimately run the AP system off a solar setup

heard tonight that another pair of IBC should be arriving on Friday... LET MORE CUTTING BEGIN!!

on a side note... true to form we have changed the design slightly... instead of having sumps under the two front growbed/sump setups we may have a 90mm stormy pipe running to the rear of the fish tank into the main sump... the siphon will drain into the 90mm pipe and then gravity drain to the sump i might even do this with all the growbeds and have approx 650 litres of sump behind the fish tank.

I think that makes sense, well for this time of night it does!!

I get it. Common drain pipe

Sounds good

Hows the lights test out Iceman and some updated photos would be welcome. Cheers