Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

It would probably take a bit longer to exchange heat, but it will still happen.

I think in your climate, I'd be putting everything inside the poly tunnel, burying the fish tank, and trying to shade it all in summer.

Then again I've never grown trout so I wouldn't pay a lot of attention to anything I say

Checking in with you, Blythe. How are things AP and solar?

any updates, Blythe? we are all anxious to see how you're getting on!

HELLO!!!!!!

So sorry I haven't been on. We are building a house this year, and priorities chop and change all the time. Also, winter has been a slow time for AP down here, so not much to say, except that NOTHING WAS HAPPENING!!

HOWEVER, we recently and unexpectedly received 100 trout fingerling, which led to our usual reactive oh-my-gosh-we-have-to-build-the-next-system-NOW response. We put half the fingerling into System 1, the one described and photographed here, and we hurriedly finshed the one we had been lazily working on. So hurriedly we had a couple of leaks; we had to partially drain it with the fish already in it to repair them. Still have one little leak, 1 drip per 8 seconds. Husband wants to drain and fix again, I vote for emptying the ice cream container/catcher for the rest of my life. Ha ha.

Anyway, exciting times!!! So far, System 1 has responded beautifully to the fish (they have only been in for five days, but ammonia levels are still at zero ( we also have 30 little comets in the system). Systme 2 is planted out, nitrites still zero but ammonia rising steadily, so will have to keep an eye on it and do some water changes if necessary, especially since the temperatures here are weird. We can get over 30degrees in the polytunnel some days or it can stay at about 10. Just that time of year where the weather has no idea what it is doing.

Anyway, keeping this brief. Will post some photos of the trout soon. Other quick info:
- we are now running three air pumps; each system has a whole air pump dedicated to the air lifters (man, I love those) and the extra air pump is shared between them as a water bubbler. I've been wondering if it would be better to add the extra air pump to the air lifts, but also wondering if the water tank turnover is too fast, will the bacteria not get time to access the nutrients? Does that make sense? Sorry, about to go out, doing this in a rush. Anyway, this is a total of 15watts for two x 1000litre fish tanks and 4 x 500litre growbeds. Woo hoo!

- no problems at all with the air lifts since they started. Love them.

- one tank has 50 trout fingerling, the other has 50 trout fingerling and 30 comets. I KNOW this is too much, but we didn't have anywhere else to put them, and the fingerling are all different sizes, hoping we can eat them as they grow. Also, this system has already cycled.

Will write more tonight.

Woohoo! Good to hear from you. Keep us posted as you can. No worries on moving more water through. We're on the bottom end of acceptable flow with the airlifts. That being said, I use 2 pumps, one for the airlift, the other bubbling along one side of the fish tank for aeration and moving the water around.
Now that I think about it, if you mean putting 2 extra air lines to the 1 1/4" airlift, don't. Would be to much air for that diameter pipe. Will be better just providing aeration, especially as you'll be warming up air and water temps soon.

you could add another airlift, if you wanted to, and get aeration AND more water filtration. But, don't add more air to the current airlift, it won't increase water flow.

Hmm...I might keep it as a water bubbler for now and might think about another air lift as the weather becomes warmer...
Trout have been in almost a full week and no deaths aside from one trout which leapt out of the tank to its death before we covered the top fishtank hole. The water in System 2 is still cloudy and murky, impossible to see the trout unless they are right at the surface.
The water in System 1 is clear and the trout really move! The comets don't seem overly happy with the new additions. They are so much smaller than the fingerling, and they tend to congregate in one area of the fishtank now, probably to get away from the violent movement of the trout. Ammonia levels are at 0 even with the addition of the 50 fingerling as is the nitrate level...pH has been consistently 7.8, which I am disappointed in. I had hoped it would drop, but it looks like that will be our pH forever. It will be interesting to see how this affects the plants.
System 2, the new one, has no nitrates or nitrates, but ammonia has been as high as 0.5ppm before we have had to empty the tank for the leak (and it is still leaking, so will have to partially empty it again) and refilling with 2/3rds fresh creek water.
The grow beds are mostly planted with parsley, silverbeet and spinach, as they are all hardy plants here, as well as a few early tomato seedlings and peas. Rats usually dig up the pea seeds, so I have some netting over system 1 until we can figure out how to ratproof the whole polytunnel. Rat traps and poison aren't working, especially the rat traps, which work once and then the rats keep well away from them, whether the traps are brand new (and scentless) or not.

I have a question for you fabulous people who are so quick to see my new posts! We keep ducks, and for a while I have wanted to make a duckponics pond so I don't have to keep emptying and refilling the pond. I was thinking about a solar pump, since the water won't need to be kept highly oxygenated for fish. The water gets pretty murky with duck poo, and I am wondering if a solar pond pump would be able to cope with the sediment in the water.
I love the airlifts, but because the duck ponds are a bit further away, I didn't want to have to run power to the pond and have to make a pump shelter, etc. Any idea if a solar pond pump could do the job? We are only using a kids' clam shell sandpit for a duckpond currently, and the one we build doesn't have to be heaps bigger, but I wanted to try it with citrus trees and see if that setup works...I have read TCLynx's stuff but I think she uses power.

Yes I do use power.
No I don't think one of those little solar pumps will work for a duck system.
Benefit with an airlift is you don't have to runt he power all the way out to the duck pond, Only the air plumbing. You need enough depth and a strong enough air pump to actually lift water. It won't really save you much on electricity to use an airlift over a water pump.
However, and air pump isn't as likely to suffer from damage due to feather clogging and sand in the duck system as a regular water pump will.

if you don't have much head, then airlifts are a lot more efficient than water pumps. A 10 watt airlift can pump 300+ gallons an hour. I don't see many water pumps doing that.

10 watt? I thought these were 5 watt air pumps. Been a while. But either way that's solar capable and if you keep the head down to 2" or less, its 300+gph...if you have the approx 4' of depth for the airlift. Could just sink a 8" diameter pipe in the ground next to your pond if its shallower than that.

Can you provide me a link to a 5 or 10 watt air pump that will push enough air down 4 feet deep in order to actually lift 300 gallons of water per hour?

Here's the pump: Available at every petco I've looked at for about $30. Includes air lines, stones, and check valves. Also marketed under the brand name Resun.
http://www.petco.com/product/119290/Petco-Air-Pump-for-Freshwater-And-Marine-Aquariums.aspx
The airlift design is in my thread:
http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=11703
Basically 1 1/4" pvc pipe with a tee at the top and a 3" bell adapter at the bottom (I'm assuming some venturi effect there).

You guys are so great! TCLynx, the airlifts are far more economical power-wise. We are moving over 2000litres (2 x 100L tanks) per hour for 10watts. Your observation re the duck feathers is great, it makes me definitely want to take the airlift route. Btw, the air pump I use is on ebay, a Resun. I couldn't find the one Jim uses in Australia. http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/AQUARIUM-AIR ... 4d04ab2dfb
I'm pretty sure that is the one.
Jimbo, I'm not sure what you mean about the 8" diameter pipe next to the pond...it's sounds interesting,but I can't visualise how it would work...can you give more info?
One of the issues with having a stand-alone system on the ducks is that we have to have some way of knowing what the battery state of charge is. On our main house system, we have a solar charge controller which gives us that info as well as a display monitor in the house which tells us how much we are drawing, gaining, what percentage the batteries are at, etc. A good monitor which gives us a better indication than <50%, <75%, etc, is expensive ($200approx) for a little duckponics system...it may be better to run a 30m/100ft extension lead from the house rather than buy a panel/battery/charge controller...I'm sure there is a better way, but we don't know what it might be...what do you all think?

As I noted, you could get an air pump and run oversized plumbing from the air pump out to the duck pond and then you avoid the whole thing of having to have power our there.

As long as you are not lifting the water very high, air lift can work. As soon as you need to lift the water very high, you loose most of the efficiency of the airlift.

If the pond is not deep enough to accomodate the airlift being in it like our IBCs are, you can put a pipe with a capped bottom in the ground vertically next to the pond. Think of it as a sump. The pipe would have to be large enough to fit the airlift and bell down inside it and let water flow down through the pipe and under the bell so the bubbles could draw the water up through the airlift.
You could either plumb from a drain in one end of the pond to the airlift at the head of the pond or have the pond drain into the sump pipe and then run rom the top of the airlift back to the head of the pond.

I would say the top would probably look and work better but be more work. You could even put a cage around/over the drain to filter out some solids. And make a little cover for the top of the airlift that looks a little like a waterfall.
I haven't tried duckaponics or looked real close at TC's design. Do you just need to keep the water moving or is there some gravel/media in the pond or stream to let water flow through?