Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Mmmm me thinking crap pump, just had a look at things and the pump in the main system is a 10,000 l per hour pump and at 2.5m head should be 8000 l per hour, i plan to measure it but i am thinking maybe 2000 l per hour at best.
Anyone else know anything about these pumps?

I have fed potato in the past, Kita, although I use a commercial marron pellet nowadays. They favour a lower protein diet and I just find the sinking feed an easier option. In reality they will just pick up all the scraps that the fish leave behind so I wouldnt fuss too much.

The spacings for my DWC is 20cm.

Jebao pumps are working fine for me. I have three rated at 10000LPH - two in fulltime service - and I also talked a mate into getting one. He got one the other day and said that he tested it against his existing pump. Here is what he said:

"My new pump delivers far more (observed, not measured) than my Aquapro 6000 litre pump that is rated at 100w but actually draws 114w.
The new pump (Jebao Eco submersible TM - 10000) in exactly the same situation draws 71w. It is rated at 75w. Since this pump runs 24/7, I am saving 43w/hour (just over 1kw per day)".

Thanks guys, yeah i had a little bow peep on the forum and seems they are getting reasonable feedback, i measure my litres and go from there.
Charlie i spoke to my feed supplier and he said he not aware of any marron feed, will look into this, he suggested a sinking fish feed?? I am considering some sleeps for Stage 2 tanks and removing the yabbies from it to the sump, i would need sinking for the sleepies, you think sinking fish feed would be adequate for the yabbies so long as i feed them something else from time to time.
What about structure or pebbles on the bottom for the yabbies, any opinion there mate?

I feed my yabbies cracked lupins (on the advice of Santalum) and my marron get surplus Chinese waterchestnuts plus a proprietary sinking marron pellet. These pellets are available.

I feed my fish first and, while they are distracted, I throw in the marron pellets - otherwise the fish would scoff them as well.

In use the weston brand http://weston.westonmilling.com.au/anim ... on-pellets

Yabbie hides Ive used are really just a bunch of pipe cut offs tied together to make a structure, prob the only thing I do differently is heat one end with a heat gun and squash it flat so there is only one way in, this way the yabbie backs in and can defend from predators. Alternate the direction they are facing to create a small habitat.

Yeah i did the same but when you watch them in a more natural environment you see how busy they get shifting pebbles around and so forth, but in my tank they just stare at the wall so to speak. I wonder if a bit of shaggy afro turf would at least provide a better base for them?? I know some solids will get fought up but with the movement in the tank and my H design SLO (which works an absolute treat) i think it would be OK.

Oh and i have halted on the Lupin for now to see if that helps with the blockages.
They got stuck into the sweet potato last night but weren't too interested in the watermelon.

Kit what size is the pipe from the fish tank to grow-beds..

I run a 100mm Pipe system until I split it to 50mm then I reduce to 25mm at the grow-beds..

- I have a way of draining the Feed pipe into the Sump, which I do every few week's..

Also at the end of the Feed Line I have a growbed that is Lower than the other's that has a pipe that I open full when no water is in the bed and flush out the crap that way..



-- Have you thought of running constant flood in the system.. That way you have less chance of having an over flow..
-- If you are worried about having an Overflow.. Have you thought of digging in a Tank that can take the Overflow..?

Juergen

90mm to 50mm then lift with 25mm to GB's



I have this too, but never thought of using it to flush the pipes, it was installed to to allow finer tuning of the gravity feed but found it wasn't needed.




Its been my understanding that F&D is better than CF but in any case not worried about over flow, so long as i don't over fill the system i can usually get through 10 days without a top up assuming i don't rob too much water for the dirt garden.

So i think my Venturi is holding back my feed to the Ft. I trimmed 1 back a bit and seemed to improve water flow, so will be taking a closer look at this to see if i can replace the inner air tube with something smaller.

I replaced the Venturi tube with a much smaller one, aeration seems to be same or similar but better water flow. This coupled with less lupin seems to have fixed my feed blockage problem.

I once made a poo chewer that seemed to work a bit... http://120thingsin20years.blogspot.com. ... cator.html but I read in one of the BYAP magazines that someone made a much better one.

They had all their solids go through .. I think they called it a biogester or something... that consisted of a lot air being put into a bucket full of water, solids, and 10mm cut off lengths of 12mm polly pipe. ie hundreds of little objects flying around making thin poo soup.

That could work.

An RFF might be an easy solution, I know you said you don't have much space but I managed to fit one into a very small area by using a small barrel... it won't function as well as a larger one as the smaller particles may not drop down as easily but since you are having problems with larger stuff it should work fine. Mine seems to catch a lot of stuff and it is quite fine.

Unfortunately i am running 90mm so makes it hard to work with small bucket and small space but i am thinking i might have to considering my bio film issues in the DW pond and the DWC.