Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Well it's been a while but not much has been happening, until yesterday when I got home from work....




Nearly 2.5 years in the making and I only ate 2 of them :'(

So now I need a new pump and some new stock.
I had one of those Jabao ecotech pumps, it ran continuously for 2.5years. It looks like the seals failed because it sounds like its full of water.

Any recommendations for a new one ?

I'm considering Yabbies and/or Jade Perch for new stock

That sucks the big one....that's why silver perch are not my favs...too much time investment to do down the drain. But I don't see myself running 100+ trout then culling them all in the space of a few weeks.

Motivation to install a backup pump???

Crap thats bad luck SP, I have the 10000 litre pump in my system. Been 12 months and ok so far. Backup pump is ok as long as you have a switch system to fire it up when the other one stops. It is not like a power failure where your relay switch cuts in the 12 volt system.

I have a few silvers but go to the jades for a quicker return, our fingerling bloke has farms at beerburrum and Murgon but lives at Narangba. You may be able to pick up from his place but min I think is fifty.

Ouch!

The next time I need a new pump, I'm buying two smaller ones so I can keep some water moving in the event of a pump crapping itself.

these people might be worth a look for a new pump ...

http://backyardaquaponicsshop.com/

Thanks guys.

I had actually set up a couple of diaphragm air pumps running off a UPS/battery but they couldn't even pump to the bottom of the IBC, not sure if they were old and leaky or just underpowered. Plus the UPS seemed to start alarming at 2am and not stopping (it was under the house)

Clearly I had not put a high priority on sorting out the backup properly. Its a shame I didn't get them shortly after they died, they could have been eaten.
The water was stinky and cloudy so it looks like they had been there at least all day.

So backup air pump is probably the cheapest I guess, running continuously is easiest. Im not sure if a pressure switch works well in AP

12v pump air pump, relay and battery is still the best back up in my opinion

a 12v air pump on relay only works as a back up for loss of power, if it is pump failure or blockage that causes the pumping to stop then your 12v backup will not switch on. I just use a secondary 240v water pump that just circulates water between the two fish tanks to provide air through water displacement on the surface. This pump runs continuosly 24/7 just the same as my standard circulation pump.
My power backup is a 12v air pump on relay but is most often not connected.

Yeah either pressure switch, 24/7 backup or backup on timer to reduce power consumption

So is a lifetime of just over 2 years reasonable for a pump ? This was a Jebao ebay pump that cost me $150. A simliar thing on ebay is now about $125.
To buy the same thing in a brand name costs double that, but do you expect to get 4years out of it ?

Sorry to hear about the fish SV, I'd be gutted to lose 2+ years worth of fish, guess all the veggies they have been fertilising is some sort consolation.
My jebao pump carked it yesterday too, must be that time of year! Are they repairable?
I hope to get more than two years out of my two new brand name (and expensive) pumps.
Live n learn.

Thanks mate. Yeah not happy. Got lots of green etc from it.

How old was your pump ?

I think I'm just going to buy another one and have a decent backup system (that is auto tested every week)

The price is just too good IMO

The pump came with the system purchased from MrOrange last May, he joined in April 08 and I didn't see anything in his thread about pump failure so it so potentially 6 yrs. (Jebao 6000) not bad I s'pose.
If you are going to have two pumps you should incorporate a flip flop switch and alternate them.

Only just saw this SV - that sucks, Know how you feel, had a very similar loss at the end of last year due to a timer failure.

I've been using the aquapro dirty water pumps - have two 3000L/h pumps in the system, each doing half duty so that if one fails I'll at least be turning over the fish tank every other hour. Did the plants make it through the day ok without water?

Cheers, I was wondering if timers fail on or off or both... crappy way to find out

How may GBs those pumps servicing? I have 3 x IBC based growbeds, I was using a 4500L/h pump.
Not sure how low I can go

So what's the latest SV?