Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Trial and error i guess..But seems ok.

roots seem in pretty good nick

Its only 15 min at a time with no flow, excepting "out of hours" (8pm to 6am)

seems good so far

LOL just pictured barbie at s&a's...........people lined up with plates and knives progressing along pvc pipe..........LOL

Heard about those "progressive" dinners .... LOL

So, just to be sure Steve... you're saying that there is only 15mins each hour that there is no flow through the pipe??

and the rest of the time is continous flow.... pipe 100% full???

What about from 8pm - 6am.... no pumping at all?

just gotta work out how to grow a cow outta one of those net pots now

Sort of right Rupert..It does pump for 15 with high flow then draining time is about the same 15 mins with still flow, if any the water would only remain stationary for at a guess 5 to 0 mins..
The way we drilled out the holes for the pots means that max filling for the pipe is at around 85% or she spills water like a pipe with holes in it ! This can be regulated with the small tap that splits the outlet.
Between 8pm and 6.00am no flow..
And the net pots were around $1.50 each.

chow

That beer picture is malking me thirsty - think I'll call the work week done now. Cheers!

?What size net pots you using in the PVC and what size PVC?

Why dont you run the pump at all overnight? I thought you could maybe run it less often but you would still need it? I hope it works so that I can wind mine back a bit once I get an air pump in my tank.

Does your PVC completly drain inbetween pumping cycles?

I'm interested to see how this goes (not pumping overnight), as well as the fact that you run the water much higher in the pipes than I do.

To DTHawk the pvc is 90mm and the net post are 85mm's at the top and 68mm's at the bottom.They stand around 70mm's.
Thanks for looking.

Hi King Eirk....
We dont run the pump overnight for a few reasons being the pump
is oversized for the system. Delivery rate - 90 litres per minute
Maximum head - 23 meters ( We pump around 2.5meters..Gravity does the rest )
Maximum suction - 8 metres
Inlet 1"
Outlet 1" so we am trying to reduce the running cost and also live in a enclosed area ( i can hear next door fart in the morning ! ) and it does have running noise.Although you do make a fair point, maybe 2 or 3 15minute cycles over night wouldnt hurt.
We split the intake volume 50/50 and return it directly back into the tank, resulting in excellent water flow. We do also run a bubbler 24/7.
The PVC never empties. Its draining level at is lowest would be around 60% full, meaning 30mm of the net pot in submerged.
We are really happy with how the system is producing, but we will tweek it here and there with a vision of a 6 ft and yes more fish...


Hale da KING....

How many watts is that pump S&A? 23 metre head? Now that would be very handy.

Hi erik my system is also turned off at night 5 till 7 the nifts drain out i only run a bubbler at night if it was going to be a hot night 25 deg i would run all night

0.37 kw ... 0.5 hp....

It is great pump with a high delivery but also has a tendency to get small bits (plant and food) stuck in the impellor which inturn makes its running noise annoying !

Hi fish & food... I was a bit worried about loosing temp with over pumping. Since we have insulated the tank with foam panels and have only dropped to around 14"..It may work the other way too ??

On a cold night with running i can drop 5 deg and no running 2 deg i am running 4 air stones the nift does not realy dry out its still damp