Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hey Slowboat, How do you plan on using the form ply as a deck? If you plan on walking on it I think I'd be using something else.It would be a bit slippery when wet as it has like a polished surface. I'll visit your post.... its been a while

Just been speaking to the the misses and she said our goats has found a way into the house yard. She returned from the beach this arvo to find them standing on the grow beds having a nice old chew on my plants. Got a tempry fence where my archery tergets are that there jumping. Yet another job to do when I get home.

Muz

yes the form ply will be the deck, but I will paint it with non slip decking paint,

The structural pine for the joists will be painted before I put them on.

Was thinking of painting the beams but they have a good coat of redoxide zinc primer,
and now the thought and effort of painting nearly a tonne of steel is daunting especially if they don't need it.

So that goat in the avatar is not one that chewed on your spinach then?

I'd be in big trouble if it was

So Archery Target is the name of the goat?

Hey Ron, They may well be getting a name change if there not careful. My daughters named our goats, Dusty, Angel, Grover, and the latest being Slim (son of Dusty, I named him). Don't even ask about the chooks/rabbits/guinea pigs and parrots.

I finally got round to trying a different pump. Bought a HA-20 from BOYU-Australia a couple of years ago but due to the pond set-up I wasn't able to use it due to pipe restrictions. Its labelled to pump 20,000L/hr and has a 75mm outlet.



I recently got ducks again and have since disconnected my aquaponics system from the pond. This means my pump is now back where it started from in the sump. I have gone from 75mm at the pump to 90mm with a height of 1.6m. At this head it pumps about 7500L/hr and draws 0.90amps/216W. Compared to the 400W Grandfos which actually draws 1.44amps/345w for 8000L/hr.

So I've left the the Grundfos beside the Atman all plumbed up and ready to go while I trial it in case of failure. I simply have to change leads over.

I've upgraded my big tanks overflow to 90mm so when I clean my filters I don't have to stop my pump any more. I added a Large bath into the system as a fry tank.

And my fish feeder contoller shat itself again so I went and bought a touch screen plc unit. I've programmed it to control my two fish feeders and plan on adding a bit more control and using it on the whole system and setting it up to alarm to my phone. Need to buy some more gear for it first. Themocouple for water temp, pressure switch for the air, Capacitive proximity's for level and flow control. I'll be brain storming for a while yet.

Wow Muzza that's some serious toys there would love to see your setup one day just live up the road from you

Your more than welcome to come out for a look. Running out of time this break and fly out Monday so might have to be next year.

Cheers Muzza

Muz, did the Atman pump have a performance curve?

Awesome system Muzza.

Hey Slowboat, no pump curve

There was a discussion on here about these pumps 3 or so years ago but I don't think anyone had tried one. The pump itself has no balls and requires an open pipe with little restriction to get the flow from it. They're meant to be used in koi ponds to move large volumes with in the pond at zero head. I tried it through the buried 50mm pipe I use for the Grundfos and flow rate dropped to 5750L/hr. But it also goes through 5 elbows in that 50mm piping.

The pump is actually labelled as 50w, 0.8amps. The 50w is bullshit. 240v x 0.8 = 192W. I metered mine with my Fluke and was drawing 0.90amps. End of the day I'm happy to use less power for near on equal amounts of flow. It works out to be a saving of $270 a year in electricity between the pumps. The question is how long will it run for.

No probs Muzza I'll give you a call January sometime

ok thanks, as long as it does the job Muz

Bump : Must be time for an update

Hi buddy can you let me no when you would be home would like to have a look at you setup cheers