Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

A UPS will certainly work, it is just an inverter + battery, but they do use power all the time, and it would provide no protection against pump (diaphragm, internal hose etc) failure, as I mentioned earlier.
Most electronics stores sell them.

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There's an amount of risk management involved with backup systems...
eg.. how often do you have power problems.. and when it happens, for how long.
would I be wrong thinking the greater risk is in bush fire seasons.. = extended outages..???
My thinking... a typical home computer UPS might not work for too long..

I plan to have a UPS, but change it such that the batteries are charged from solar panels
Most computer UPS devices act as a power filter for the computer, and thus draw a deal of background power.. ie. Noticeably hot..

So you want to only connect the float-charged batteries(s) , when the power fails

You don't need a UPS in reality.. 12V car inverters are cheaper .. and usually good enough for pumps

One inverter.. battery.. quality battery charger .. and a 240V relay that drops out when the grid fails, switching on the battery to inverter connection and disconnecting the pump from the grid.. all very easy to do..
If you know nothing about electricity etc. You could get the relay device made as a black box plug in...
It would be practical to include the inverter as pre wired, effectively manufacturing your own UPS

And.. then you could add a solar panel and charge controller, and thus have no need for grid battery charging.. but, I would have that grid based charger for the times you need to recharge at night.. just a simple device..

Peter
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http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free-Shipping-New-150W-DC-12V-to-AC-220V-Auto-Car-Inverter-USB-Power-Supply-Adaptor/1666602705.html

only 150W, but that would likely power most air pumps
and at about $20, it would be worth the go..

Just one that jumped out at me..
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There's a disturbing lack of detailed specs with that- I'd be asking what the duty cycle is at 150W, 100W etc, what the max surge power is, and also what the no load current draw is, although whether or not you'd get an accurate answer, who knows.
If going that way I'd prefer to spend a bit more on something sourced form an Oz company, like this: https://www.power-supplies-australia.co ... 300-150-f5

I would prefer a DC pump ( and have bought some for myself), to avoid inverter inefficiencies. Sun Sun and Hailea make decent 12V air pumps. You can also easily and safely use them for live fish transport if required.

Agreed, but at those prices, one can take chances..



A supplier in Brisy suggested they had a much higher return rate for DC stuff, and I wonder if that is because some seem to use brushed motors..

As for Efficiency, one could likely argue that a claimed efficiency of over 90%, could be better than DC losses at 12V..

I use an ALDI 12>240V inverter for transportation and the car/truck, so I see NO DIFFERENCE, but I still have shelf items at 240V, rather than specialised DC items..

Bottom Line - it is all going to depend on what one is most comfortable with..
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Alright will have to look into both of those, more research needed.......yes looking for back up with fire season about to commence and we loose power whenever a bad storm hits. Somehow I have managed to set it up so only grow beds loose water during power failure so I have been lucky so far. But now that it's heating up I don't want to loose oxygenation for to long on those super hot days.

Anyone have an opinion on solid removal ...swirl vs vortex or something else I haven't heard of yet.

A 12 volt backup system that doesn't need to be built by an electrician the 240 volt power supply is a mobile phone charger.

The unit it's self is mobile phone charger, 12 volt headlight relay and a fuse.

My old systyem has been for running over 3 years with no swirl/radial filter, as have many others' on the forum. However, either swirl or radial can be used to remove the vast majority of the solids- they don't have to be anything fancy or expensive.

A quick update.......lost 30 fish.....found them in grow bed


The cover I had on the opening of the out let for the fish tank kept on blocking during the night overflowing the fishtanks emptying the sump most of the way. So I had the clever idea of just slightly opening the net cover of the standpipe...and I do mean just ever so slightly so it wouldn't block. it appears that half my fish found the tiny little hole and took a joy ride to the end of their little fishy lives. Lucky it was the fingerling perch and not my trout. Managed to put ten back in that we're still alive.....does any one know how hard it is to pull fish out of scoria when they are determined to try and swim down into it. Lil buggrs

Sorry you lost the little fishies

I've had a few take the SLO ride in my small system, before I developed the ideal configuration to allow poo but
not small fish though, but that just puts them into the ST, where I netted them out and popped them back into the FT.

My SLO is conveniently VERTICAL and central, and I made a neat fitting and sliding tube that falls down onto the floor of the tank.. lots of small holes..
That stopped the loss to the ST via the filters.. but I noticed fish getting sucked onto the holes..
So I repeated the process with a bigger tube, and this reduced the sucking effect and all is good..

I also fitted a large aquarium RING aerator and it works great with concentric aeration that adds to the sweeping action for solids to the centre..
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I have made a cap for the SLO. Filled it with 6mm holes. So far so good.

The large aquarium ring sounds interesting. The tank with the trout is the worst. The SLO works well but even it can keep up with it. I'll look out fora ring. Thanks for the idea!