Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Strange....I just unscrewed the connection at the pump, then reconnected it and the flow went right back to normal, immediately. I did this with both pumps and got the same results.

Unplugging/plugging back in had no effect even for a few minutes, but unscrewing the connection at the pump then reconnecting fixed it(for now)
I never unplugged them either, just left them underwater, unscrewed the connection and then screwed it back on.

Anyways it's getting pretty late and I need to wash the fish water off my hands. I'll be awake in about 6 hours and will report my findings then.


Tomorrow afternoon I will load test them as you described dlf.

p.s to my first post of the two.

the guards are a 50-50. In my old small pumps (1450-1650 LPH ~ 400 GPH) they used to clog up a bit if I had a dirty tank. With my larger ones 3000 LPH(~800GPH) they have the screw point in front of the propeller intake for the long rectangular sponge. I just connect 300mm (a foot) of 25mm PVC to that with lots of holes drilled in it and don't bother with the slotted covers.

your irrigation poly looks like 19mm (3/4") - which is same that I use.

If 1/2" as you say then I guess that makes it 13mm - which would be too small and the flow inside the pipe would have quite high fricitional losses. Hence I suspect it is the length of run they don't like. (hence plan B in the second post)

In my 3000 LPH pumps the difference between 13mm pond pump hose and 19mm poly irrigation hose is massive in terms of flow rates. I once used the pond pump pipe and it throttled my flow pretty bad.

[edit] your pumps look exactly like the Aquapro type ones - and your link says they can have 3/4" and 1/2" outlet pipe. Go the biggest you can get away with - I know that sounds counter intuitive but it is hydraulic flow theory (search Stuart Chignells posts for a head-feast on that one). Also want smooth gentle curves and not too many sharp / tight diameter ones.

...my first thought is that with the long pipe going around corners etc, you've probably got an air lock somewhere. Look for spots where it goes up a bit and then down again, and try to level it out.

Alright I think it is safe to say that I am just a little FRUSTRATED WITH THIS PUMP ABOUT TO THROW THE THING OUT THE MOVING CAR WINDOW!!!GRRRR!!!



Anyways since I am having the issue with both pumps, I decided to only work on the outdoor pump first to see what the issue is, since it is a short run with only one elbow and all out in the open.

I've tried the following:

What I did is cut about a 1.25M section of straight irrigation hose and I ran it from the 55g barrel to the IBC so I could do some testing. . I'm not sure what is going on! I tried all kinds of stuff and I keep getting mixed results...

Check it out:

So based on my above posting...sound like winner winner chicken dinner?

I ALMOST broke from my normal cheap self and threw some money at this by driving to the store and buying a much stronger pump. ALMOST.

Let's see what happens overnight, but it seems like the outside pump has been fixed by removing an elbow and shortening it. Fingers are crossed, I'll let you guys know.

But here is the million dollar question: What do I do about the aquarium that is inside the house, 10 ft and 90 degrees away?

Timer won't work because turning off and back on only works sometimes.
I could probably get rid of some of the elbows, but will likely need at least one to keep the hose from kinking.
I could add a sump and put it closer to the window...but closer to window = futher away from IBC...

maybe I should just forget about this whole indoor/outdoor thing and keep the aquarium as a separate system? I could utilize it for fry/winter?

Alright the quickest thing I can do for tonight is remove the first elbow on top of the 55 gallon barrel and try to straighten out some of the line leading to the window.

trying to streamline the inside plumbing will be a little more time consuming. This whole working for a living thing is eating up all my free time

OK seen this with these small pumps that I have. They are basically good for lifting water short distance for a fountain, split level pond etc but not much good at actually pumping water through a distribution system.

If you don't have any fittings, elbows and just pipe from pump then air is less likely issue.
You go with a short section of pipe then it can only be a pump efficiency/capability thing.
(else it is your pipe system - air, friction, too much head loss, loss of smooth flow, run too long etc)

With my small pump it lifts fine so I basically lifted water up to a 25L drum as an intermediate reservoir.
The lift is then minimised. Then distribute the water by gravity in PVC pipes.

This really helped the problem a lot. I still end up having to unplug and plug it in every twelve hours or so to get back to full flow, but it's not bad at all.

In the end I did go back and purchase a 600gph pump since my system is about 400 gallons total now, plus I have about 18" of head and that long return line. So I will have that 600gph pump, a 370gph pump for the outdoor beds.
For aeration I have a 700gph circulation pump(kind of like an underwater fan, only uses 3 watts!) in the outdoor tank, plus two hang on back filters on the indoor tank totaling about 800gph. That should be plenty for the 28 fish, right?

this would also leave me with a 340gph backup pump.

air wise = yep

just comes down to how well the biofilter works. As long as it is getting the opportunity to convert the fish generated ammonia to nitrates (and nitrates get used) then that is really the #1 variable now.

monitoring your ammonia, nitrites & nitrates will be #1 priority for the short term - then you will know.
(presume you have a test kit like the API Freshwater test kit).

your outdoor setup should be very KISS - basically a simple IBCofAquaponics style setup.
Short pipe length and shouldn't have too many issues.

re: pump - yeah I started out with 1500-1800LPH (~400GPH) on my small systems but have tended to go with 2500-3000LPH now (650-800GPH). Few more options to move water around, have a few extras on the system and get aeration with the slightly larger pumps. The real big difference came from going from 13mm to 19mm pipe.

Let me make sure we are on the same page here, because I'm no good with calculating flow rates and the like;
All of the pump's I have purchased had a fixed 1/2" thread built into the pump. The "3/4 option" that is in the product description has a 1/2" male thread on one side and 3/4" hose barb on the other side. So in other words the water leaving the pump will be restricted to a 1/2" opening regardless. Will using 3/4" pipe still increase the flow? I assume it will due to less friction loss???

Yup, definitely. There's a huge difference between going through one tight spot, then immediately getting more room, and having the whole distance traveled be through nothing but tight spots.

there is also [due to way hydraulics works] the fact that 0 head is your water level not the pump itself.
so the 1/2-3/4 is slightly less ideal but not a lot because the 3/4 inch flow is well established by the time the head height is reached. 3/4" is much better than staying with 1/2".

The actual lift is from the water surface to the discharge point - so if you had a situation where your water level is high initially but gets lowered (eg. as beds fill up and/or the sump empties) then the flow rate will actually be slower at the lower water level. Is one advantage of constant flood as water levels don't change much.

I noticed that with my teeny test system - the first pump I had in it slowed down noticeably as the water level in the sump changed, to the point where if both beds filled at the same time and the sump was due for a topup, the siphons wouldn't trigger. When we had a brief power cut and the pump died, I replaced it with the next size up and haven't had that problem since.

Please I'm doing the same sort of thing id like to see your new setup and maybe get a few tips from you!

Thanks Mel/dlf That all makes sense now that you have explained it a little.
Right now I'd say everything is flowing acceptably, but I can definitely see myself going to a larger size soon. It's crazy how fast this pipe is getting dirty!





Do you have a thread yet? I will go look right now. I took everyones advice and did a massive expansion on my grow bed space and now have a total of about 40 cubic foot of grow bed space.

I'm still working on my setup but here's what it looks like today: