Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi all
I'm still at the planning stage and thinking about backup options for power outages.

Assuming I have a typical chop and flip IBC setup with say 12 table-ready jade perch in it, what kind of flow rate of air am I going to need to keep my jades alive on a typical Brisbane summer's day of say 35 degrees celsius, assuming I'm only aerating and not pumping any water?

Cheers
Nigel

Not really that much to keep them alive. I think the little ac/dc pumps we used were only 4l/m and they have saved some fishy butts during power outages. Of course bigger is nicer.

If you have periods of no pumping good idea to still circulate the water , rather than just a air stone in a corner , a simple "airlift" will bring the water up off the bottom of the tank .

Pic shows airlines in pipe that goes to bottom of tank and circulates the water vertically

I would get something like this for your air pump

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Hailea-V-10 ... SwQVdZ4YpB

I have two 20 watt pumps the same make as these , strong pumps that will push water down deep .

Problem with the little aquarium pumps is they don't push down into much water depth .

Ive used them in the airlift pipe successfully

I just run my air pumps in the middle, no need for air-lift pipes to get radial circulation. Water rises with the air from 25cm air discs about 1/3 of the way down in the FT and spreads out radially across the top, and goes back down the sides and across the bottom to the middle, helping to move any solids to the SLO.

10-15lpm should be enough to circulate the water and provide aeration in an IBC in hot weather, so long as you don't have too many fish in it. It's better to have a bit too much aeration than not enough!

Thanks for the feedback, guys

I was thinking of getting two (for redundancy) 720L/h air pumps with battery backup and splitting the output of each across 3 IBCs. That should give me a backup of 480L/h per IBC and still 240L/h per IBC if one of them fails during the power outage.

The pump I'm looking at is the Hopar LD-10000 (https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Aqua-Aquarium-Fish-Tank-AC-DC-Lithium-Battery-Silent-Air-Pump-4-Outlet-720L-H-/221855769301?hash=item33a7a262d5)

I'll have to investigate the pros and cons of air-lift

Cheers
Nigel

I'd be checking the actual flow rate when on battery power emergency mode ... "pulsing" suggests the rate is somewhat lower.

>> While the pump is in emergency mode it will continue to pulse air into the aquarium giving you up to 40hours of oxygen supply. Once the power returns the pump will automatically return to AC power and exit emergency mode and supply full oxygen to the aquarium while recharging the lithium battery in preparation for the next power outage.

Nigel I run all my air through a 250mm rubber diffuser like Gunagulla, the backup air is a 12v HAILEA-ACO 003 compressor, running off a 12v 45ah battery, charged by a trickle charger. I don't leave the trickle charger turned on, I found leaving it on 24/7 reduced the battery life. I only turn it on after a power outage, and then turn it off again after 48 hours.

The 12v backup compressor is connected to run through the same 250mm rubber diffuser in the fish tank, but sits idle until a power outage. The a backup safety switch I built using a 12v headlight relay, powered by an old mobile phone charger, It operates off 12 volts and not 240 volts like some on the market, it's a safer option.

The main air supply is a 240v 120L HAILEA air pump, I also run a 240v 70L HAILEA air pump as a backup up for the main pump, and both run 24/7.

I run everything off the 120L & 70L HAILEA's, that includes air to the MBBF, degassing tank, mineralisation tank, 2 x wicking beds, and a small duckweed tank. The backup 12v HAILEA-ACO 003 compressor handles all of that without any problems during a power outage.

Don't buy cheap air pumps, the little extra money good quality pumps cost are worth the extra dollars.

Thanks for sharing, Joblow. That's a formidable looking setup.

I've gone in a different direction, though.

I've bought 2 IBCs. My plan is to link them at their drain taps and then have the bed above each FT drain into the other FT, forming one integrated system rather than two independent ones.

I've gone for 2 battery-backed-up 4-outlet air pumps which will each put air into both tanks. This way, if I have a power outage and one pump fails, I'll still be getting some aeration into each tank.

I've followed the redundancy theme into my water pumps too. I've gone with four pumps totalling 2300l/h so that if I have one pump fail I still will have a minimum of 1700l/h across the two tanks until I can pop down to the local hardware and pick up a replacement. The pumps have 2-3 warranty and so I figure that with the redundancy in my planned setup should keep me out of trouble.

Hopefully I'll get a chance to put it all together over Christmas.

Cheers
Nigel

All sounds good Nigel, I like the idea of running more than one pump, it stops you losing fish if a single pump breaks down, that's what I do, I wouldn't have it any other way.



For your backup air I'd plan for a 12v HAILEA-ACO 003 compressor, running off a 12v 45ah battery.

Nigel if you need the circuit diagram for the back up switch, PM me.

Hi Jo,
I'd be interested in the circuit diagram for the backup if you had it handy?
Cheers,

First post in quite a while, but I thought it worth mentioning this.

So, my air pumps failed over six months ago and I haven't seen the need to replace them. I have about 40 roughly 400g jades in one tank of two connected (40mm pipe) IBC chop n flip systems. It seems that the fish are quite happy with the aeration which occurs from the flood and drain of the two beds. They are healthy, growing and have been this way through our Brisbane summer.

Maybe it's that when a bed drains the water flows from the tank below to the adjacent tank through the connecting pipe to equalise the level and so freshly aerated water is moving back and forth between tanks.

Wish I'd have known this before I shelled out for my battery backed-up air pumps.

I'm still a fan of air pumps and backups. I had a freezer full of fish for quite a while, so I did not make the time to harvest my fish one year, Well a moderately stocked system became overstocked as the fish ate and grew. When my pump failed in a rainstorm I know the backup air pump would have kept them alive for several days. Unfortunately the battery backup shorted out in the same rainstorm so the air pump quit, even though I didn't lose power. Of course these events only happen when you are away.

My system should have sustained 200 lbs of fish without too much trouble. Alas when I came home to 60 floating carcasses, they averaged over 5lbs each and I trashed over 300 lbs of fish. If only I had not become complacent, made time to harvest and kept the stocking density in a reasonable range.

My battery backup is now a much more reliable whole-house system (Tesla Powerwalls) and a few other tweaks better protect the electric hardware. I wonder what is next (well, there was the recent fire)?

When you have a main pump failure, you may well regret not having aeration! Aeration with no pumping will keep the fish alive while you sort out the problem.

I hear you regarding pump failure. I have 4 AP500s serving the two tanks, so if one pump fails, one of my beds will flood and drain half as fast until it's replaced. This is relatively frequent occurrence, not due to failure, but due to pumps clogging.

Power loss still concerns me though, so I am toying with the idea of pumping into an overhead tank which fills then continually slow drains into both FTs from height to increase normal aeration and provide emergency aeration during power loss.