Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi Guys last night we had a power failure fortunately it was not to long, around 2 hours, but that really scared me as it might kill the plants and fishes has someone designed a recirculating system that uses water current or other stuffs that don't use electricity? or like use the waters current to generate electricity by a dynamo(it needs cycling of belts to generate electricity)? If not what are the things that I would need to do in times of power outage? thanks.

jamesto,
Have a read through Back up power supplies
http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum ... .php?t=482

This should help

There are battery-powered air pumps for oxygenation. I shall simply hope we don't lose power for too long.

I like your plan!

James, don't worry about the plants dying, worry about the fish.

How long would the bacteria in the GBs survive without cycled water?

Scott.

Depends, if the beds are out in the sun and how hot it is.......

Overnight, not a problem I reckon.... through the day hard to tell.

Think there's a few who have suffer this fate and bounced back pretty quick, so it's sounds like everything recovers pretty quickly.

Something that hasn't been tested to my knowledge, IMHO I think they will survive for quite an extended period - like days, even up to a week.

The gravel will stay wet for a long time and so the bacteria should be okay, may die back slightly but should kick off very quickly again (my thoughts)

Once the bacteria population is established in the beds, they will survive for quite some time without the system cycling. The fish are by far the greater worry.

I've left my system off for 24 hours in the past with no noticable problem, though middle of summer hot days may be a little different, however, even in the middle of summer it's going to take a long time to for the depths of your growbed to dry out totally.

My big system spend probably about 6 months or more with no fish in it at one stage, just pumping water through it, with a few old scabby plants just surviving in the growbeds.. I bought 130 silver perch , most at almost 200mm long, some even a little larger, threw them in the system, and there was no algal bloom or problems from the sudden increase of fish, the bacteria populations must have reestablished itself very quickly.