Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

yep you ask steve when he goes in he leaves his wallet in the car

Hi Steve,
I may have the terminology wrong but i`m pretty sure it`s not hydronic

An description might be better
A pipe full of water in a closed loop with an inline pump should logically use less power (especially in a lift situation) as the water flowing back to the pump (ie flowing down from the collector) will effectively be helping the pump push the water back up?

It is hydronic and your description is spot on

What a great pump! What a great price!

in this case, is there no reservoir, you only heat the water in the pipe? And how do you get it with no air in the line? And wouldn't the water get waaaaay hotter than 60 degs that the pump can handle?

i guess you have vaves so you can change/ add water and Bleed/ drain , but wouldnt it be eaiser to just use the fish water ? send that up to the solar collector and then back into the tank like they do for swiming pools ?

surely you can have the water move slowly enough that it would heat the tanks eventualy

Cheers

hex my understanding of hydronic is closed loop water circulation to radiators in rooms heated by a boiler.

RE: air locks, yes, they do happen and there are specific valves available with a float in them that auto bleed off the air.

and yes, thinking about it the return water in a closed loop should reduce the load on the pump............

delgrade: the whole point with out discussions on heat exchangers is that the collectors used for swiming pools are certainly not food grade rubber, and there is concern about copper toxicity to aquatoic life is a copper collector is used.

BTW, all my fish are dying for an unknown reason and I used copper...hmmm. But it seems too soon for copper to build up; only had the fish 6 weeks.

I have the float air breather valve Steve mentioned in my closed loop (hydronic) at the highest point in the system (pic on page two of my system topic) (where the air would collect).

Many people have sent me links to posts on the forum...how can I learn to do this? I wanted to do that here.

DB, posted an answer on how to link to threads back in your thread
Here

Hi Db,
Ammonia attacks copper with a vengeance, i`ve had copper aerial wires corrode through in a month due to the birds pooping on `em

Obviously it`s a very different ammonia concentration to AP so it shouldn`t be a great problem, but as a worse case scenerio it may accelerate the process of copper leaching into the water.

Regarding the closed loop thing and hydronic pumps - does anybody know whether the ones advertised at nightingales are specifically for this and whether the flows quoted are based on not having a reservoir. I would probably want to use them with a reservoir (ie like an inline pump).

cant say for sure, VB but head is head.

Hex, good call on the ammonia accelerating leaching.

doug if you've had your system at <7 ph then copper leaching will have been much more rapid. for yabbies i think copper in the order of parts per billion is bad, fish in parts per million, so not that much really.

You MAY have found your problem. from memory it also inhibits the hemoglobin from functioning correctly?

ahhh i see i guess i should point out that in my mind a solar collector for a pool would be a coil of poly pipe on the roof i didnt really think that there was specificly made collectors my miss understanding

i know that a coil of pipe works in summer cause ive seen it done but warm water in summer is not quite the idea here so i might be sensable for once in my life and use my ears/eyes and not my mouth/ fingers

Cheers

Hmmm...there are copper test kits available for aquarium use. Might be worth $10 to get one and answer the question once and for all. Or take a water sample down to the pet store and see if they can do copper for you.

Delgrade - we have spoken a lot about the poly pipe coil method of collection also adn many of us feel that that too may be exposing our families to leached chemicals. Fact is that the basic thin poly pipe is not made to be food grade and the chance of it leaching something is only going to be higher at temperature. If you weren't running a closed system you might not be as concerned about it, but because we are, any leaching will end up in the fish and/or plants and them in our bodies. It is just an unknown we are not prepared to accept. I have always been very full on about this sort of thing, but more so than most. But my view is, what is the point of avoiding pesticides and artificial fertilisers (ie going organic) and then potentially exposing yourself to bad shit leaching from the plastics and getting cancer and shit (or much worse harming the long term health of your children). I've gotta say I have mellowed quite a bit since I started, mostly due to c=necessity, but using a poly collector shich then dumps water into the fish tank is something that there is no way I would do long term.