Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Yes Rupert, please lets keep on track, that doesn’t help psychochooks problem.

Murray, please, you have been asked not to post more links to your products, you have many links from this forum to your products, any further ones will be deleted. You have also made it abundantly clear that you have very little regard for both myself and this forum, though I don’t think I need to repeat your comments in public.

Back to business…

Psychochook, I would be very careful about extending your cord, 240V underwater is definitely not something to play with.. Also you must be careful about what heatshrink you use, there are many different types, most are not for underwater use.. The cord I had done was reasonably close to the pump, but it still didn’t help me much.. After making many systems using both the float switch and timers, nowadays I will always go for the timer on the pump in the fish tank. One of the main reasons is that over time, as water evaporates and transpires from your system you end up with not enough water to raise the fish tank level high enough to switch the pump on. When this happened the system will stop cycling, and if you don’t have any other aeration in your fish tank, the fish will start suffering very quickly.. With a timer the water will cycle regardless, and the system is not as dependant on the water volume.

Joel - are you worried about what would happen if the sump pump failed and the fish tank pump doesn't have a float on it to stop pumping when the water gets below a certain mark. Though I guess you still have it so that it would go off if it got really low - in which case the shortness of the existing switch suits.

I'm not too worried about about that VB. You could put the pump on the bottom of the fish tank, and then unclip the existing float switch and raise it as high as it will go, then cable tie it at the maximum height. This would mean that if you ever did have a sump pump failure, the fish tank would still remain half full..

Yep - that's what I'd be inclined to do if using that type of design.

Of course when raising the float switch to the maximum height, you have to be sure that is still has enough "play" so that it can switch off should the water level ever get that low.

Wouldn't you just let it float?

EB, that's what I've done with the new pump I got. It has a built in float switch that stops pumping when the water is still most of the way up the pump (about 20cm) and it starts pumping above the pump height.

Simon, you don't need to extend the float cable unless you are wanting to START the pump when the water is "very" high above the pump..... oh bugger, I just re-read some of the other posts.... you have a tall skinny tank, you DO need to start pumping very high above the pump....
What I was saying works very well for a sump tank.

Now I'm confused. My sump pumps that I have in my grey water pit and stuff start pumping when float is extended (ie is floating high) and tun off when float gets low. Therefore - if the float was always extended because water level is much higher than extended length of float switch, wouldn't the pump be on all the time except if water fell dramatically (eg in a failure situation). The timer could then regulate the on/off cycles with the float as the failure (tank draining) pump cut off.

not float totaly freely, but have the float cable attached as high as you can.. if its free floating, then the pump wont switch off till the tank is empty..

Yep, sounds right to me VB..

If you splice in a length of cord then seal it up with an epoxy resin and cover that all with a few layers of shrink tubing you should be good to go.
Not recommended unless your confident in your work.
Id think a timer as EB suggested would be the better way to go.

Der...I'm getting it now :slaps head:

this is what i came up with to solve some of them problems. it can not drain the tank, and no power underwater.
[img][img]http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a63/meancoyote/100_2642.jpg[/img][/img]

I think someones opened a can of worms and the fish are biting! .Stealing site a moment,sorry ,just hoping someone will go to my site and give me an opinion

Maybe tie a weight to the float,then extend it to another float? Counterbalanced that way ,but not sure about turning off!

Ok all,

Thanks heaps for your posts. In the end I have not extended the float. I had a chat with a guy from an aquarium and he gave me 2 good reasons, one of which has been raised a couple if times in replies.

1 - If you cut the cable you immediately void any warranty.

2 - If the seal is not perfect then you can end up with water charged with electricity. This in the end was the main factor. I hadn't considered the safety factor. As soon as he pointed that out I know that it was not an option. With electricity, one flash and you are ash!

So, in the end here is my solution....

The idea is that the pump is sitting on a PVC pipe with gooves cut out at the bottom. By doing this I can have the water sucked up from the bottom, and hopefully solid waste will also get sucked up. The other advantage is that I have drilled a couple of small holes just below the rubber. If the float switch fails, when the water gets below the holes, it should stop it from sucking up water, ensuring that there is water left for the fish to try to survive in.....

Quite happy with the solution in the end. Have a look at my posting on the Members System forum to see the final product.