Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi all,

Thanks for the great site!
I have been learning about fish keeping for a few years now, but still a newbie in gardening. Love the idea of AP, and have selected an area in my new house to build my first system.

I can understand the Pros and Cons of continuous flow system and flood and drain system, however to leave the pump off during winter night doesn’t seem to sounds right in terms of fish keeping:

Pros
Safe electricity
Reduce heat loss from water circling through cold GB
No noise from pump(s) and water flow

Cons
Fish tank have no filtration, ammonia will start to build up
Reduced DO due to no water flow
Bacteria population will drop overnight due to lack of food to process and GB start to dry out
System may have to go through a mini cycle to catch up with the ammonia build up overnight


If you are a fish, would you rather sleep in cold water or water with ammonia and low DO?

Open for discussion

Cheers,
Simon

Don't think there are many that leave the pump off over night.... some that have tried it (for one reason or another) have now reverted to running it continuously or at least permanently on via timer....

Those that do leave their pumps off overnite.... always provide (or should) a seperate air pump to provide oxygenation to the fish tank.

Any ammonia build up over night is rapidly processed by the system when the flood and drain cycle re-commences.... and the growbeds/bacteria are fine overnight.....

Keep the pump going overnight. Low DO can be fatal in the very near term.

i used to have my pump turned off overnight but had an air stone in the tank to provide oxygen.

I have only started running pump 24hr since i have been keeping trout.

I think bacteria will be killed off more readily by anerobic situations like if you turned off an aquarium cannister filter than if you let a 500L grow bed drain. remember, the media will be wet if you dig about an inch down and will have near O2 saturation due to the air voids. just my 20 cents.

I never had ammo / nitrite probs due to switching the pump off, but to be honest i never specifically tested in the morning.

Just my thoughts on the matter here but.... bacteria are THE masters of survival and variety. They live inside nuclear reactors and eat stainless steel bars. Other merely survive on mudflats that are left exposed for hours with the tides and then flooded with fresh or marine water....
The thing is we all breed bacteria. Most of us do it by killing the ones that can't handle the maintence regime or conditions, and then feeding up the survivors.
I have yet to meet the person who could actually tell me the types of bugs living in THEIR filter and their temp/o2 requirements. Basically unless you test for something you will never know if it's there and if you don't know what to test for that makes it hard.
Once a system is matured, every last bit of surface area is usually crawling with bacteria that thrive in those conditions.
If you can provide consistant conditions, suitable bacteria will eventually arrive and colonise.
In many places bacteria build up in main water pipes over decades. Despite the chlorinated/chloramined water they are able to convert chloramine added at pumping stations into nitrite by the end of the pipe line when it comes out into peoples glasses.
End of the day the most effective bacteria to convert ammonia and nitrite to nitrate like warm well oxygenated water, so thats the conditions I usually try to provide for mine living in filters. As long as they stay damp they are usually fine.
All my filters get about 5 minutes downtime a week when I clean them. Rest of the time they soldier on.

Realise that had nothing to do with growbeds..... but ya as far as fish go my pumps stay on.

very good post

Thanks for the replies guys and girls



Don, I love reading your posts (You are a master of fish keeping)


Let's keep the pump up at night, both the fish and the bacteria will enjoy the consistant conditions they live in