New System with backup needed...

[fisho]

Hi there All,
I have been reading your posts and now have a sytem with pictures that may be worth showing and getting input on.

The plants were put in last Friday.

I have two fish tanks 2000L (troughs) and four of the same for vegie beds.

It gravity feeds to a sump point which sump pump pumps through two inch poly (attempted the solar idea over 100 lineal metres - does not seem to have much effect)

The water goes into the vegie patch through 20mm blue metal and then goes out 100mm down from the top rim. This has been done so that when I 'loose' my pump on a 35 degree day the vegies have some water to draw on.

I have two keep alive bilge pumps which work off the solar panel and 12v battery.

I have the waffle pods filled with lettuce to do a few things, keep any heat in , keep the light down for algae and fish happiness that a cormoront is not perched on the tank edge. I think the peat others have been talking about may be better filling it to the top of the poly and just having a drainage hole in it. Thoughts on this one ?

I had a six foot tank which I lost some lovely barramundi when the power went out (boiled fish anyone) and so even though the system is not 'properly' made it will give me some redundancy.

This leads to me to backup systems questions, can anyone give me best value for dollar effective system?

Regards,
Richard

[GreenCow]

Welcome....can't comment on a backup system. We use gravity feed from the growbeds to the fish tank, in case we have a power outage. The GB's will continue to drain to the fish tank and provide some aeration to help with the oxygen needs. Power ususally doesn't stay off too long.

What type of plants are those? Recognize the lettuce, but the others are different.

Keep the pics coming.....like the use of the tanks on the slope.

[fisho]

Hi,
Thanks for the welcome.

The plants are silverbeet, red cabbage, green cabbage, lettuce - I went for some heavy feeders to try and get the balance right quickly.

Once every six months they do a half day maintenance session on the power.

Keen to hear anyone that has bought from

http://blueyabby.com/en/Products/default.htm

and getting hold of them...

[djs-sa]

half a day without power? um maybe a generator but automation is the costly part, battery power with solar is also expensive, I think our back ups we are using wouldn't cope with 6hours and if so hate to think what the battery will cost plus extra pumps etc. so option 1 and 2 aint that dear if u value ur hard work, that could be lost within minutes not hours.

[GreenCow]

Couldn't find too much on the company contact, but here is the address....

Australian Blue Yabby Aquaculture
6 Scott Avenue
St Albans, 3021

[GaryD]

Hi,

half a day without power? um maybe a generator but automation is the costly part, battery power with solar is also expensive, I think our back ups we are using wouldn't cope with 6hours and if so hate to think what the battery will cost plus extra pumps etc. so option 1 and 2 aint that dear if u value ur hard work, that could be lost within minutes not hours.

You can use a backup power switch of the type sold by Murray coupled with a battery, trickle charger and 12 volt pump. You could also use an ordinary genset (I bought a 750w unit from Aldi for $119) and a backup switch which drives an alarm.

While you'd have to get out of bed to start the genset (which I'd prefer anyway), this arrangement would still be a lot cheaper than an auto-start generator.

Gary

[Hamish]

Hi,

Keen to hear anyone that has bought from

http://blueyabby.com/en/Products/default.htm

and getting hold of them...

Welcome! Nice looking system you have built - well done

Those yabby people are really hard to contact - I sent them multiple emails without response - was not untill I sent them an email complaining about the lack of response that they finally gave me a phone call.

[fisho]

I had a cynic the other day say that they fish would not grow past plate size or 700 grams in my sixe tanks, has anyone done this ?

It now gives me incentive to do it.

Any thoughts on floor space versus feeding amounts that actually 'allows' them to get bigger.

Thanks for the tip Hamish.

Richard

[Hamish]

Yuo should see the silver prch in Murrays system - monsters.

[Murray]

I should add that the Big Silvers that I have are only a few that have reached that size. Much better luck with Jade Perch you will find.

My currrent batch of Silvers is like the first batch, out of 150 approx I would have 8 or 10 that are approaching plate size.
They were fingerlings late last October.
Some of them are still very small.

Silvers are a good tough forgiving fish, but Jades do much better in growing out quickly.