Self-Sustaining Aquaponics System

Discussion in 'Planting, growing, nurturing Plants' started by Samwise87, Mar 14, 2011.

  1. Samwise87

    Samwise87 Junior Member

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    hi everyone,
    im currently designing an Aquaponics system out of an ibc container, a header tank, two bell siphons, and a pump on a float switch or timer, to save power.

    basically the pump will fill up the header tank and switch off, then the bell siphon floods the grow bed, triggering the grow bed bell siphon and the cycle begins again.

    In the true spirit of permaculture i want to have the system as fully self sufficient as possible.

    my idea is to hook up solar panels (1 or 2) to a couple of deep cycle batteries which will run the pump and an auto-feeder. the panels should be able to charge one battery while the other is running the pump

    my problem is that im not sure how to go about this, and im really hoping that someone can give me a hand designing the system and choosing the components or lead me in the right direction of where to find info on how to create this kind of system

    any help would be greatly appreciated.
    Cheers, Sam
     
  2. Dreamie

    Dreamie Junior Member

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    You would be better advised to look here for aquaponics systems;
    https://www.backyardaquaponics.com/

    If it is a simple set up the following should do, 8W solar panel and pump. Will give you a maximum head of 2m and 800l/h (probably more like 100l/h at 2m head).

    https://cgi.ebay.com.au/Huge-8W-Hea...pt=AU_Gardening_Equipment&hash=item19c3e1496d

    A bigger issue than the electricity is the food supply. I would look at ways to reduce your food supply. You could be going through $5 - $6 of fish food a week or more while even if you get a 200 Watt pump you would only be looking at $1 - $2 a week in electricity.

    A few ideas are to look at are a microponics system (feed worms to fish and use worm wee in system), a duckweed pond, Black Soldier Fly Larvae etc. Personally I would look at ways to reduce most the other inputs before I look at the electricity as going solar can be a large cost and you would still want mains backup.
     
  3. adrians

    adrians Junior Member

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    as a start, you should only need one battery. The same one can be charging and be powering the pump.. unless you need extra storage in that case you might connect more than one battery in parrallel.. sorry, I haven't set up such a system
     
  4. Samwise87

    Samwise87 Junior Member

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    thanks guys for your interest and opinions, much appreciated :)

    i understand the initial cost of the panel and control system may far outweigh the benefits, however this project is really something i can cut my teeth on and start to dabble into the finer arts of sustainable living.

    in addition to the solar panel i am looking into vertical axis wind turbines or savonius rotors hooked up to a generator and the solar panels, and also a scaled down conventional windmill driving a small pump to fill the header tank...

    these ideas will always require fine tuning and tweaking to ensure efficiency an i am by no means saying that these "contraptions" i intend to butcher together will run at a high efficiency, rather i want to prove to myself that these ideas can perform at a small scale and could be implemented on a larger system.

    as an electrician turned robotics engineering student, i think i should be able to cobble something together and the point of keeping it extra low voltage (0-50V), aside from the safety factor, is so anyone can work on the system without holding an electrical licence (at least in victoria anyway).

    in terms of food for the system, i intend to try a vermiponics setup to grow duckweed and some as yet undecided plant that the fish could eat... this is all very exciting at the moment and i cant wait to get started and run some tests...

    So, this weekend im actually getting my arse into gear and im going to build a small savonius rotor and hook it up to an old vcr motor ive got lying around, i know its a bit of a "hit and hope" strategy but meh, ive gotta start somewhere, ill keep everyone posted as to how that goes :)

    Cheers, Sam
     

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