Bell Siphon Need to Cycle 24/7?

[Chris Moreno]

I'm a Student Sustainability Coordinator at the junior college I'm attending and I'm working on my first aquaponics system. It's going to be an outdoor system in our french biodynamic garden on campus. We're trying to get it up and cycling asap because Earth Week is right around the corner. We'll be using a solar panel with a charge controller to charge a battery which will power our water pump. I'm not a solar guy so I'm hoping my co-worker can run our AC water pump off a battery.

Does the system need to cycle throughout the night? What will happen if it doesn't?

[Matthew Smith]

How many gallons does your aquaponic system contain? I am planning on building a system that contains 400 gallons and I'm in southern France where we have plenty of sun. Your PV system sounds wonderful...but out of reach for me. Unfortunately the $200 extension cord is not an option for me as my garden is very far from grid power... 

 

Thanks,

Matthew

Rob Torcellini said:

geodesic dome

[Jim Troyer]

Rob said:       A system for my setup to run the 100 watts is 8 panels 

(245watts each),  4 deep cycle batteries, 2 charge controllers, and one

smaller charger controller for the 12V out.  Circuit breaker panels, racks

and misc cabling cost about 7 grand. 

 

**********

 

Solar PV electricity only makes sense if your location is remote or you are a

politician spending other people's money...

 

We use carbon and uranium because of the energy density.  Solar is ~10% efficient; Alcohol (corn) based fuel has 55% of the energy density of gasoline.   Yep, solar works, but there are so many better choices.

 

I am a former President of The Arizona Horizon Project

Arizona State University's Solar and Electric Car Racing Team.

 

 

 

[Matthew Smith]

I am not dead set on using solar but it seems like the most accessible option right now considering I don't have a still to start making my own alcohol. I am planning on making a homescale methane digester but I don't know how big it would have to be.

 

The thing is, for a beginner like myself, running an aquaponics system can be a bit complicated especially if we want to grow the fish food. If we start adding other systems on top of it all it just seems a bit overwhelming. We it comes down to is we are recreating a mini ecosystem that is quite complex.

 

Please point me in a more efficient, reliable, cost effective direction. I would love to know what better choices are out there so I don't have to buy a PV system!  I enjoy DIY projects so if you are aware of other energy systems that I could rely on to run some pumps I would be beyond excited.

 

All the best,

Matt

Jim Troyer said:

Rob said:       A system for my setup to run the 100 watts is 8 panels 

(245watts each),  4 deep cycle batteries, 2 charge controllers, and one

smaller charger controller for the 12V out.  Circuit breaker panels, racks

and misc cabling cost about 7 grand. 

 

**********

 

Solar PV electricity only makes sense if your location is remote or you are a

politician spending other people's money...

 

We use carbon and uranium because of the energy density.  Solar is ~10% efficient; Alcohol (corn) based fuel has 55% of the energy density of gasoline.   Yep, solar works, but there are so many better choices.

 

I am a former President of The Arizona Horizon Project

Arizona State University's Solar and Electric Car Racing Team.

 

 

 

[Matthew Smith]

I'm not a politician because I have more time on my hands than money...

 

"Yep, solar works, but there are so many better choices."

Please send me a list of better choices so I can begin researching them! 

 

Thanks,

Matt

 

 

 

[Matthew Smith]

Jim Troyer said:

 

We use carbon and uranium because of the energy density.  Solar is ~10% efficient;

 

 Solar may only be 10% efficient but when we are talking about the sun's energy that is huge! It is the storage part that we need to work on. If we had better batteries we be set. Right?

 

We are used to driving cars using petrified solar energy. The batteries we have access to today will never compare with that...if and when they do the world will be revolutionized.

 

Matt

[TCLynx]

If you have land but not power and are wanting to go as self sufficient as possible.  Perhaps instead of a small closed aquaponics system.  You might be better off looking into permaculture.  More working with nature to create the most efficient means of growing the most of what you need using the least ongoing outside inputs possible.  If you are wanting to grow fish using the least amount of power and outside food possible, then a more extensive pond system where natural food would be available may be a far better choice.  You may still be able to supplement feed enough to send some pond water into some AP like plant beds to grow some veggies with it but at this point some wicking beds might be a better choice if the nutrient load is too low to do traditional recirculating aquaponics but you still want some of the water saving benefits of the aquaponics.

Matthew Smith said:

I am not dead set on using solar but it seems like the most accessible option right now considering I don't have a still to start making my own alcohol. I am planning on making a homescale methane digester but I don't know how big it would have to be.

 

The thing is, for a beginner like myself, running an aquaponics system can be a bit complicated especially if we want to grow the fish food. If we start adding other systems on top of it all it just seems a bit overwhelming. We it comes down to is we are recreating a mini ecosystem that is quite complex.

 

Please point me in a more efficient, reliable, cost effective direction. I would love to know what better choices are out there so I don't have to buy a PV system!  I enjoy DIY projects so if you are aware of other energy systems that I could rely on to run some pumps I would be beyond excited.

 

All the best,

Matt

Jim Troyer said:

Rob said:       A system for my setup to run the 100 watts is 8 panels 

(245watts each),  4 deep cycle batteries, 2 charge controllers, and one

smaller charger controller for the 12V out.  Circuit breaker panels, racks

and misc cabling cost about 7 grand. 

 

**********

 

Solar PV electricity only makes sense if your location is remote or you are a

politician spending other people's money...

 

We use carbon and uranium because of the energy density.  Solar is ~10% efficient; Alcohol (corn) based fuel has 55% of the energy density of gasoline.   Yep, solar works, but there are so many better choices.

 

I am a former President of The Arizona Horizon Project

Arizona State University's Solar and Electric Car Racing Team.