Can anyone help to lower the water pump wattage ?

[Squall Leonheart]

Hi 

I am newbie in aquaponic. I just started 3 months ago. I love to see the plants are growing good.

But what I didn't expect is the electricity cost that come from the water pump.

I use 1 water pump that is rated 320 Watt 7000l/h. And I average for 1 month .... the electricity cost is so high. Much more higher than the price of the vegetables that we plant.

Can anyone help me how to lower the wattage ? or should I buy new pumps with lower watt ? 

If I want to get a Solar Sun Powered water pump how much will it cost ? will it better choice  to run on Solar System ? How many Battery that we must have ? How big is the solar panel ?

surely there are too many question. 

hopefully that anyone in forum can help.

thanks

[George]

I use a Quiet One 4000 (50W) with a tank that is about 1500L.  Do you know how many liters of water you need to pump per hour?

http://www.aquaponiclynx.com/products/aquaponic-systems-and-compone...

[Squall Leonheart]

Hi George ........... 

I have 3x3 metres square fish pond. But I cannot calculate how many liters per hour that need to be efficient.

The reason that I choose this pump is like to be investing in 1 pump for longer period , just in case that I want to make the aquaponic farm much more than now. But maybe I'm wrong ? It cost much for electiricy right now.

George said:

I use a Quiet One 4000 (50W) with a tank that is about 1500L.  Do you know how many liters of water you need to pump per hour?

http://www.aquaponiclynx.com/products/aquaponic-systems-and-compone...

[Jonathan Kadish NYC AA Chair]

You have not provided much information about your system... my guess is your pump is grossly over sized.

Is your fish tank 7000lt?

If it is you are quite ambitious to have started with such a large system!

You should only be looking to turn over the volume of your fish tank every hour.

So Just how big is your fish tank?

[Bradly]

Like George... I have a quiet one 4000 pump. I have a 280 gallon fish tank and a 160 gallon sump tank right next to it.

My 4 growbeds (IBC Totes...12" of gravel in them) are emptying about 3 times an hour (which means about 480 gallons an hour goes to the beds and comes back to the sump tank). 

I don't even pump all the water that the  Quiet One 4000 puts out into the fish tank....  I have a alternate pipe and valve that allows me to divert about 1/3 of it back into the sump that it just came from without ever going to the fish tank.

As long as your pump isn't lifting water more than 6'... the Quiet One 4000 is supposed to be able to handle 528 Gallons Per Hour... It's enough for my system by a long shot.

 

 

 

[Squall Leonheart]

Hi Jonathan

My fish tank is long 3x width 3x height 1.2 metres . If not mistaken that would be 10,800 litres. My growbed is using gutter that i fill them with gravel. I have 6 gutters with 12 metres long each. I pump the water from the fish tank my gutters and go back to the tank. There is still too much water too waste (not used in gutters) and I throw the unused water back to the tank. The gravel height is only 10 - 12 cm. Sorry for my explanation. I really don't know how to measure how much water efficiently to pump to my grow beds.

Right now I try to timer my pump so that it would not run continuesly 24 hour to lower my electricity.

thx

Jonathan Kadish said:

You have not provided much information about your system... my guess is your pump is grossly over sized.

Is your fish tank 7000lt?

If it is you are quite ambitious to have started with such a large system!

You should only be looking to turn over the volume of your fish tank every hour.

So Just how big is your fish tank?

[Jonathan Kadish NYC AA Chair]

How wide are the gutters? Essentially I'm asking what is the volume of your grow beds? A photo of this set up would be very informative.

Squall Leonheart said:

Hi Jonathan

My fish tank is long 3x width 3x height 1.2 metres . If not mistaken that would be 10,800 litres. My growbed is using gutter that i fill them with gravel. I have 6 gutters with 12 metres long each. I pump the water from the fish tank my gutters and go back to the tank. There is still too much water too waste (not used in gutters) and I throw the unused water back to the tank. The gravel height is only 10 - 12 cm. Sorry for my explanation. I really don't know how to measure how much water efficiently to pump to my grow beds.

Right now I try to timer my pump so that it would not run continuesly 24 hour to lower my electricity.

thx

Jonathan Kadish said:

You have not provided much information about your system... my guess is your pump is grossly over sized.

Is your fish tank 7000lt?

If it is you are quite ambitious to have started with such a large system!

You should only be looking to turn over the volume of your fish tank every hour.

So Just how big is your fish tank?

[Squall Leonheart]

The Gutters is about 11 cm. 

Can you help me count which pump is good for now ? and maybe for a little expanding in the future.?

this my aquaponic photo that I uploaded.

http://community.theaquaponicsource.com/photo/jwl-aquaponic-early-w...

Jonathan Kadish said:

How wide are the gutters? Essentially I'm asking what is the volume of your grow beds? A photo of this set up would be very informative.

Squall Leonheart said:

Hi Jonathan

My fish tank is long 3x width 3x height 1.2 metres . If not mistaken that would be 10,800 litres. My growbed is using gutter that i fill them with gravel. I have 6 gutters with 12 metres long each. I pump the water from the fish tank my gutters and go back to the tank. There is still too much water too waste (not used in gutters) and I throw the unused water back to the tank. The gravel height is only 10 - 12 cm. Sorry for my explanation. I really don't know how to measure how much water efficiently to pump to my grow beds.

Right now I try to timer my pump so that it would not run continuesly 24 hour to lower my electricity.

thx

Jonathan Kadish said:

You have not provided much information about your system... my guess is your pump is grossly over sized.

Is your fish tank 7000lt?

If it is you are quite ambitious to have started with such a large system!

You should only be looking to turn over the volume of your fish tank every hour.

So Just how big is your fish tank?

[Russell Hopper]

75% of pumps, unless they are considered crossflow, use more amps with the more flow you have. It is better to have a pump that is oversized. Example, you have a 2000 gal/min pump and you have the discharge valve all the way open. The pump will draw more amps, just for round numbers, lets say it pulls 2 amps with the discharge all the way open. If you take that same pump and close the dischrage valve half way or 50%, your amp draw on that same pump will be only 1 amp. The cost of electricity isn't from voltage, it is from amperage.  The best practice is to refer to your pump curve that was included in you pump packaging and directions. A pump curve will usually show you a reflection between amps used at certain flows and the best efficient point where the pump runs the best.

[Bradly]

Great tip Russel,  I'll have to check out my pump curve and learn about this too!

 

[Jonathan Kadish NYC AA Chair]

Thanks for uploading the photo. You have a number of issues to think about.

1) Your fish tank is maybe 10-20 times too big for the volume of those gutters.

2) You have no solids filtration so your fish poo will inevitably clog up the gutters.

3) The amount of filtration you will get will only support a small number of fish compared to the size of the tank.

4) If you loose power and the gutters dry up you don't have a lot of time to react before you lose your plants

For this gutter set up you could probably use a tank of only say 400-500 liters which you could obviously use a much smaller pump that would only draw about 25 watts. For your first system this will be a learning experience but you will probably want to try a new design before long.

[Squall Leonheart]

Hi 

Thank you for your concerning. I will try to change my system. The media in gutter is now covered with a kind of algae. Should I get rid that Algae ? 

I also have another problem. I have this cucumber plant. It already fruit , BUT ........... the fruit seems 'matured' in the early or small size. These fruits also seemed ROT ....... and when I touch it , It would easily blowed. 

I googling and comes up with it is called 'blossom end rot' ? They suggest me to add calcium. 

Is it okay if I put a liquid plant fertilizer into the fish tank ? or should I just spray the liquid fertilizer on the leaves only ?

For the electricity issue , I decided to change my pump to a lower wattage. And I also put timer to on or off.

thanks

Jonathan Kadish said:

Thanks for uploading the photo. You have a number of issues to think about.

1) Your fish tank is maybe 10-20 times too big for the volume of those gutters.

2) You have no solids filtration so your fish poo will inevitably clog up the gutters.

3) The amount of filtration you will get will only support a small number of fish compared to the size of the tank.

4) If you loose power and the gutters dry up you don't have a lot of time to react before you lose your plants

For this gutter set up you could probably use a tank of only say 400-500 liters which you could obviously use a much smaller pump that would only draw about 25 watts. For your first system this will be a learning experience but you will probably want to try a new design before long.

[Jonathan Kadish NYC AA Chair]

To avoid the algae you need to keep the top 1-2 inches of the media dry so the sun doesn't hit the wet part. This issue is going to be ongoing with these shallow gutters. As for the Cucumbers I have not grown them, so I am not an expert, but I believe that there are male and female flowers and only the female produce fruit. The male's may look like the beginning of fruit but will drop. Google male and female flowers to find the experts on this subject. As for a calcium suppliment you can crush up egg shells (calcium carbonate) and put them in a net like bag submerged in your tank. This will also help to slowly raise the ph of the system.