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I have access to some 250watt solar panels, and would like to get a DC pump.

 

Do I have to pump at night (for the plants)? for now lets assuming the fish are a type that would be ok, or that I have a large air stone and a air pump for night time.

 

that would be for a 10X20x2 foot tank and matching volume beds -- ourside with a green house cover.

 

Thanks,

 

Brian.

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I started out pumping 24/7 and have now started to reduce, with supplemental aeration.  The water tests will tell the tale - so long as ammonia and nitrite stay low, there shouldn't be a problem, provided the gravel doesn't dry out, IMO. 

Two feet deep tank is considered to be shallow.  It may work perfectly well but deeper is more common.

I have 50 rainbow trout about 3 " long in a 110 gallon tank I only use the pump during the daylight hours and then I switch to an air pump at night. During the day the water returning back to the fish aerates the water. I did it mainly for noise control. At night the water draining back into the fish tank made alot of noise the airpump is more quite. I have it setup on two timers. I do the same for my small system with 5 goldfish as well. If I think the fish need more air when they get bigger I will just leave the airpump on all the time and turn the pump on and off for the plants at night. I have not notice any problems with the plants.

I was thinking I might be over enginering the system with trying to store solar power in bateries to run the water and or air pump at night. The best system is the simplest one, right?

 

What if I move the sump tank above the beds, and simpley fill, or over fill, the sump in the evening and then let that slowly drain at night.  Say I had one or two 55 gallon drums as a sump a foot or two above my ebb/flow beds.  Whould going from a flood every hour to once every 6 hours still keep the oxygen levels up?  probably not....but maybe.

 

What about just dripping the sump tank water directly to the FT at night. would 4 to 8 gallons per hour falling 2 feet break the surface tention enough to keep the oxygen levels up at night?

 

Brian.

Have you considered adding a windmill generator or a compressed air tank/pump for air circulation at night? The fish still need to circulate the stuff at the bottom to get oxygenated as well. You can do this as minimalist as you want but for best results and happy fish, yada yada yada...

Did you ever try the elevated sump? With gravity flow at night?

Brian Mouncer said:

I was thinking I might be over enginering the system with trying to store solar power in bateries to run the water and or air pump at night. The best system is the simplest one, right?

 

What if I move the sump tank above the beds, and simpley fill, or over fill, the sump in the evening and then let that slowly drain at night.  Say I had one or two 55 gallon drums as a sump a foot or two above my ebb/flow beds.  Whould going from a flood every hour to once every 6 hours still keep the oxygen levels up?  probably not....but maybe.

 

What about just dripping the sump tank water directly to the FT at night. would 4 to 8 gallons per hour falling 2 feet break the surface tention enough to keep the oxygen levels up at night?

 

Brian.

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