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Backup and Off Grid Systems and Solutions - Aeration - Pumps
I thought I would add some links to some solar and other backup and off grid solutions. Solar Aerator
Solar Pumps
Switch over - Backup
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by TCLynx on
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Great links there Michael,
I do want to remind people that most "solar" pumping situations are designed such that the pump will run to top up a tank for short periods and generally only during the day. They are usually not designed for continuous pumping, nor are they designed to handle pumping all night long. That is what my research several years ago told me.
I would love to be proven wrong. But everyone, please don't expect a $30 solar fountain pump do do anything more than make an ornamental pond look pretty when the sun is shining. Please don't expect that poor little solar fountain pump to support a 300 gallon fish tank with 20 pounds of fish in it!!!!!!
That said, I haven't really read through Cosmo's links here yet, hopefully there are some great innovations at reasonable prices that could help make off grid systems more affordable.
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Permalink Reply by Sahib Punjabi on
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Thank you Michael for these informative links. Will see how and when I can incorporate into my research system :-)
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Permalink Reply by M Cosmo on
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Good Point TC. These are just some links that could provide some of the elements of a good solution.
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Was just looking at the spotfree site there. Kinda interesting, really hard to read though. I'm curious about their charge controller. The air pump only delivers 0.1 CFM of air which in my estimation is probably only a tenth of what is needed for a 400 gallon heavily stocked thank.
However, if I can find out a little more about the actually solar panels and charge controller, the kit might be worth it just for those.
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Ok a little more searching finally brought me to a page with the battery recommendation. When they keep saying any car battery will work, they actually mean any car battery so long as it is
RECOMMENDED BATTERY FOR ALL UNITS IS ANY LOW PROFILE (max 7.5"x6"x16") and rated at 95Ah.
So what that would actually be
Any Marine or RV 12 volt will work. provided it is the right size. Now I really want more info about the charge controller since I know that a charger that will properly charge a gel or glass matt battery is actually very likely to damage a regular car battery and a regular car battery charger is probably not going to work to charge one of the sealed deep cycle batteries. So I hope their charge controller is either 1, far more advanced than most normal battery chargers or 2, they do a good job of explaining what kind of battery people need to use before they ship their product to customers.
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The first three links are all to the same site it looks like. Those appear to be the most inexpensive solar solutions.
The Basementwatchdog site is interesting. I would just caution people to research the pumps before trusting them to your fish tank. Most pumps that are not meant for fish systems, are not really safe for them long term. They often contain materials that will corrode and cause the pump to fail early in a system that might be salted and they could also contain oil and if the seal fails, could kill fish. When you are only pumping out your basement sump a pump with oil isn't such a big deal but when you are using the pump for you fish, you want something oil less.
Aside from those concerns those little systems could provide a handy means of backing up your current pump (especially since most of us are using pumps that use far less power than those do.) Now if only that could be hooked up to the solar panels.
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Solar bag charges mobile phone
Although a novel concept, this development could be the start of "micro" solar chargers...if they can charge a laptop battery, I am sure that they can help in running and charging a backup battery for low wattage / amp air pumps & pond pumps. Please share if you know of other such developments :-)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-11483914?ref=nf
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Definitely going to be very dependent on starting DO levels and water temperature and of course the fish load or oxygen demand.
Anyone running near "MAX" stocking for a system is likely to have the HSM (heart stopping moment) with even a relatively short shut down.
Many people with very lightly stocked systems can easily shut down overnight, especially during cold weather since the water holds more oxygen and the fish metabolism is slower too.
With tilapia, I've left small fingerlings and fry in a totally unfiltered duckweed tank before with almost no aeration and they were doing fine for weeks till the water temperature got too cold and they became frozen fish treats for the chickens to snack on.
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Wow, this sounds ambitious. Will be a great resource though.
Kobus Jooste said:As part of the work, I will try to find the resting metabolic rate data for Mozambique tilapia, and also keep very good track of the feeding rates in order to generate a picture of how much loading took place in terms of fish metabolism, solids addition and dissolved nutrients supplied to the gravel beds. For night-time experiments, the system will not be shut down immediately after a feed - rather 2 - 3 hours after last feed. From there, one can keep track of water quality and attempt to generate "Oxygen Demand curves" for the system. Hopefully this information could then be adapted for other systems, although I think it will be highly system specific.
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I'm very glad to hear you will be double checking your test equipment and I hope it is in good order.
Thanks so much for your willingness to do these tests and share the results.
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Permalink Reply by nathaniel taylor on
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I like this one too as a general pond circulator... I also find that if it has a patent # look it up you can learn a lot about how to make your own.
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