Aquaponic systems (let's experiment together!)

[Island_Dan]

Yeah definitely an amazing learning experience. I visited the solar lab of the local community college which now has an aquaponic class which they do each quarter. Here are the pictures of their setup.

They are growing mainly lettuce and herbs and they have such a high stocking density of tilapia it is insane! I questioned them on it and they told me that tilapia are territorial and the high stocking density calms them down and stops them from killing each other. I may try to source tilapia fingerlings from them as they run a breeding program also.

Anyway what are the solar panels in your picture doing?

 

[Aji hombre]

Hah. those photovoltaics are little more than a fancy sun shade for the fish tank. They are 40 watt panels that were on sale at Harbor Freight. They charge a deep cycle battery (135 amp-hours) that powers a DC pump. Fully charged and with sunny days, it will run for about 2.6 days before shutting off automatically, and I have to switch back to grid power before that happens. It takes about 3 days to get the battery recharged (depending on how much sun we get). I have an AC pump in the tank as well, and I alternate between the two--off grid DC for a day or two, then grid power for two to four days.
 
Definitely another one of those learning experiences. I've got a better understanding of what kind of bang I can get from panels and batteries now. The panels and charge controller were not that expensive, but adding the costs of the battery and the pump, this is definitely not saving me any money. I'll pay about $12 less per year in electricity bills than I would running only from the grid with my AC pump.

 

[Island_Dan]

What size pump (volts&amps, watts), size battery in amp hours and exact location. I can then tell you what size array you will need to run that system wholly on solar. I am a solar installer and have lots of interest in that stuff.

 

[Aji hombre]

Thanks, Dan.
I am realizing that so long as this AP unit is within reach of an extension cord, there's no good reason for me to pursue going totally off-grid. The panels were mostly an impulse purchase and a challenge I wanted to test myself with.
 
But since you're interested, the pump is 1.7 amps (rated for 5-13V) , my current battery is 12V/135 amp hours, current panels are 3X 15W, and my location is (more or less) N 33° 30' 6.3288", W 117° 39' 45.1872". It'll be fun to see if your numbers match up with mine. When I took into account minimal expected winter insolation and running the pump 24/7, plus allowances for inefficiencies, it was almost comical how much more $$ (and SPACE) I would need to put into this to get at most a $25 per year electric bill savings.
 

What size pump (volts&s, watts), size battery in amp hours and exact location. I can then tell you what size array you will need to run that system wholly on solar. I am a solar installer and have lots of interest in that stuff.

 

[Island_Dan]

You will need 128 watts of panels to keep that thing off grid 24/7. Your 1.7 amp pump will pull 40.8 amps in 24 hours which is what your battery capacity down to 50% will have to be, which you obviously have a lot more than that.
So that at 12 volts is 489.6 watts, de rated 85% to be safe which will account for charge controller efficiencies as well as voltage drop in wires, possible shading etc and that puts you at requiring 576 watts per day being made. Your isolation for December at latitude +15 degrees is 4.5 peak sun hours which when divided by 576 means you need an array that will produce 128 watts every hour to keep up with the pumps drain on the battery every 24 hours.
 
I will double check those figures in a bit but that is about what you need.
 
Do you have a link to that pump? Sounds like something I need to get! All the pumps I have found to run my system will draw 3.5 amps and require almost a 300 watt array to take mine off grid.
 
http://www.amazon.com/RENOGY-Monocrystalline-Photovoltaic-Battery-Charging/dp/B009Z6CW7O/ref=sr_1_1?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1375417696&sr=1-1&keywords=100+watt+solar+panel
 
Depending on what the voltage is of the 15 watt panels, you may be able to hook that 100 watt panel up in parallel, take an average of the voltages and add up the amperage to make about 128 watts...

I changed the name of the thread now also. This should be a place for all of us to experiment and have fun with aquaponics.

 

[Aji hombre]

Here's the pump I bought:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1300L-H-12V-DC-2Phase-Brushless-Water-Acid-Oil-Submersible-Pump-High-Performance-/290730678008?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_2&hash=item43b0e616f8
 
I chose this out of all the different Chinese-made DC pumps because it was cheap, had about the right flow rate for my system (something over 400 gph), and had a crazy amount of hours (30,000, as I recall). you could probably find something smaller, too. (Or bigger.)

 

[Island_Dan]

Ah it is submersible! My current pump is 550 gph so this may work. It is just about 350 gph.. Did your calculations get you to about the same wattage of panels needed?
 
I may go with this one
 
http://www.ebay.com/itm/12V-DC-Cooling-Brushless-Motor-Water-Pump-1620L-H-22W-Brand-NEW/130951327708?_trksid=p2047675.m1850&_trkparms=aid%3D222002%26algo%3DSIC.FIT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D17115%26meid%3D277090582398486374%26pid%3D100011%26prg%3D8016%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D5%26sd%3D141006865838%26

 

[Aji hombre]

You're pumping that much water? I thought your set up was smaller than mine. I've got 275 gallons (full tote) on the fish tank and about 100 gallons (fluctuates with the flood and drain) in the sump. Probably better for your perch to have more flow.
 
Yeah my calculations were right about where yours are. I think a grid connection is really the only way someone like me should be considering going solar. We have a new lab building at work (moving in next week!) which is a portable unit that was installed in a day. It came with enough solar panels to be energy neutral, but with fluctuations in insolation (even here in Southern Cal) it would be silly to do anything but a grid tie.

 

[Island_Dan]

I only specialize in grid tied systems. I actually have to fly to St. Lucia in September to install a 5KW and a 6KW grid tied system on two residences. Bimodal and off grid systems are far too expensive and not reliable enough for locations with grid connectivity especially given our current battery technology. We can only guarantee 8-10 year life expectancy on deep cycle batteries if drawn down to no more than 50% so you need a battery bank twice as large and twice as expensive just to have a system that will last you any decent amount of time and with utility rates so low in America driving payback to 30+ years, you have to replace batteries before your system even starts saving you money. In the Caribbean with much higher utility rates, payback happens shortly after 3 years which makes it much more worth while.

Anyway my pump is so big because I have a 5 foot head on it to lift from the sump to the grow beds and then it splits at the top to feed both grow beds. I also had to account for a certain flow rate to ensure that my auto siphons would function and not just trickle water. I am also over stocked so flowing water through the system faster helps with ammonia and nitrite buildup.

The gray fish are perch and gold are the feeders I always had in there.

 

[Helvete]

Nice setup, I have been running an aquaponics rig since last winter and have had some amazing results.  I'm only using ornamental fish and keep everything indoors but I really enjoy tinkering with it on a regular basis.  I'm new to this site but I went ahead and posted a new thread based on my observations on safe plant stress for piquancy without stressing the fish.