Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Tilapitopia 3.0

Phil,

Not that I have found, I have been taking samples and the Ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels are great. 0,0,2 PPM lately, and the PH remains at 7.4-7.6. The temps are 80-82F. As we have added more fish, I expect to see different levels, but that will be because the extra food. The media is rated for 3-6 pounds of food a day and we will be nowhere near those levels, so I expect good numbers going forward.

Sounds great Brian.

Do you think the LED lights add anything to the green water production?, or is the spectrum just not there? Just never looked that close at LED other than for control stuff.

I have some 6500K 99.8% spectrum fluorescent lights left over from the Florida Building (that was at my shop), those should work pretty good. Also have some 2' fixtures with similar bulbs that I use in my mini green house.

Maybe I'll give the green water a whirl in one of my 40G breeder tanks. Like you say, the learning curve is up there, and I'll need GW for future plans.

Thanks!!!

Brian,

Is the green water something you are propagating or did it just show up?

Bill,

It's intentional. Brian described his intentions, and he can fill you in more.

Typically, it's for first feeding and more with some species that don't readily take to prepared feeds after their yolk sac is absorbed. Food source if you will, that's built into the system that the fish are natural to.

Really kinda neat, but think there might need to be some production control??? I could never get over the thought that GW could eventually whack a biofilter, but with an MBBR, could be a mute point. Although still suspect some cling on value in the overall scheme.

If Brian say's it's working well, I'll buy that.

Thanks! So how do you go about growing your own green water? I apologize if the question has already been answered but I could not find it.... but I am old and easily distracted.

Light, just like your pond grows algae. That's what GW is.

If you take Tramadol, your attention span is all of 15 seconds

Interesting. 40 years ago when I had many aquariums, I never got green water. Must be a difference in filtration. Back then IIRC it was activated charcoal, filter floss and lots of aeration gave you gin clear water.

Light spectrum.

Let Brian fill us in.

That would be an improvement for me. Where do I get this Tramadol?

Phil , Bill and all,

My lights are setup to grow green water, and like phil said it is the temp of the bulbs that matters. My white LEDs are 7500K which should be great to produce Green water. Also the Florescent lights are of a proper temp and should add a lot of light into the tanks. Its about the temp of the light produced. If you look at the light algae likes and add it to your tanks, you will grow it. A side benefit of the algae is the fact that it uses nitrate for food. Nitrate is a by product of the bacteria using the ammonia produced by the fish (ammonia, nitrite,nitrate). The ammonia is produced by the fish metabolizing their food. The nitrogen cycle.

I could try to keep the water clear, or I can promote green water and use its benefits. Yes I have to clean the tanks better at the end of the season, but that is a small price to pay for the protection and production.

John, consult your doctor if you can remember this post that long.

Brian - Great info!

Is it possible to overdo the green water?

I'll check with our lighting guy's at work and see what they have in LED. I know they install a lot of them.

A salesman brought in a demo unit that has a 120Vac control module and you can control the intensity with a 0-10V analog signal, or a dimmer switch, but with analog you don't get that "click on" effect.

Just an observation with LED bulbs I purchased at the local Ace. They seem to have issues with my dimmer switch and either pulsate or pop off. My regular bulbs don't do that.

I keep my light on all the time in my tank room at a lw level as any turning on and off of the light causes the fish to panic and bounce off the tank walls. Befre I had netting over the tank I had some jump out.

Hey Cecil,

FWIW the LED bulbs I buy typically state on the package whether they can be used with a dimmer switch or not.

I was talking entire LED fixture assemblies and not just bulbs. I know we sell fluorescent bulbs and have contracts with a number of institutions and banks to replace bulbs (need to be disposed of properly, which cost money), but never heard of anyone just screwing in an LED bulb to replace a CF or incandescent. I know we've tested some LED bulbs with dismal results, but think the proper technology is in the entire fixture assembly that fires the LED.

There is some neat stuff out there in LED tho. When that guy showed up with the demo unit, boss had him look into a warehouse that has 12 HID fixtures that eat a whole bunch of watts. He came back and said he could put more light in with only 4 LED fixtures at a fraction of the energy.

Boss works closely with the power company and they give decent rebates to commercial/industrial/farms if you go the energy efficient route with lighting or motor controls. I usually upgrade 1 coaster per year and the rebates for installing a VFD, along with the rate cut per KWH (yep, they will cut your rates), usually pays for itself pretty quick. At $60.00/HP or light fixture, it can add up. I got the PF753 for Timbers (with negotiations) for just a tad more than the power company was going to give them in rebates. It was darn near free.

Unfortunately, there are no residential programs like this, which really bites!

Kinda figured out the new meter today: ACDC-54NAV Pretty cool so far

I never read the package. LOL

I have a light over the kitchen sink that I leave on a lot, shutting it off when I go to bed.

I swapped out this for the CFL, which was installed when I went from incandescent to CFL.

9 watt LED bulb

The new place is probably 95% LED lighting. We have lots of can lights on cathedral ceilings. Getting too dang old to climb ladders all the time to change out bulbs. Those that aren't LED are CFL. I will replace those with LED once I run out of CFL bulbs. I'm hooked on the LED, especially now that the price is creeping down.

I meant our guy's that do lighting.

Oh.

You guys are installing the latest and greatest, and the light fixtures I'm building for our renovation will utilize those "Edison" bulbs.... go figure!

They do produce some of the nostalgia bulbs in LED also, I believe.

I think they must make the LEDs in dang near every shape and size now. I even have ones that are supposed to look like candles!

Well today I had some help and got the other big solar powered water heater installed. Yes I can Hear Sunil from here.



So now we have around 2500 watts of solar heat available!!

As you can see form this pic, the fish are happy, the bottom of the tank remains mostly clean, and we are making more green water!! The Ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate remain 0,0, 2 and the temp remained 80.5. The batteries have taken a bit of a hit these last few days, but they are only down 20% so I am happy about that. I did rewire the solar panels to make more amps and watts in lower light conditions.

Tomorrow should tell.



Oh about all the rain, Note to self. Pull the drain plug more often....




Things are looking much better for this winter, the big pond continues to flush, the trees are turning, The firewood stack is massive, and T3 seems to be setup very well.

About LEDs for the house, I have started to convert, they are much better lights and the cost is coming down. It is just a matter of time before I am LED only.

Well the rewiring of the solar panels did make a little more power during twilight but it cost me too much during daylight operations, so I went back to the higher voltage setup. I was able to make over 600 watts continuous during the midday sun. In fact, I was able to make more than 3KWH yesterday. The batteries were able to retuned to a full status after several days of complete cloud cover and over 3 inches of rain with several hours of sunshine to spare!




Also, I had time to try a new airlift setup. It worked better and is now moving more water using less air.

What I did: I took the 2 inch up pipes and added four 1/8 inch hose barbs to each one and then added the air lines. I am now moving about 25% more water on 20% less air. I will work on a newer up pipe over the next few weeks and see if I can do even better.





All in all, this week was a substantial improvement for T3. With the extra heater running for 3 hours, I added three degrees to the entire body of water. I then turned off the extra heater and flushed out the poo tank. After the refill, I was right back at 80.5 degrees F. So with just a little planning, I think we are in a very good place for this winter.

The fish are eating well and the system seems to be in great shape. When we get our first few really cold nights, we should have more data points to add to our knowledge base.

The one thing I do need to find are robust DC switches. I would like 200VDC 15 AMP switches to turn the heaters on and off with. Anyone know of a good place to find them?

Thanks for any ideas!!

Need heater specs, but I would look into an SSR (Solid State Relay) or suitable power relay, then fire that with low voltage DC and use a fuse for circuit protection.

Do you have a temp. controller on this?

Phil,

PM sent.

I like the relay idea. I'll look into that for now.