How to take care of your aquaponics water pump, this is what we're going to see together
in this video, and at the end of the video, I'm going to show you a little trick that
not many people are doing, but that makes a massive difference in the performance, and
therefore, in the sustainability of your whole aquaponics system.
My name is Jonathan from Aquaponics Revolution, and in today's video, we're going to see how
we can maintain an aquaponics system and especially on the water pump side.
What other maintenance we need to do and how we clean the water pump, and I'm also going
to show you a little trick to really boost the sustainability of the aquaponics system.
So the water pump is the heart of the ecosystem, right?
It’s going to raise the water from the fish tank that is underneath to the grow bed that
is on top, and this consumes some electricity, some power, so what we want in aquaponics
is to minimize the size of the water pump and to make sure it is working in good conditions.
Unfortunately, you know, in aquaponics you open the tank sometimes and you got some particles
that are falling in the tank.
I'm talking about leaves, leaves from the veggies or leaves from the trees around, or
whatever, and then obviously, you got the fish also that are going to poo in the aquaponics
system.
So depending on the size of the setup you have and therefore, depending on the size
of the water pump, some water pumps are able to absorb some big particles and to pull them
through the pipe and to raise them either through the filters or to the grow bed.
But in small backyard aquaponics systems, most of the time, we use the smallest pump
possible to make the system very sustainable, and therefore, if there are some leaves or
some particles in the water, some big particles, they’re going to clog the pump.
You know, in the pump, around the water pump, you go a cage and this cage can be clogged
after a while.
So what we’re going to try to do or what I'm going to show you today is how to avoid
those water pumps to clog because when they are clogged, they're going to still consume
the same quantity of electricity, but unfortunately, they are not going to deliver.
They’re not going to do the job to raise the water to the grow bed.
So you are not going to have a good efficiency in your aquaponics system, and also, it's
going to decrease the lifetime of your water pump, simply because the water pump is struggling
to be able to rotate, you know.
And it means that the pump can't really suck the water so it needs to work, and it's not
going to work properly.
It may increase in temperature and it may completely damage the water pump.
So a water pump that is designed to last for years may break down, may just be broken after
few months, if you don't take care of it properly.
So the worst for a water pump are the leaves, because the leaves inside they make some strings
of linen you know, the linen that is inside the leaves.
You know, when you eat some beans, for example, sometimes you can feel those types of long
strings inside, and the problem is if a leaf breaks down in the aquaponics setup and clog
in the pump, sometimes it's able to go a bit in the pump and to be stuck around the rotor
of the pump.
And this is really, really bad for the pump because the rotor can't rotate properly and
it creates some vibration in the pump, and it really kills the pump.
So here we have the perfect example of what I was talking about the strings, and this,
you know, the strings they are made out of linen which is basically the leaves and it's
a real problem for the pump.
It can stop the pump from working.
So you have to remove those things.
You have to make sure you don't have this in your pump.
See, the rest seems really good.
So what we need to do is first to take care of those particles that are around the cage.
So when you have a look at your water pump, if you have a small water pump, you're going
to find a lot of particles around the cage.
So the first thing to do is to clean the cage.
What you're going to do just after is to clean inside the pump, the rotor.
So if you're going to remove the cage, just remove it and you're going to clean it outside
of the water so you can remove all the particles away from the fish tank, because if you just
wash the particles on the surface of the cage and you leave them in the fish tank, you can
be sure that an hour after, they’re going to be clogged again.
So the idea is really to remove those particles away from the fish tank.
The fish poo is going through the pump, right?
The pumps are designed to allow the fish poo to go through.
But I’m really talking here about solids such as the plant leaves, some pieces of wood,
or whatever, can fall into the aquaponics system.
So then you want to have access to the rotor.
So before doing anything, that's a safety measure, don't put your hands in the water
if you have some pumps that are plugged to the power.
You want to first turn everything off.
So then you can act into tool safety.
So once it's off, you remove the cage.
You're going to clean the cage and then you have access to the rotor.
So the rotor you can just unscrew a little cap and you have access to this rotor.
And the rotor is a very important part.
So you want to make sure there are no strings of leaves or whatever can be around the rotor.
It has to be free of anything.
You can even brush it if needed, if there are some algae that are growing on top of
it, but it needs to be very clean.
Also inside the pump, the area where you put the rotor needs to be clean, as well.
So here you can also use a brush and clean it.
It's just going to be better.
So what I do I use a little tool you see, to basically remove this cage.
So the cage is actually the filter of the pump.
It really acts as a filter.
So what I do I just remove it.
So depending on the model of pumps, you got different ways to remove the cages.
So all those little particles, I want to make sure I capture them, and they are not released
into the tank.
So it's very basic you know.
Nothing very sophisticated.
Just remove them physically.
You can rinse it underwater, not in your system, but you can rinse it, and then this is the
place where you got the rotor.
So it’s quite basic.
You just unscrew it.
It’s very, very simple.
Here you got a little piece of rubber, so make sure it's well applied.
I see that here it’s not really well applied.
So I'm just going to put it back how it should be.
See, these pieces of rubber here, it comes normally on the axle.
So you can put it correctly in place.
Then you can also have a look at the rotor.
So here you see we have a look.
We can see that this rotor has been slightly damaged.
So this pump’s lifetime is already reduced, unfortunately.
So here we got the rotor.
You see, you got some very thin algae so they are not a problem.
Inside it’s quite clean so I can just put it back.
So once you have done all this, you are able to put the pump, the pieces altogether again.
The pump is ready to be put back in the aquaponics system, but that's where you can make a big
difference now.
So what's happening is that in aquaponics, you got algae that are growing sometimes and
also bacteria, right?
We are working with bacteria.
Unfortunately, the bacteria they like to grow also in areas where there’s a lot of oxygen,
and in the water pipe, in the pipes that we use, that is plugged to the water pump, this
is a perfect environment for the bacteria because there is obviously no light, but there
is a lot of movement of water, so a lot of oxygen, and also a lot of nutrients because
this is water that is pumped from the bottom of the tank.
So the bacteria really love to live in those pipes.
And the problem is, the bacteria when they live together, they form what we call a biofilm.
So the biofilm is basically an ecosystem of bacteria that are living one with each other.
And when they live together, they form this biofilm and the biofilm can be quite thick.
Bacteria is very small, right?
You can’t see it with your eyes.
It’s impossible to see bacteria.
You need a microscope to see the bacteria, but they are -- when they are forming a biofilm,
there are layers and layers and layers of bacteria altogether and there the biofilm
is quite thick.
It can be a few millimeters thick, and if you are working with a water pipe that is
maybe that's 10 or 13 millimeters, a small section, if you have a biofilm of few millimeters
inside, it significantly reduces the diameter of the pipe.
So basically, you're going to reduce the water flow that is able to go through.
So the pump is going to have to work in high pressure to be able to let the flow go through
the pipe and unfortunately, it's going to use a lot of electricity for nothing.
So it's not going to be sustainable, and obviously, the efficiency of the aquaponics system as
well is not going to work out as well because you got lot of water that is used for nothing,
basically, because those bacteria are reducing the section.
So one could say, yes, those bacteria are still doing the job that we want, and this
is true.
The bacteria that are in the pipe, they are also Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter.
So they are bacteria that are going to be able to break down the ammonia into nitrite
and nitrite into nitrate, but unfortunately, those bacteria, they could be as efficient
if they were in the grow bed and in the grow bed, we got already a lot of good bacteria.
So those ones that are in the pipe, we don't really want them.
They are not going to work in our favor.
So we need to remove them, and now, it's quite tricky to remove bacteria that are clogged
in the pipe, because you don't have access.
So for that, I use a very specific tool, and I'm going to show you this right now.
So this is a tool that I use.
You see, that's a brush.
I got a little brush that you put in the pipe and then you got this piece of metal here,
right?
So you got two meters because my pipes are two meters.
Anyway, we’ve a string.
At least, you can do maybe three or four meters because you go from one side and then you
go from the other side.
So you understand you just have your pipe and you make it go in through the pipe, right?
And this is going to clean the whole inside of the pipe.
It's going to remove those bacteria that are decreasing the diameter of the water pump.
So right now, I'm going to show you how it works and what type of bacteria I'm talking
about.
Those bacteria they’re going to be more significant if you are in warm weather, warm
country, or in summer, right?
In summer, you're going to find that the bacteria are growing really quickly and they're really
going to clog your pump, your water hose.
So it's very important to take care of them.
Now, I'm going to put the power on, and you will be able to see all of those biofilm going
away.
So it’s going to look like mud.
So before I finish the video, if you are new to the channel, and if you are new to aquaponics,
or if you are just trying to design your own aquaponics system, I have a fantastic gift
for you.
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to help you to build your own aquaponics system in the best conditions and to be able to maintain
it as well.
So in those six steps, you're going to learn the critical limits that are very important
to respect.
I'm talking about the fish bacteria ratio.
I'm talking about the design of the setup, and I'm talking about the most important things
to really start aquaponics in the best conditions.
So it's completely free.
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Have a good crop!