Has anyone used solar energy to run eg. a air pump? I am a paraplegic and cannot run to get the generator everytime there is a interruption in the electricity supply so I was considering using solar power.

Daan

Hi Daan,

Is it really necessary to get the power going again so quickly on your pond?

How many koi do you have? What size are they (guess)? How much water do you have in your pond? What is the surface area of the pond?

Koi can suffocate in a pond but it is entirely dependent and the ratio between water volume and the number and the size of your fish. Temperature will play a part. I have seen two very expensive collection wiped out through power failures. The first had 25,000 litres about 50 massive koi and the power was off for 18 hours before I got there.

The second involved about 8 large koi (one ex Grand Champion) in a very narrow pond with limited water volume. There was a battery pack on the system to kick in when there was a power failure. The battery pack could run the air stones and pumps for about 8 hours. When the power kicked in again the battery pack would re-charge its self.

Murphy's Law always plays a part. This seemed foolproof for when the owner went away for a weekend. But as luck would have it - the mains board tripped out during a thunderstorm on the Friday evening. The battery pack kicked in and ran everything for 8 hours then ran flat. The mains switch had tripped and never came on again. All the koi had suffocate by the Sunday evening when the owner returned.

I would not go to the expense of a generator or solar power. Solar power will need many batteries to store the power and I'll bet you could build a new pond with the money the system would cost.

Regards,
Chris

I don't know if you can remember Chris I was the person who killed all his by adding too much salt to the pond. I took your advise and have never added salt to my pond again and touch wood I have never had any major problems again. Coming back to the sizes I have 1 approx 50cm which survived the salt level of 9 and the majority are 20cm right down to babies, I would say a total of 20 koi. My pond is 4m x 5m x 1,5m deep.

Hi Daan,

Yes, I do recall.

You have about 30,000 litres of water and a small number of small fish. You do not need to have any back up.

I would say if your power was off for days the fish would not consume enough oxygen to suffocate.

Have you ever had the pumps off for a whole night? If so when you went out to the pond in the morning what were the fish doing. In a heavily stocked pond and low oxygen levels they would be gulping or piping at the surface. But in your case I doubt if you would notice any difference in behaviour.

If your power goes off for some time then simply stop feeding. When the power comes on again everything should be OK. If the power goes off for a few days turn the pumps off. Drain the filter chambers and keep the media damp. When the power comes on again rinse the filter media and start up again. Same thing with sand filters. A long power outage and turn the pump off until you can control the situation again by back washing the sand filters before starting up again.

Save your money from the solar option and spoil yourself with some nice koi.

Regards,
Chris

daan wrote:

I don't know if you can remember Chris I was the person who killed all his by adding too much salt to the pond. I took your advise and have never added salt to my pond again and touch wood I have never had any major problems again. Coming back to the sizes I have 1 approx 50cm which survived the salt level of 9 and the majority are 20cm right down to babies, I would say a total of 20 koi. My pond is 4m x 5m x 1,5m deep.

Hi daan, your pond is roughly the same size as mine. I have 18 koi in my pond all in the region of 50cm. Yes, i do think that my koi will be able to survive a 24hr power failure seeing as i try and keep my pond water very well saturated BUT will i take the chance by not having the equipment if the power goes down for longer than 24 hrs?....i dont think so. Rather be save than sorry.

If you have a generator - then you have no problem. if not buy yourself a PC UPS (Uniterupted Power Supply) - roughly R 2000 and connect that to 1 (one) air pump....just in case. UPS's come in various sizes and i would recommend something in the size range above 2kva - the rest is just too small.

My generator sits in the garage and its also a pain to get it up and running when there is a powerfailure so i usually end up waiting 2 hours or so before getting up and connecting the monster...but i feel so much saver knowing that i have one....The problem is you cant run it 24/7 cause its to expensve and the neighbours will complain.

Solar power... i have also been playing around with this idea in my head because i would love to try and "subsidise" my monthly electricity account with some free solar power....but the cost of equipemnt and installation is rediculous. One should propably investigate how much a small panel would cost that could power a 60w or 85w air pump.

I have investigated all avenues because because I don't think we have seen the end of power cuts. Some time back they had a problem in Kempton Park where they were without power for a week.

A chap in our suburb who sells pool pumps bought himself a windmill which someone had made for a garden feature. It is approx 2m high and very professionally made and I think he uses it to pump water through a water feature. I have sat and watched it and the slightest breeze spins the blade. I must admit it is not a very nice thing to have next to your exotic koi pond but the idea is good and if you could pump air.

Solar energy is expensive in this country and a lot can not afford that luxury for the fishes. UPS power is a consideration to run small air pumps but they tend to provide power for short periods of time only.
You might consider a 12Volt car battery, DC to AC inverter and an air pump and battery charger connected to the mains. Might sounds bulky but it is very simple to connect.
If you use a 100Ah (amp hour) battery this means that you will have a 1200Watts available (in electronics you have a basic law – Ohm’s law stating Power = Voltage x Amps) this means that if you use a 12 V battery capable to deliver 100Amps you will have 12 x 100 = 1200Watts available for energy.
By running, let say a 100watt device from it, you will have 12hours running time (100watts x 12hours = 1200Watts)
This all sounds a bit technical but it is very simple.
All you need is an inverter capable of handling what ever size device you want to connect to the output.
If it is a 50W pump you will have backup for about 24Hours. If you decide to run a 600W motor on it you will only have 2hours of running time.
I like to play around with electronics when I have the time so if you use your imagination the results are endless. While the power is on, it will charge your battery. Once the power fails it will switch to the battery backup and your pump or pumps will start to work.
The night blind (like me) can benefit as well…. Why not connecting some low power lights to the system as well?? Place them around the pond, in your house, at the gate or on your bridge (if you have one) and watch your fishies then the moonlight is low. You can even connect your TV to it for those romantic nights (and when you have green water and fish not visible). Possibilities are endless.

The only rule to remember is, you can not create energy, you can only transfer it from one form of power to another.
So it you need to run a big pump, 10 lights and the TV on it you will need more batteries and bigger inverter. The price difference for a 150W and 1000W inverter is very small.

So decide how long power backup you will need and multiply the total wattage of all the devices.

Example: 2 x 50W pumps; 4 x 10W lights around pond; 2 x 10W lights in house; 90W for TV and you need 6hours of back up. 100Watts pump + 60Watts lights + 90Watts TV x 6hours = 1500W total power consumption

You will need total battery power of 1500W ( 1500W / 12V = a 125Ah battery will do)
And the inverter must be able to supply the maximum wattage for the 100W pumps + 60W Lights + 90W TV = 250W. So inverter must be no less that 250Watts.

By the way, a 100Ahour battery is cheaper that a 125Ahour so you might consider switching the TV and light on bridge off and go and sleep while your fishies enjoy the air.

Hope this info was not to confusing

Just want to share my experience during the power cut last year for nearly 2 weeks in Kempton Park. I have a 8 000l pond, was at that stage probably overstocked. I ran tap water at least twice a day through the pipe that supplies the waterfall- so the tap water entered the pond via the waterfall (adding some oxygen to the water). I added Na thiosulphate solution. I cant remember for how long I ran the water at a time, but the fish were not distressed, gulped, etc. They all survived.