Solar power and battery power (was Bacteria and aeration)

[Mackey]

Do others out there use the bacteria products out there? I use Clarity Max+. But I heard of a product called Organica. does is anyone use this product? Does anyone use aeration in there pond? any comments on the pro's or con's on aeration.
Thanks Shaun

[Jonna]

I had an air pump and put the outlet stone wand in the bottom of the skippy filter on the pond in Calif.  I think it helps get oxygen to the bacteria and also some stays in the water and goes back in the pond.  If you have a waterfall, you probably have enough aeration for fish in a pond that is not overstocked.  If you get into a lot of fish or big fish, then it's more complicated.

[turtlemike]

  I was thinking along the same lines Jonna.  I have never heard about it before but I figure that an air stone in the bottom of my Skippy filter would provide the most oxygen for the least watts to the filter bacteria. 

  I am totally solar powered and power consumption becomes an issue during long stretches of sunless days.  My theory is that when power is low I can turn off the pumps to save power and run just the aerator to provide oxygen to the filter.

This should keep the bacteria alive and happy until the sun comes out and I have more power than I can use to run pumps and heat exchangers etc.

[Jonna]

That makes sense Mike.  An air pump is one of the few pond things I brought down a couple years ago.  They use little electric and they will keep fish alive as well when there is no power.  You could hook it to a car battery and run it for days i think.  I have 12v to 120 inverters from the RV that would let me do that.

[turtlemike]

   I have 10, 220 amp hour, golf cart batteries and about 1500 watts of solar panels.  I run pumps, fans, TV, stereo,VCR, DVD, power tools, you name it except heating and refrigeration and welding.  But I will run refrigeration next summer when I have all of the batteries and panels in one system. I have it split up into two systems, one runs the greenhouse and the other two thirds is waiting to run my house, which is really a school bus.  I will combine the two systems in the bus and wire power to the greenhouse from my 2400 watt inverter-charger at the bus.  I should have enough power to run about anything.  I still am always trying to save energy because at night I am using the batteries and the more you use them the shorter the life span. But there is way more energy than I can use in the daytime so I turn all of the pumps on and fans and stereo and try to use as much as I can because it's free and I hate to see it going to waste.

  Eventually I plan to put a wind mill up on the hill and use the power to pump water from my lower ponds up to the big island pond up the hill. I will have a micro hydro power plant down at the lower ponds and this will provide me with huge power storage capability and anytime availability, even when there is no sun or wind for long periods.  Which only rarely happens. Then I will need much less battery storage capacity with shallower discharge and longer life. And less money for batteries.  Just enough batteries to " buffer " the system and even out the input power demands.

  Someone out there will understand what I'm saying I hope. 

   Yes this does have to do with ponding !   My main use for this power is to run my hybrid seedling pool's filter and heat exchanger pumps to make my hybridizing successful.  Very low carbon lilies.

[PondmaninAL]

Mike, you live in a bus? I just assumed that you had a big, nice house overlooking those beautiful lily ponds. I like the method that you are using for producing power. I have/had a book called "Back to Basics" that had a section on producing your own power. I've always wanted to use water to do the job.

[Jonna]

I actually could follow all that and it sounds ideal.  We lived in our RV for 7 years after I retired, traveling throughout Mexico, Central America and parts of the US.  We boondocked or parked without a power hookup most of the time and relied on our solar panels and house batteries.  I went through the inverter, converter, AGM, solar boost, etc dance to get the system tuned for us.  The main problem was that I am a night person and we had satellite internet that I would stay on until the wee hours using up the battery power.  Then if it rained the next day we had to either turn on the generator or hit the road to charge the batteries again.    Well, the second main problem was not having a gazillion dollars to spend on the system and not wanting a large RV to haul it all because of where we like to travel.  It all worked but there were times that I'd look up at 2am and see that I'd run the batteries too low.   Kind of enforced an earlier bedtime for me, which seems to have changed my internal clock for good.   I really understand the need to run everything on a sunny day because you don't want to waste all that power.  Once the batteries were charged, I'd have all our electronic toys lined up charging and the music blasting and still feel I should turn something else on. 

[reptilegrrl]

I have a splashy waterfall and plenty of plants, and they provide my only aeration.  I do occasionally add some Pond-Zyme bacteria stuff to my pond, usually when I do a big water change or when I think about it otherwise.

[Julles]

Mike, please post a photo of your bus / home.

I have just the waterfall for aeration, plus a few other small decorative dribble things.

Don't use any bacterial products, as I figure the pond has enough of that stuff as is.

I do, however, use Clarity Max, which is not bacteria, but barley, and what it does is cause the plant and poop matter suspended in the water to drop to the bottom, where it is pulled by water current into the pump and then to the filter.  My filter started removing a LOT more of the suspended stuff once I began adding Clarity Max once a week.  The water is clearer, too.

[turtlemike]

  Well Pondman I have a " normal " 2 story 2 bedroom house with grid power on my 50 or so acre farm that I just inherited. and I have a log cabin,  a school bus , an REO speed wagon and a step van that was the band van for a local band named Stark Raven that used to be pretty popular around here, on my adjoining 150 or so acres that I have lived on for the last 30 years.  I am VERY land and house wealthy but VERY money poor I just spent 100 dollars on a Skippy filter for my inter sub-generic seedling tubs in the big house and have 40 cents to my name right now.
  For the last 3 years I have lived in the unheated step van over looking my ponds so I can wake up at the crack of dawn and get out on the pond to bag flowers for the days crosses.

My 2 buses are at the bottom of the big pond dam and I planed to move into the big school bus this winter so I could have heat but I have to build a wood stove for it and that could take me a week to build and I have to get ahead of a few things like building two Skippy filters and planting a bunch of seedlings and getting firewood together to heat the greenhouse pools, building the big island pond etc etc.  So I'm probably not going to get moved into the bus until mid winter if that soon. I may just stay in the step van for another year because I like to be able to overlook the ponds during breeding season and I like sleeping in a freezer.  I don't mind climbing into a zero degree bed or putting on sub zero cold clothes in the morning.

 I have spent most of my life camping in the cold or whatever weather and I have the best clothes and sleeping bags so I am never really cold. I usually spend the day working in the greenhouse which is usually above freezing even at night and some times 90 in the day.  I work on my tan during the day then sleep in a 10 below bed at night with snow blowing through the cracks. I live what I call a full contact life, full contact with Nature. I go barefoot all spring, summer, and fall and am still barefoot today and I walked down to the big house, about a mile, on frosted ground and mud this morning. Yes my feet were very cold but,  I HATE wearing shoes.   Maybe I will get a dozer to pull the big bus up above the pond this fall so I can have heat and see my ponds. heat is not a high priority for me, growing lilies is. 

  I hope to build a house on my island in the big island pond some day and then I will be surrounded by lilies and water.  Deer proof and rabbit proof gardens surrounded by a moat. I will have to build a draw bridge. I'm going to try to make the big island pond happen next weekend if I can get the dozer up here.


  Jonna, RV life has probably gotten more people used to living with solar power than all of the off the grid people like me combined.  The batteries are the weak link in an off the grid system.  Utility inter-tie is a completely different story since you use the grid as your battery there is no difference between solar and coal power to the homeowner.  A person that has lived in a coal powered house all of there lives could move in to a utility inter-tie solar powered house that makes money instead of making a bill every month and would not know the difference unless you told them.  Or they looked on the roof.
  One difference they might notice is that with a minimal battery back up they would almost never have a power outage.  When the whole neighborhood is dark their house will be lit up and the TV running

   I would love to get a Solar Boost charge controller since I have high voltage panels and short wire runs.
  What is AGM I can't figure that one out, I probably should know.

   Isn't the feeling of not wanting to waste excess free power great,  it's the opposite of not wanting to waste power and money on unwanted or unneeded lights running etc. 

First pic is the general view. The second is a closer view, third is the greenhouse and step van that I live in. I don't have a pic of the buses but they are the white spot in the left of the last pic during big pond construction to show where they are located in relation to the greenhouse and ponds.

 

[Jonna]

Wow! Beautiful land.  What a grand adventure you are on to create all of those things and enjoy the process. 

AGM is a type of closed glass mat battery that gives a few more amps than regular flooded cell for the size and can take a charge at a slightly higher rate thus recharging faster as well.  Not having to check the water is another plus.  We finally switched to two of them because we did not want to carry the weight or use the space for more batteries.  They are still in the RV and working well.  We have it parked near the house and the solar panels keep the batteries charged and we check on it every week or so.  I hope we can take off on a trip after the first of the year. 

[Mackey]

I see someone noted they use Clarity max, but they think it is not bacteria. Clarty Max Plus has activated barley but is also a bateria and enzyme product.
Someone else thinks they have enough (bacteria) without adding any.
The bacteria that is added is "good" bacteria. To help break down solids and sediment in the water.
The aeration I asked about was ment to be installed in the pond to help pull gases and sedimets from the bottom to help keep the pond cleaner and better turned and circulated. Yes it does add oxygen.
From the replies it looks like not many ponders add "good bacteria" to there ponds for water maintance.

[tugo]

Mackey, I have red too much abt beneficial bacteria and would like to try it because the way it helps seems very logical to me but unfortunately here I cannot find it in the market. But the municipalities start using it for the natural ponds and also treating sewage water. Wish I could have the chance to use it.

[tugo]

Mike I cannot express how I adore your way of living. I had very short periods of having this chance. Congratulations.

[Jonna]

Tugo, it is also difficult to find pond bacteria for sale here.  What we do here is get some of the water from the filter or some of the filter material from another pond that is clear and has been running longer.  We add that to a new pond to kick start the bacteria, it works very well. 

[tugo]

Jonna, yes that kind of " vaccination" I did also to start my pond water but I believe what Mackey is talking about (sorry if I am mistaken) is another product one step a head. My english and technical back up is not sufficient to give details therefore I give a link.
http://emrojapan.com/

[Mackey]

I have used Clarity Max for the past 9 years I do not have to clean or scrub my pond I cover them with a net in the fall to keep out the leaves and do try to keep the dead lilly pads pulled. I have a 2400 gal 40" deep 14' X 15' pond I have little to no trash on the bottom of my pond. I am looking to start using Organica and was looking for others that may have tried it. Organica is suppose to work in cold water also. The treatment and dosages are easy and less often. 2500 gal. pond uses 1/2 of a 2" tablet once a month. 6 tablets will last me a year. Cost about $30.
There are alot of bacteria products out there. Ref. http://www.pondbiz.com/home/pb1/smartlist_31/bacterial_products.html