A quaculture water pumps are very important parts of aquaponics systems. Having an efficient water pump ensures that the water is continuously pumped throughout the aquaponics system to provide the necessary nutrients to plants and fish.
If your pump isn’t reliable to do the work of distributing the water properly in the system, the consequences could lead to failure in maintaining and building your own system. That is why you should read this guide to choose the right pump for your system.
Benefits of a pump for aquaponics
A pump plays an important function in the aquaponics system. Water pumps help in the efficient pumping of water from the fish tank to grow beds and then back to the tank. Water pumps also provide oxygen, ensuring your fish have enough oxygen in the tank. Pumps ensure that both plants and fish in the system get the nutrients required for their proper growth. When choosing the right pump for your system, you should consider the following things to choose the right pump.
Wattage
You should know the electrical usage of your pump. This means knowing the watts that the pump uses to be able to calculate the possible additional costs to your power bills. Lower-wattage pumps will consume less electricity.
Consider the flow rate
This is another important thing you should consider when choosing the right pump. You need to consider the amount of water that should be pumped through the system. The pump you choose should be able to circulate the system within 2 hours. This means that if your system uses two hundred gallons of water, it should pump 200 gallons within 2 hours so you need to buy a pump from your water companywith at least 100 GPH.
You should consider buying a pump with a bigger GPH than the needed amount. To have an effective system, it is crucial to buy a pump that can produce the required flow for the system.
Determining the correct pump size
When determining the correct pump size, you should determine the GPH, measure the head height and combine the head height with the GPH.
Determining the GPH
When sizing a pump for your system, you should start by determining the Gallons per Hour or GPH. Most pumps have a GPH rating that allows you to know the number of gallons of water that the pumps can push every hour.
The rule of thumb is that your aquaculture water pumps should circulate the entire volume of water in your system at least every 2 hours.
You should therefore choose a pump that can meet these requirements of cycling half of the volume of water in the entire system every hour. For example, if you have 100 gallons in your system, you will need a pump that can pump at least 5- gallons of water per hour.
