The aquaponics water pump is the heart of your ecosystem. It pushes the water from the fish tank to the growbed and brings nutrients and oxygen to the plants and bacteria. Without water pump, the system would not survive long. It is therefore important to select a reliable water pump.
When you select the pump there are a number of points you want to check:
Size
First you want to make sure the size of the pump is adapted to the needs of the system. We can see 2 needs that are the water flow and the heads height (quantity of water moved per hour and height of the outlet). I already made a video on this point so I will not develop this point further here.
Type
Secondly, you want to make sure the type of water pump is adapted to the specificity of the needs of your system. Here the water pump will run 24/7 and raise the water at a certain height.
There are different types of water pumps available on the market, the most famous are:
Centrifugal pump: They offer a High water flow and low pressure.
Positive displacement water pump: They offer a high pressure and a lower water flow
In aquaponics we generally don’t need to raise the water too high. This is the reason why we usually work with the centrifugal pumps.
The material used to build the aquaponics water pump can make a significative difference…
Inside the pump, a rotor turns around an axle also known as shaft. This axle can be made of different materials. Most of the time it is made out of metal but it gets damaged with time. Therefore, metal axle pumps have a limited lifetime.
Other pumps are equipped with a ceramic shaft. Ceramic is a very hard material, it doesn’t erode with time and ensure a perfect rotation of the rotor. It improves the performances of the pump and decreases the power consumption. The lifetime of the pump is also way longer than a classic pump with metal shaft.
I highly recommend the ceramic centrifugal pumps for aquaponics. It is probably one of the best options to get a sustainable aquaponics system that produces well with a minimum power consumption.
You will probably be interested to discover Jonathan’s six steps to build and manage an Aquaponics system. Click here to access for free! Thanks and good reading 🙂
