Update 8th Dec 2019

Its been awhile since my last post. This is an update of my setup.

Thanks for watching.

Aquaculture Resource Centre

Many queries I received on where to get Tilapia fingerling, so decide to do some scouting at various places that I had known.

One of the place is ARC or Aquaculture Resource Centre that has been in operation since 2008. They are located at Lot, 1761, Jalan Kubu Gajah, Kampung Kubu Gajah, 47000 Sungai Buloh, Selangor.

Google Map : Here

Website : Here

ARC was set up by En. Mohd Hafiz Nordin and En. Hazarul Hafzam Mohd Zaki way back in 2008. Together they run the setup full time and En. Hafiz also assisted by his wife Pn. Farhana. During my recent visit did talk to them on Aquaponics and our requirements on tilapia or other fish fingerling. 

They primarily do Tilapia and Cat fish either supplying already process catfish, or live tilapia. As mention by En. Hafiz they can supply tilapia fingerling to those that wanted this fish. However they need to be inform in advance so that it can be ready and stock at their facilities in Sungai Buluh and best to order around 100 or 200 fingerling at a time with self collect.

I do not enquire on the price, because I will leave it to those that wanted it deal directly with them for pricing.

ARC has been in the business for more that 10 years and their facilities is in Sg Buluh, Rawang and Sungai Lui.

Those that want tilapia please feel free to contact them at their website as earlier part of post.

Photo with En. Hafiz from ARC.

Screen shot : courtesy of Aquaculture Resource Centre.

Pump Upgrade

Water pump is one important item in my aquaponics set. In my setup I will try my best to use a single pump to feed all the growbeds in the system.

Water pump must be reliable and of sufficient capacity to undertake all the irrigation requirement on my set. With last redo of my aquaponics set, I have a total of 5 growbeds, four of which the gutter type and one traditional growbed.

Currently I am using a 2000 litre per hour pump which suffice to irrigate all growbeds. However the margin of excess is very little and if any deterioration of pump output due to clog etc will affect the water flow into the growbeds and could cause siphon malfunction.

This Astro 2000 pump is the smallest I can find with ceramic shaft. You can check my video on the importance of ceramic shaft on a pump : Here

This pump is rated at 26.6 watt, it's such a small pump and has work flawlessly with my 4 gutters set up without any hick-ups. With addition of extra growbed it still able to support, but I am not that comfortable with its excess margin.

Its bigger brother the Astro 3000 fit the bill nicely, at few ringgit extra it's wise to go for the bigger pump that should be better build due to its size.

How the two looks like.

Physically it is bigger and build more sturdy, with grab handle and platform suckers feet. Fittings for water feed is similar and it can take same size PVC tubing as the Astro 2000 nicely.

Being bigger in size also means it must be bigger in power, so the penalty I have to pay is its wattage has increase by about 16 watt to 40 watts for this pump.

The cost of power for this pump per month is 40 watt x 24 hours x 30 days = 28.8 kw and @ 0.40 sen per kilowatt, I have to pay RM 11.52 per month of electricity for my aquaponics set in this post.

Comparison electricity cost estimation below for 1 pump running 24/7

• Astro 2000 - RM 7.66/month
• Astro 3000 - RM11.52/month

In the tank and supplying all my growbeds irrigation needs.