Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

The sand filter in my system serves a variety of purposes. Clarifying my water, filtering out solid waste, and the valve on the filter kicks butt! As to your cleaning comment, pool filters have a 'waste' setting which pumps the garbage out of the filter. What to do with it? I ran a 1.5 in pipe to my garden tank and am feeding my dirt plants with it. During the winter I will just dump onto my compost bed.

What most people find gross and dirty I usually see as compost. I keep all guts, heads and bodies from my fishing expeditions all year in sealed 5 gallon buckets till the next year then pour in the bottom of the holes I dig for my tomatoes. The reclamation of the fish waste is a huge plus for me. I have decided, however, to ditch the bioballs due to cost. I was going to need about 3200 based on filling the filter with water then emptying it into buckets, followed by some math. I have refilled it with play sand to the proper level and placed it inline with the pump.

To the anaerobic concern, I bought back a few air compressor pumps from the scrap yard for $20. After a little WD-40, hammer motivation, and a few sheets of 22ga.copper sheets cut to size, smeared with a thin layer of red RTV to replace a two leaking cylinder gaskets I have two working pumps. Over the last couple years I have been collecting 1/2hp to 2hp electric motors and two of theses have been mated up to the pumps so I have a primary and back up. The primary pump pushes 9.8 cfm into a 120 gallon propane tank for 15 minutes then the pressure bleeds off into the FTs via two sticks of 1/2in pvc air curtains I saw someone else on here make. The pump cycles on once an hour and takes about 10 minutes to bleed off after the pump turns off, so 25 minutes of super aeration per hour. My back up is only 5.4 cfm with the pulley I have on it but hopefully I won't need it until I can find a cheap replacement pulley.

So where I am... GBs sitting on tables in yard, four at 48 inches and four at 39 inches. These gravity drain into my four FTS in the barn, then the FTs into the sump. From there, the pump draws water and pushes it through the filter and up into the beds. I want to get a different timer switch but until I can afford one it will be 15 minutes on 15 minutes off during daylight hours, and 15 minutes on and 45 minutes off at night. The air pump will stay on its cycle 24/7. My wife Facebooked her way into 100 free trout for me from a high school friend who works for the extension service.

Also I found some friends who feed their pond fish with some cheap dog food that floats, I will be doing a side by side with three commercial fish foods and the dog food. We will see. I have plans to add blue plastic 55 gallon drums filled with aggregate beside the FTs to give the bacteria a great dark HUGE space to break down the ammonia and nitrites.

Power consumption! I put a apm-probe to each electric device and with our Co-Op's current pricing it will cost $26.37 a month to run the system minus when I have to add well water (my chickens get all my rain water).

OK I am here in powder springs Game I am going to start my system soon ! I have half ac in my back yard and half in the front ! I was winder if anyone here in game that had a system running can be my mentor ! Can I come to see yours ! I need a mentor period! Does anybody want to take me on ! Please!!

That's a auto spell guys I am in GA sorry