Coach Chris' RAS/ AP build thread

dasboot

Samuel the carbon food source would be coming from the solids staying within the system,Chris has a lot or air in his tanks which in his post he knows the RFFs are not as efficient as they should be as the solids are being removed by the surface drains and ending up in the net filters.In Cornell style RAS tanks no air is added into these tanks as it could and does hinder the self cleaning design of these tanks ,air is inject external to these tanks.
One of the reasons iam playing with the Baki shower and trickle towers,if i can utilise for a phrase, free air for my Bio filtration and cooling as apposed to adding air into the fish tanks,this way i can maintain the self cleaning of my tanks and hopefully keep my DO levels up by reducing the load on the wet bio filtration.

coachchris

I could also probably bleed off air, as I'm still over 7 D.O.. I'm not sure if that would make a huge difference in solids removal or not. Ryan Chatterson is coming by the RAS to drop off some koi next month and I'm sure he'll be able to help after viewing. I think a nice 300 gallon cone bottom RFF in place of the shade cloth filter, or plumbed in after would also work. But replacing that plumbing would be expensive. We'll see what the new K1 does.

Samuel L Jackson

Chris doesn't all of this make you just want to get a drum filter and call it a day? Haha. Too bad money doesn't grow on trees.

coachchris

Sam, yes it does. If I can sell enough fish and see that this can actually me more then a money pit, I'll probably do just that. I'll use a bit more water, but it sure would be easy. Maybe sooner if I win the lotto...which I rarely ever play.

Swedeaquaponics

coachchris wrote:

All good points. I'm trying to clean filters more often. See if that helps. Still very low ammonia, but nitrites are around 1 again this am after pretty heavy feeding last night.

Sam, I'm using plastic pieces from a C & C machine. I tried them in a bunch of different ways. Loose- they clumped together and clogged outflows. Put in 1 gallon paint strainer bags, that worked well for a while, but I think the centers went anaerobic. Added a bunch of smaller units with qt bags.

My RFF don't seem to be doing a very good job of collecting solids. A lot is getting by into the shade cloth/netting filter. The biggest issue is the side flow drains are collecting the large majority of solids, and they're plumbed directly to the shade cloth/netting filter. The blower suspends and breaks up the solids and doesn't allow the large majority to be removed from the bottom drains.

Coach,
What size is the rff? Whats the flow through the rff? Where did you put your airstones in the fish tank? What does the side outlet look like that goes to the shade cloth? Also whats the inflow to the fish tank and what is the volume of your fish tank? Any pictures would be helpful of how your rff is setup as well as fishtank with outlets.

coachchris

I have pictures in the thread, I try and pull out pages later. busy now. 2- 55 gallon RFF, retention of appx 2-3 minutes in the one and 4-5 in the other...I think. 3" inlets, 3" outlets. FT are 3- 1000 gallon, 6- full IBC's, and 6- 1/2 IBC fry tanks. Air stones are toward the center as much as possible.

The RFF's appear to be capturing solids, but the side drains are larger(by design) and therefore more water appx 85-90% goes through these drains. These bypass the RFF's and go directly to the shade cloth/netting filters, which look to be requiring more then weekly cleaning...yeah!

Swedeaquaponics

Do you have tee's on the outlets from RFF and fish tank?

Are your airstones tied to the SLO in the center of the IBC fish tanks?

coachchris

No tees, Air stones and or discs are manifolded around center standpipe/bottom drain.

Swedeaquaponics

Put in a tee on the outlet to keep floaters from leaving the side outlet on both rff and fish tanks.

In my design the air enters the fish tank through the vertical distribution pipe. Air is introduced to the pipe before it reaches the fish tank (sort of like an active venturi)... With the vertical distribution pipe being perforated with smaller holes all along the length of the pipe you get pretty good distribution in the fish tank with air and water. Or at least I get that in my case (estimated turnover of fish tank 4x per hour, 15-16 Tilapia in a 40 gallon trash can fish tank). Which is a very small system so I wouldn't swear that it works well in a bigger tank and with a different turn over rate. Could be worth a try? Just don't kill any fish or blame me if it doesn't work. :whistle:

coachchris

My RFF collect water in the center and determine the height of the water in the system. I can't add a tee.

Like you said...apples & oranges. I'm running larger tanks with about 65 cu ft of air using 15- 9" diffusers, 16- 12" stones, and 15- 1" ceramic stones. My airflow is more then adequate and as close to the center as possible to try and get the air to flush the sidewalls.

I have a shipping confirmation from the K1 folks...should have it early next week.

Swede, you're actually running pretty heavy concentrations. Almost 1 lb per 2 gallon at maturity. That's over my ultimate goal. I'm shooting for a little less then that.

Swedeaquaponics

Ah, I need to go back to see if I can find some pics of your RFF

coachchris

http://youtu.be/ozpr0a2DVD8
The RFF's now have an plexiglass disc that sit at the top of the water. The water comes in toward the bottom of tank, 90's up and then hits a larger(4") cap that pushes the water flow down. The inlet is also 3" and is surrounded by a plexiglass disc that is cut to be appx 75% of the top of the 55 gallon barrel. This is held in place with a uniseal. the water has to then flow over the edges of this disc and into the outflow pipe, where it then goes to the shade cloth/fish netting filter. This is Ryan's design, not mine. Very simple, although his is on larger cone bottom tanks, which slow down the flow and allow for much better solids flushing.

Ryan

Looking awesome Chris! Won't be long until that MBBR is ready to go!

Mathias- he's describing that new RFF design I mentioned the other day (I taught it to the students at my workshop). Ive named it a "center outlet radial flow filter". The larger vertical flow dampening pipe is underwater and capped, the outlet is centered above it and fitted with a settling plate (disc) that doesnt disrupt the radial flow within the vessel (and has some other added benefits). I just haven't had time to shoot a proper build video. I should have one up soon.

Swedeaquaponics

Wow.. Back to the drawing board.. Lol. May have to try this build in my bucket RFS. I am not sure I quite get it since I am a visual guy. Look forward to that video Ryan. Awesome! Thanks for sharing, both of you!

Swedeaquaponics

Something like this?

Backyard Aquaponics A place to discuss aquaponics

Coach Chris' RAS/ AP build thread

Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics