Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Swirl filters are fairly inofficient compared to radial flow filters so that's one flaw. Using a paint bag as a screen filter in the swirl filter or any stage of the system to filter finer buoyant particles is no different to using bird netting, shade cloth, filter matting and a hundred other products that have been used over the last 30+ years of aquaponic studies so you haven't amazed anyone there. Further, using finer filtering as such will not break down solids, it catches solids, it does not keep useful nutrients in the water it filters them out and if you are not mineralising them separate from the system and reintroducing them you are robbing the system of valuable nutrients so once again flawed. Charcoal has been used as a media option for many years and using any kind of shell as a calcium carbonate buffer is ancient in aquaponics so nothing new there either.

Just because you don't understand the history and vast information of aquaponics yet it doesn't mean it's new and you were the first to think of it. I garantee it's already been done.

+1 charlie..
i tried a paint filter on my gb drain (into the ft) 2 years ago

Awesome enthusiasm blizzard, I'm new too and learning at a great rate. However, my lack of funds has forced me to spend as much time reading as doing, and I'm sorry to tell you that the:
not gluing fittings to be able to move them, sea shells and charcoal, and being able to take tanks and growbeds on an offline
are all old hat on the forum. I'm always amazed when I stumble upon an old thread that has a new (to me) idea that I can apply to my system.
That's not to say that they don't work though! Although charcoal has it's promotors and detractors based on varying things.
Imagine what you will come up with after doing some more reading and tweaking some of the other ideas you find.
Best of luck with it all :-)
If the more knowledgeable fishy dudes on here are pointing out the troubles with breeding a certain species, maybe they know from some of that vast experience I was talking about though. A season or two of just enjoying learning about your system and your fish will no doubt hold you in good stead to achieve your goals longer term. Jumping in head first is fraught with danger and it would be sad to curb your enthusiasm with early failures or fish kills.



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Ok don’t kill the new guy, I have been watching to many you tube clips I know. But I have ideas, and this is the most feedback I have ever had? Most negative but feed back at least, Charlie as far as I have seen, I have not come across a clip that has used the filter in the way that I have done! As I said I worked in a paint factory once and we had 80mm pipes with paint filtering through these type of bags, yes it is taking away the solids from going back to my sump tank, but that’s a good thing, anything that gets caught in the bag gets broken down, so the nutrients still get through unlike if you use a harsher filter medium that traps everything, most of the aquaponics people are saying it’s the ammonia that start the bacteria and not the fish poo? Breaking down some of the fish poo and releasing the ammonia should increase plant growth without the solids build-ups‘!

You can say I am wrong one hundred times but I will not change my system when it is working exactly how I want it to work, the plants are growing fine and the fish are happy, and it works like clock works! As I have the timer fitted! I don’t have a problem, if you do that’s your problem,

Keith, why would you put a filter in after your grow beds? Are they not suppose to be a flitter?

Katmac I shall keep your wise words in mind after I post a few more things first, but I have never sat by when someone said it cant be done, I have an idea, I don’t know the outcome but it is an idea, I will work on it and let the knockers think they have won in the meantime, I built my system using bits and pieces of hundreds of clips, taking out the bits that made the most sense to me, I don’t read that much I don’t have the time, give me a clip any day,

Don't take my reply posts as negativity, I'm just a realist and have read and practiced many things with aquaponics. I don't know it all and would never claim to and enjoy enthusiasm and experiment. There is much to learn and it pays grat divedends to read read read the wealth of information here. Your filter design is odd and flawed which is why it seems new but in time when you understand things better that will make sense. Hopefully you see a clip about it and you might actually believe it lol

I am sorry Charlie, I was not having a go at you, but I can tell you now that the male Burmese cross cat we have is called Charlie too! Yes I do have a lot to learn, I am like the kid in the candy shop ATM, but I still have ideas, I had a lot off problems with the right drainage, there are not to many people covering that part? My pipes run over 1.2mtr each, but I have that sorted now, also I couldn’t use the centre caps as drainage as one of them was a solid cap fitting with holes, that’s why both my bell towers are next to each other, extra work but less distance to check each one is working, I have used little bits of information from endless clips working out what would be the best system for me! I am a bit of a perfectionist! Sorry to say, I want maximum efficiently out of my system after the dollars I have put in so far, I know my system is only a small start-up now, but the possibilities are endless once you start, as there is no set way as how to do aquaponics, and everyone is doing it their own way so it seems? I just thought of doing it my way, a mixture of indoor and outdoor knowledge can make old things new again, well that’s what I was thinking, and putting into practice, but I cant see how anyone could knock my flitter? Its simple its cheep and it works! For me,

No sorry needed, if you get a chance can you do a sketch or paint shop of your plumbing because I think we can help you improve in time for your barra. We are here to help.

i wanted to see what it would do...

Ok how about my clip on here,

viewtopic.php?f=45&t=22422

The system is working fine now, although I occasionally like to increase the water pressure to the fish tank to pick up any extra solids, on my days off, I like to run the pump none stop flat out to help clean the fish tank out, when I go to work, I have to feed the fish at 5am and after 4pm, when I get home,
As I have said I use a timer so nothing can go wrong during the day when I am not home, I have just changed the pipes to my sump tank from my grow beds so that they make less noise! Just for next-doors peace and quite,
If you would like to make a suggestion feel free, as I am still new to this,

If you're running your pump on a timer, then why use siphons? Within reason, the slower you move the water through the filtration (media) the better it will be filtered and the more time the beneficial bacteria have access to their nutrients. Drill a small drain hole in the base of a standpipe to allow the GBs to slowly drain when the pump is off. Simplicity.

I don’t need a small hole in my standpipe! As I said the bulkheads for my grow beds are for a constant flow setup, I had too adapt my own standpipe to fit them, it’s a combination of 15mm pipe a 19mm rubber grommet and a 20mm pipe, yes it took a lot of work to get it right, but it was not until I fixed the drainage that it worked correctly! By taking away the 19mm black poly pipe and fitting a loose 25mm pipe with a 90deg bend with a 25mm pipe to the sump tank, the IBCs I got had different caps, one was solid, I had to silicone both and cut holes in the frame so to sink the cap into the frame, leaving them both level, then I had to make two more holes in the frame for the bulkheads, that’s why both bell towers are in the middle of my stand at the front, so I could adjust them and in future check them for root build-ups, no I didn’t see any off the problems I have had on any website, so there was no quick fix just determination and a lot of thinking! I have had a few hurdles to get over, but its all working perfect now, the timer is just to keep the noise down, I have just sunk the grow bed pipes into the sump tank below the water line, adding water flow to the sump tank, to move any solids towards the pump,