Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

With several chooks producing more eggs than we can use or give away I decided to crush 8 eggs and feed them to the gold fish and the ever growing yabbie population. Next morning to my surprise the pond water was crystal clear!!!!
Anybody got any suggestions I'm positive that it was the eggs that clarified the water. The system has just over 10,000 lts of water.

Hi DR,
Egg whites (albumen) have been used in the wine and associated industries for many decades as a Clarifying agent, along with Isinglass (crushed, dried, swim bladder of the Sturgeon fish!) and some Aluminium compounds, so it doesn't suprise me at all that your water "clarified". You will see on some wine bottle labels " This product may contain traces of Egg" as a warning to Egg intolerant tipplers!
It acts as a "flocculent", that is, it tends to concentrate small, suspended and colloidal particles into "clumps" and these are then solid enough to become less bouyant as hence drop as sediment. Your yabbies will then consume this manna from heaven, obviating the need to drain this sediment, or "Rack" it, from the bottom of the tank. The yolk would only provide "flavour" to the mix as it doesn't contribute to the Floccing action.

Cheers IanK.

Yep - not much else to say - Ian covered it perfectly !

Kewl... didn't know that one...

Thanks Ian
I new that it was used as flocc and had heard it used in wines but it was a real surprise what 8 eggs could do to 10,000 lts of water in approx 8 hrs the water is crystal clear.
I'm wondering if the albumen will be beneficial to the growbeds by binding beneficial bacteria or perhaps causing blockages, raising or lowering PH? etc
I will keep a close eye on the system and let you know the results

another smidget of info to store away. Tks desertrat.

When you say you "crushed 8 eggs" did you feed them the shell as well. Would appreciate description of "crushed". As a newbie I like to know exactly what people mean.

Mal

Well I'll be flocced

Hi MalcolmC
Yes I crushed the shells for yabbie feed. They were only lightly crushed by hand nothing too fine The shells have been in the system now for two days and I would estimate that nearly 3/4 of the egg shells have disappeared

*OBO goes to see how many eggs the chooks have layed*

Should have mentioned that the eggs were uncooked

Found this thread to be very interesting. Does anyone know if this is the same for duck eggs? I have a Khaki Campbell. She is a machine at egg laying, and there are way too many eggs for us to consume, so the dogs get a great treat for dinner or breakfast. Thought I might try the egg thing in my system with the duck eggs, but will wait and see peoples thoughts first. The water is pretty clear anyway, but every now and then there is a bit of suspended sediment (a bit of over feeding perhaps) which tends to clear up with reduced feeding for a few days. Would be interesting to see if this is quicker with the duck eggs.

Thankyou desertrat for sharing your story about the eggs and thanks Ian for your explanation on how it works.

After having to do a complete water change, i can now see to the bottom of my tank and all remaining fish are still alive.

Quachy - duck eggs should work exactly the same !

I'll be ready to add gravel soon. Would this trick work if I did not wash the gravel and just added some crawfish and eggs? I'm all about shortcuts!

Thanks
Mark

Mark - you'd end up with a lot of gunk at the bottom of your tank - probably too much I'd say.

The egg doesn't make it magically disappear, just binds it together enough to sink. When it's just an issue of cloudy water, that doesn't actually amount to a lot of gunk - but the clay from your gravel would be a very significant amount.

Also, the egg will break-down/be-consumed which would then mean that any disturbance would stir up all that clay again, unless you siphoned or drained it all out - not sure that represents much of a shortcut.