Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I have a 208 liters (55 gallons) drum filter attached to my fish tank How often should I drain the solids from the bottom of this tank?

Stock: 10 Tilapia, various sizes.

With a 55 gallon RFF and 10 tilapia you should be able to go at least a week if not more. You want to clean it before you see big clumps floating around. I have 1-200 tilapia and have to clean the RFF at least every week but ideally every other day. At one week, clumps have started to float up. So also depends on feed rate. But generally for me, if clumps are floating, I took too long.

Boy, does it! My g/f doesn't understand the concept of limits on feeding. Granted, they are only fed duckweed. But, she feeds them at least twice per day and a generous handful - for her little sized hands.

I showed her where the duckweed that is showing up in the RFF, explaining that they can't possibly be eating all the food, because some of it is ending up inside the tank (filter)! But, she still wants to feed them. She figures the faster they get fattened up, the faster she can put them on a plate, I suppose.

Not really sure how to explain that, once we start growing plants (beds are still under construction), it will become a closed ecosystem and needs to be kept balanced.

Thanks for your reply!

Cleaned it at one week. Attached a hose with a 1/2" (12mm) PVC pipe on the end to the input side of a 3900 LPH pump, and a hose on the output end, into a barrel. Switched 'er on and siphoned all the solids, along with about 60 liters of water, out of the system. A neighbor poured all the waste water on some peppers he has growing.

Thanks for your input.