I do know of one situation where it might be a good idea to do away with a bio-filter. If it is one of those types of filters that needs a certain amount of pressure to make it function properly. There is no need to use that much electricity to run an aquaponics system and having to pressurize a sand filter would require more electricity than is really called for.
We have finally disconnected the sand filter that has been tied into my big system for ages (really wasn't doing much but I usually kept a trickle of water going through it so it wouldn't go anaerobic on me and that is the reason that I wouldn't leave something like a sand filter sitting there just in case you needed to tie it back in, ya leave one of those sitting for three days with no flow through it and then turn the flow through it back on and your nose is going to tell a story of hydrogen sulfide. Let me tell you, if your system is having water quality issues and spikes and you need to add extra filtration fast it protect fish health, opening up a valve to something that is going to provide hydrogen sulfide is not the best choice for protecting your fish health.
Also, any bio-filters that need regular attention might be worth selling off if you are trying to reduce your personal labor in maintaining a system. If you don't mind the extra stuff, then by all means keep it online though anything that removes solids also removes extra nutrients from your system. If your main goal is lots of fish, this could be a good thing but if you want to grow lots of fruiting veggies, then you should probably get a good portion of the solids up into your grow beds.
As to pouring the cleanings from a swirl filter into a duckweed pond? Is this duckweed pond sharing circulation with a fish system? If it is, be careful of the gunk in the bottom of a duckweed pond. If it goes anaerobic, you can get quite the pockets that if disturbed in any way can give off hydrogen sulfide and that is not good for fish (or m gag reflex.) This was my biggest issue with the duckweed pond, since duckweed likes fairly still water anything falling into the pond tends to settle to the bottom and it can easily become anaerobic, then any disturbance to the water can cause huge issues.
|
Would love to hear other points of view.