Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

"......could have something like a 20 litre drum with the top cut off filled with bioballs that sits in the tank and has the hose to the pump out of the bottom and thus it would suck water down and into the pump and then over the growbeds."

Nick, that would work OK. It's like a sub-gravel filter with the advantage of being able to be easily removed for cleaning, if necessary.
I designed a similar system that used a drum drilled with lots of holes all over the body, kept the top on, and ran an air-lift from close to the bottom of the drum, through the top, to just below the surface of the tank. Just an experiment, but it worked really well.
You'd be amazed at the ammount of water that an air-lift can move, and the weight that they can lift, which is why they are often used for salvage, archeological work and even gold dredging.

Shin

bidadisndat - love your moniker, had to rotate it a few times to work it out, welcome

"Bit" for short

In my current 6 foot aquarium I have made a grid of pipes that sit underneath the gravel, with holes at random places. I divert half the water coming back from my canister filter through this grid, theoretically the gravel has become a small biofilter as water is passed up through the gravel. It also aids in dislodging particles on the gravel. Every now and then I turn the undergravel up and it cleans the gravel right out. The only problem I have is that the yabbies try to dig up the pipes.

Another thing which I thought would be usefull is using a grid of tubing in the bottom of the growbeds/tanks in much the same fashion. As part of regular maintenance/cleaning you could give it a blast of compressed air to shake loose any particles. I used this on my first biofilter on my pond, using PVC ribbon, worked a treat. I just blasted it to clean it and then emtptied the waste to put on the garden.

Thanks LBK - Bidadisndat is the name of our property, and came about because of the number of projects we are undertaking here: Orchard, Fish Growing Tank, Worm Farm, Hydroponic Greenhouse, Organic Vegetable Garden, Poultry Run, (Chickens, Ducks, Geese and Quail), plus we have 1 Boer goat, and plan to get a couple of Irish Dexter Cows, and 3 beehives. I also brew my own beer......Doesn't everybody these days? Did I mention the Barbeque/Pizza Oven/Smokebox combination? Anyway, all a bit off topic:

I think that Sub-Gravel Filters are the way to go for aquariums: Had a 6' marine setup for a number of years, plus a number of 'quarantine' tanks, all using SGFs plus a protein skimmer. Collected my own fish 'from the wild', (26 years as a Diving Instructor), and ran the main tank for 4 years without disturbing the gravel. Had no problems at all, and when I finally had to pull it apart, (changing address), there was no appreciable ammount of 'gunk' in the gravel as everthing appears to be consumed by the bacteria in it - LOL - including the bones of a few fish that 'disappeared'.

However,

In an AP system, wouldn't the use of a SGF in the fish tank be defeating the purpose somewhat? The Grow-Beds are your filters, and you want the bacteria producing your 'fishy grow-plus' where it is needed: If you need more filtration, add another Grow-Bed - and eat more salad vegetables!

Shin

Bit, I would like to see a few pics of your Pizza oven. Dad just built a protoype for his work at home, love to share some ideas. I'll start a pizza oven thread, so we don't go off topic... (yes everyone, I realise I have already).

Sorry TimC, That project is now in the Final Design Stage - (Waiting for Mrs to decide where she wants it) - but construction will commence very soon.
LOL - Then all I need to do is learn how to post photos. Maybe I should start a Bidadisndat thread, and somehow link it to the Blog-Site I'm trying to develop? Difficult when you're computer illiterate!

Shin

Bida dis dat, and de other thing, by the sounds of it lol... Your place sounds great

The presense of a filter doesn't neccesarily mean a lack of beds or wisdom in applying the use of systems nitrates.

Say you want to run water culture, floating raft or DWC or NFT, now I know this is hard to do with solids in the system unless I employ huge turnover of water and a UGF. Adding more UGF I might have solved the problem for floating raft and NFT culture, or most of it.

I like the idea of beds then water culture, but beds can take a lot of set up and space that could be otherwise be utilised for lighter and easier to install vertically stacked nft or huge DWC tomatoes etc...

Large pipes are ridiculously expensive and so buying these and filling them is only an option if you find a large pipe fire sale. So back to water culture options and how to deliver solids free nutrients without needing a large external bio-filter.

It's all about space for me, trying to find a way of feeding larger volumes of plants in a smaller space. The more intense I can make the garden aspect the more fish I can raise in a given area.

Aha! Understand - Thanks AA

You may have just given me a signature:

While I live, I learn .... and I'd like to learn a whole lot more.

Waddayathink?

Shin

Aquaaddict here is a iday for you,

what if you were to put in a Fluidize sand fillter(minnus the sand) before the ntf/dwc beds, that should trap the solids and still provide a place for bacteria to grow all-the-while keeping all the fish waste in the system.

Gravel and worms all the way. It works, it's cheap, and it brings with it all the buffering capacity and composting benefits of the benthos. Plus, I never had to clean it and never plan to start.

well if it works for you it should work for me.