Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I found these simple DIY egg tumblers. Its looks so simple to use some clear tube, pvc fittings, pantyhose rubber band, air pump, and stone.



Will this work alright? Or, would I be better off making one with a small bucket and a flowing stream of water?

So the bubbles are pulling water into the bottom of the big tube, which is covered in pantyhose?

I can't really see quite what is going on there but it looks like it might be something quick and small scale. The larger bucket flow versions might be more appropriate for the scale you want to run things on though. Perhaps make a couple of each and compare how well they seem to work for ya.

Yep, the air is lifting the water upwards and pulling water up through the "screen". That seems to be about the correct size for a mouthful of eggs from a single fish.

Wouldn't a mouthful of eggs from a fish be...well...in the fish's mouth? What is the device for?

Well, if I leave the eggs in the mothers mouth then she eats them or they hatch and I dont notice until most of them are eaten by the other fish. So to get almost a 100% hatch you catch the mothers while they hold eggs and hatch them yourself in another tank.

Hasn't following the laws of aquaponics taught you to let mother nature do her thing and all will be good?

DanDMan > nature

But with tilapia, sometimes intervention is needed. They Have a tendency to either breed way out of control or on the other hand, if the babies are swimming around the tank and there are some slightly older babies around, the bigger ones eat the smaller ones. Or my problem, the pump sucks them up.

I make mine from 2 liter pop bottles. Cut off the bottom, drill a bunch of holes in the cap and cut a peice of plastic screen wire to cover the holes. Glue the cap into a 1" PVC fitting and plumb it up to filtered water with fine flow control. Adjust the flow so they just tuble. Once the fry hatch they will swim until the yolk is absorbed, the overflow into the tank.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agPCeIVBs6A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cndnb5dFHaE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8cYWKC6m2o

Originally I used plastic pellets to diffuse the flow, but that wasn't needed.

Lol, well for a simple hobby, thats true, and in a stream with millions of gallons of water it works, but in a tank when you need a guaranteed 300+ fish in 30 days then you have to help out; believe me I have tried. To be serious about getting fry you can't leave them to their self. Well, at least not under my setup.

Thanks for the lings badflash.. I guess my choice is air lift or pumped water... Think I will try the air lift first just because its so simple. If that does not work then I like the 2 liter bottle idea.

Here is another one with easy to find parts:

Floresent tube cover:


2 inch pvc snug fits over clear tube.










I was just mainly curious if any of you had tried this method and if it works as well as using pumped water..



Images from http://canadafishtank.com/wp_marcel/200 ... g-tumbler/

I have had a fair bit to do with these tumblers in the Cichlid scene.
Personally I would give you the money for them, they were extremely expensive annly really useful for the smaller species not the Frontosa etc.

The very best result I have ever gained was via a homemade egg tumbler that even a 3 year old could construct.

I have some pics some where but fior the time g here is a description:
The tumbler has 3 main feature that must be set correctly to gain the net result.

DETAILS:
Materials:
- Suitable tumbling tank
- 1 x length of hose long enough to form a circle to support the strainer net.
- 1 x 6" Rice Strainer or the likes
- 1 x Air supply and fittings [suction caps etc.]

How does it work?
- Get yourself a length of hose [garden will do] and make a hoop by pushing one end of the hose into the other, this is the float ring.

- You secure the air line and reg tap in the tank so that the bubbles rise truly under the strainer

- The rest is standard i.e. check water parrameters, set bubbles so that the eggs are just tumbling not bouncing on the bottom of the net.

[TIP] If you take the plastic strainer and run hot water through it until mesh becomes pliable then push a golf ball firmly into the very centre of the strainer. This will leave a shallow depression that allows the eggs to rotate as well as tumble.

HTH

Very cool idea vegieman! That would make it easy to pick out bad eggs too. I like it.

Yep sure does, all I use is a large eye dropper to 'Suck' the foul eggs out before they can spread fungus etc. to the remaining viable eggs