Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Protien skimmers take out the poo from a system. Does it also take out the ammonia, NO2 & NO3. I know these are the things we want in a system I'm just looking at a way to control the amounts without using Nitrite eating bacteria or water changes.

No.... the fish respire ammonia.... it's the nitrification process in the growbeds... or in the case of an aquarium... the filter... that processes the ammonia into firstly nitrites then to nitrates..

In an AP system... we also want the "poo" in our growbeds, as this provides essential trace elements to the plants as it breaks down in the beds...



You have me confused.... if you intend to have an AP system then you will have growbeds ... surely....

Or are you intending to just have an aquarium and filter with an external filter??

Will have GB's. Just looking at between plantings and I want an expandable system. Plus a 20% water change in a 55lk pool makes a very soggy back yard.

my understanding of protein skimmers is that they take out dissolved PROTEIN.

this protein is a nitrogen source that will end up becoming ammonia then nitrite then nitrate, which in a marine system you want to limit.

Hence, you protein skim to reduce the amount of nitrate produced.

I dont think they have much of a place in AP. Aquaculture for sure, but not AP.

This is what I'm looking at converting. I'll be setting up rows of half drums to the right that will drain back into the pool. Just in the planning stages now.

I'm not sure that is big enough. May I suggest a bigger tank

Nice tank.... if you're going to be "setting up a row of half drums to the right"... you're going to have ammonia-nitrite-nitrate processing going on Duff....

It's just nature.....

why half-drums Duff ?

with that amount of water to "filter" through the growbeds , you'll get a hell of alot more efficiency out of half-IBC's , they even come with their own supports ..

maybe Im just hooked on cutting IBCs in half & see opportunities for them to be used everywhere

+1 for Boris,,, half IBC's would give a heck of a lot more grow space and growing media for the algie, plus save a lot of "frame" building and plumbing.

I was looking at them, just thought half drums that drain into a pvc line back to the pool would allow me to empty and clean a drum if it needed it. is it easy to pick up a IBC and clean it out. Also had an idea to make raised concrete beds 1.2m by 2.5 and seal them. I like the idea of a mixed system so I may use all three types of GB's, stay on everyones good side then.

This is my side yard.

Dufflight,,,try to please everyone you'll end up pleasing no-one.
Just do what YOU think is best.It's YOUR system,your choice.

Has anyone tried to use a protien skimmer to remove the solids before a NFT or DWC. I'm going to be building a large one to get rid of aglae in the pool. I have an aglae filter that works well but am way too lazy to clean it.
Other advantage of the skimmer is the amount of o2 you have to get into the water for the bubbles to remove solids. Might not have to add any air stones to the DWC as the water leaving the skimmer would be pretty high in o2.

Taking the heretical view
If your system has a large amount of DOC's there is every justification for using a skimmer. A healthy environment for fish would not include high volumes of DOC's and whilst I respect your opinion on most things Steve if a conversion was to take place it would involve bacteria etc which are inimical to fish esp regarding injuries or stress. If aerated water your system is holding bubbles (foam) longer than it should that is a first indication that there is something wrong, normally you could not get a protien skimmer working in fresh water.
This of course is only IMHO.

Thanks Duff, I was trying to be nice and good for a while

I have had great results with a swirl filter & bead filter. I am putting some poo into the beds, but more and more I am thinking having complete control leads to better safer fish production. So in that effort I am using real sea salt to add all trace elements:
http://www.seaagri.com/research.html This salt has 90 trace elements in it and can be used to grow tomatoes if you add nitrates and some K. Its CHEAP to.