Question about system design

hydrophilia

TCLynx wrote:

Feeding if the tank surface is covered by raft and plants, how do you go about feeding and making sure you are feeding the right amount. How much feed is getting lodged into the root protection baskets before getting eaten? How much feed gets splashed up onto the rafts to rot and smell up the place.
Seeing the fish. If the surface of the fish tank is covered by rafts, how to you see and inspect the fish? I don't like having fish in a tank where it is really difficult for me to see them. And if it is covered by rafts, you might not even see a dead fish after it floats up, it could be lodged under the raft somewhere unseen to cause really major water quality problems.

Can't agree with this strongly enough. I'm currently in crisis that is exacerbated by inability to see into a 16' (5 meter) deep cave. I do not have plants floating to catch feed as that really was problem in short time I tried it. I think it is far better to have only removable lids on tanks without anything to snag food and plenty of inspection points for fish.

Next systems will be better!!! :cheers:

Brian72

After raising Tilapia for over 10 years on a commercial basis and hydropincs as well, this is what we found. If you are trying to do both operations for profit, then they need to be seperate. Once you start floating plants on tanks the roots will pick up waste and pollute the tank to much. The plants also get in the way when you try and manage the tank for production purposes. If you are feeding any amout of feed, you will never have enough plant root to supply substantial bio filteration. The plants thrive on the nitrates, not the actual solids. You need to convert the amonial into nitrites, then the nitrites into nitrates for the plants to do the best.

The best thing to do is to take all of you fish waste and discharged water and put it into a tank. A 3 compartment tank works best. First and second compartment are used for settling out solids. The third compartment should have fairly clear nitrate rich water. That is what the plants love. If you get a chance go to www.growfish.com and you can see some of the plants

Outbackozzie

Nice design Brian :cheers:

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Question about system design

Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics