Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I'm an avid bio-science student, though one that doesn't attend college. I've read about bioreactors used to filter emissions from coal power plants. I thought it was a great idea. I found some people that took it out of the universities and into their back yards. I think a system like this could turn an enemy to a friend in a commercial enterprise. What if you didn't have to purchase fuel for your delivery trucks and heating expendatures? Stockpiled summer production could possibly cushion winter heating costs. Here's a system of particular interest I found,
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3QwwAPDelE[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_mZqQE1ivw&feature=related[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWBBJgKkqjI&feature=related[/youtube]

The waist product is pure oxygen. I've known decorative fish growers that use pure oxygen to supplement their tanks to increase growth and color.

Fixed the youtube links for you...








You opnly need to include the identifier between the "youtube" codes... ie... just the "k3QwwAPDelE" part of the first link... et al...

this looks kinda cool.

Im curious tho of the cost of running vs total production.

Thank you very much Rupert. Sorry about the delayed response, I thought I replied yesterday on my phone, but apparently it didn't work. I'm very curious to find a cost/benefit analysis, but most of the basic Info I've found is related to filtering power plant smoke stacks. In that case it's a logical no brainer, something like, "we could make more money?"

Hi All,

you could also use Algae water filter (scrubber). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8hWqYq5 ... re=related

Does all of the above, ie produces algae for whatever purpose (oil, O2, fish feed,worm feed etc), plus filters water. The other benefits they have over PBR's are cheaper and easier to separate/ filter from the water because the algae grows on screens. Just take the screen out of the water and all the algae is removed.

Cheer.

Great link! Seems though they're using that for filtering algae from residential tanks, and extracting it as a byproduct. Problem I imagine is the filter robbing nutrients that should go to the veggies in an AP setup, which makes me reconsider the cost of a separate algae PBR system in parallel to a commercial AP setup. the nutrients have to come from somewhere, and how could it be implemented in a symbiotic system? By the way, PBR is always cheaper and easier to separate in the states. (Rupert, or anyone with skills greater then mine, please post an image of pabst blue ribbon. I am so new to this forum thing.)

Yes, these guys are using them for Salt water home aquariums.

Also correct that If it was placed upstream of your GB's/DWC/NFT (plants) then it would suck the nutrients out first. It would be much better downstream of your GB's, but before your FT's. It would tend to suck out any remaining nutrients in the water before it was returned to the fish. It would be to an extent self regulating in that the more nutrients in the water the faster the algae would grow. Conversely if there was low nutrient levels, the algae growth would be much slower.

These guys do larger scale waste water treatment plants http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8KQcWjd ... 2D9C063D1C They pull extra nutrients from agricultural run off that find their way into the Mississippi and into the Gulf of Mexico causing algae blooms which then die and suck up all the O2 from the water creating coastal dead zones.

There is currently being one of these waste water treatment plants built for NYC because they have far lower setup and running costs than traditional technology plants.

The original link I sent you is a filter ATS unit made from Acrylic and using T5 grow lights. However it can be done using sunlight and a 5 gal bucket, or whatever. If you want any other clues on how to make them look at- http://www.algaescrubber.net/forums/vie ... p?f=9&t=68 .

Cheers.

Hmmm thinking could be a use for these in aquaponics, some one doing high stocking rates could utalise this to create there own O2

Extracted from Link- Tubular photobioreactor are very suitable for outdoor mass cultures of algae since they have large illumination surface area. On the other hand, one of the major limitations of tubular photobioreactor is poor mass transfer. It should be noted that mass transfer (oxygen build-up) becomes a problem when tubular photobioreactors are scaled up. For instance, some studies have shown that very high dissolved oxygen (DO) levels are easily reached in tubular photobioreactors (Torzillo et al., 1986; Richmond et al., 1993; Molina et al., 2001).

These systems do put out a lot of oxygen. Since light penetrates only 1 or 2 inches unusably its not necessary to have a large tube. I designed a simple cheap system that found it way into a book book written on the topic. It uses the clear florescent light bulb covers that happen to fit perfectly into a 1/25 inch pvc pipe fitting. If anyone is interested, I will see if I can dig up the photos.

It is possible to use artificial light in the center, but I have not calculated how efficient this would be. Without light the system consumes oxygen.

Smaller tubes sound brilliant, reading into algae bioreactors, i found people where having the same problems with light penetration in the larger tubes, I'm sure we'd all love to see your system, smaller tubes like what you propose would be great to incorporate into greenhouse designs without robbing too much light. If one could produce enough heating oil in a year to heat a greenhouse through the winter, it would be a great way to add sustainabilty to a greenhouse.

I also found this link about some of the pitfalls of commercial production.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9765452-7.html

I like the idea of using this in sewage and wastewater treatment. It seems that's a ready source of "nutrients" in every city and town, and putting it to use makes more sense than spending millions to get rid of it.

You could make a small system and feed it with worm casings easily enough and in the rare event that you have to many nitrates you could run system water through it.

Only thing I would change it I would try and get a "netting" that was bio degradable, something made from hemp or cocoa fibers. That was I can just throw the thing into my worm bin.