Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Thx guys! Yeah Mikey, it's 11pages before pictures... Maybe after its published but it will be in Korean!

Thx Bio- yes we are making several types of cheeses right now (your normal crumbled goat cheese, chèvre, mozzarella, queso blanco, cottage cheese) and will be experimenting with cheddar, feta, Gouda, and many more varieties! As soon as my kids are weened we will be making a lot more goat milk products .

Come on Ryan... are you telling me you can write in Korean? If so, I'm waaaay impressed.

Translate it back into English so the rest of us can read it.

Mikey

Ahahaha! Come on now, Whats the fun in that?

Plumbing some expensive valving today! Measure twice, cut once baby!


A good pic showing nice fish distribution In one of my tanks due to proper inlet design:

That is a beautiful shot. Perhaps you can educate us as to what that inlet design is? Please?

agree - inspirational

Tilapia?

Thanks guys and you guessed it, hybrid Tilapia.

First, let me say there is a diffetence between a set of 1000 gal tanks at higher densities with good filtration and the typical backyard "enough to make it work" design that's using low densities and trash cans for filters. (been there, done that ). Inlet design will change with the size and shape of the tank. Round takes (or square with rounded corners) with a center bottom drain are chosen for there self cleaning abilities. The tangential flow created will draw the solids to the center and quickly evacuate them from the tank. The inlet should be constructed so that you have equal flow throughout the water column. You do this by dropping the pipe to the bottom of the tank and drilling multiple holes at even spaces going vertically up this "outlet manifold". Given a flow rate, you can calculate hole orifice size and number to design the outlet manifold.

Many backyard/small systems will have a single outlet dropping or spraying the water into the tank for aeration purposes. In larger tanks, we use dedicated aeration or oxygenation for that. In very large tanks (saw some 35' x 12' this year) they have nozzles pointed at specific points and dead spots because the body of water is so big (along with under water cameras, built in Mort flushes and all kinds of other fun stuff)

Thank you for the explanation! Home built bait tanks use the same design. Of course, the pre built kind have beautiful inlet manifolds.

This is very cool! Why does this result in even fish distribution?

A couple of questions for you Ryan.

1. Is the wide flange around the drain just to keep large debri or dead fish from blocking the drain then? I realize the width probably varies with tank and drain size but how high above the bottom is the bottom of the flange?

2. Is there a formula for the manifold hole outlet size by flow rate calculation that you're willing to share?

Thanks Ryan.

pics explain 1000 words

Consistent flows throughout the circular tank (naturally causing a faster current towards the outside, slower towards the inside) slows the fish to swim where he feels comfortable. They all want space so they distribute themselves accordingly. More fish, same pattern, just tighter.. less fish wider spacing, same pattern unless you so go so
Low that they start to get territorial (which is why you use an appropriate stocking density).

Don't have a pic I can post but it is just a plate about 1/2" off of the bottom. Its a fish guard and helps waste near the center to get sucked down the drain.

I don't have a formula handy, I just re-arranged my aquaponics references/materials/formulas in my back room and can't get to them right now (under a bunch of crap). I think if you google "water flow through orifice" you might find some tables (on my phone, like usual).

I'll upload some new pics in a sec!

120 heads ready to go!





Awesome healthy Hybrid Bass

Monster named "Moby"...biggest Tilapia I've ever had my hands on!!!

Oh, totally forgot but I just got in my new business cards! Here they are!

Nice!!!