Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Thanks Charlie,

I am thinking of getting 50L of this media from Earthan Group http://www.earthangroup.com.au/k1-bio-f ... edia-sale/ it is supposed to be just like the K1 media but cheaper. I have been checking out there bio filter sizing calculator and also watching Nate Story's Youtube videos on SSA.. apparently you can't have too much
I think I will buy this 50L and then start collecting bottle caps that I can add in laundry bags to my sump like you suggested.. Not that I use many plastic bottles, I will have to get friends to help collect them!

Thanks Tom...

I'm a fan of simplicity, so I think I'll start with the easy way and adjust as necessary.

Ofcourse the numbers don't Lie

Yeah I like having all the sump and water volume.. i think it stabilizes temperature/nutrients swings and gives reserve water in case of minor leaks or if you go on holiday

FANTASTIC SYSTEM TOM, One thing I haven't seen in the thread or videos is how you put your strawberry towers together>?

When I own my place i will be stealing many of your ideas. My current system is a lot less pretty but a lot more portable (rental) and still gives me 6m2 growbed space

Definitely, if you are tapped out on space and need more filtration yet your plants are using up all the nutrients available, time to add supplemental biological surface area. What ever you can and hopefully you can make sure there is plenty of extra aeration under it so that you get the best use of your extra surface area.

ya know, there are all sorts of different media people use for this sort of thing from the Bio-balls and others to simple screening or bird netting or filter material to bottle caps or whatever! Fluidized beds can be great bio-filtration in a small space but I understand it can sometimes be difficult to get everything balanced to keep them fluidized and flowing, that said, I've really never tried it myself.

Now if you are removing lots of solids with the RFF then you could take the water and sludge you remove and put it in a separate tank somewhere with lots of aeration and bubble it till it doesn't stink anymore then shut off the bubbler and let the gunk settle, the clear water on top will be really great nutrient rich water that you could reintroduce back to the system if you needed more nutrients and the stabilized sludge de-watered to make a really great solid nutrient soil amendment for the soil garden or wicking beds.

Hi TCLynx,

Yes I have been reading up a bit more and I have decided to go gown the path of fluidized beds with K1 media or similar (trying to get pricing on that now). However I don't really have room for more barrels where I can use gravity from the RFF filter so I am planning on using 2 of my sumps but using something like a laundry basket (plastic with gaps) and placing it under the water return from the grow beds above to create movement for the media and also running an airstone or two to the bottom of each laundry basket (I think I will have about 25L of media in each basket).

It's funny you mentioned the mineralization tank as I just bought a barrel to place under the SFF filter drain and plan to just put an airstone in the bottom of it and turn the air off every now and again and drain the top portion of water.. with the extra biological media I think it will be goo to reuse the RFF waste/nutrient..

Hi Will,

Great to hear that your enjoying the thread

If you want a good internet video on making strawberry towers then I can recommend this one http://www.instructables.com/id/How-To- ... rry-Tower/
Mine were slightly different because I got some free 100mm pipe and the end caps were ridiculously expensive so I made my own and glued them in.
You may want to look at the Zipgrow towers as well.. even if you don't want to buy them ( I probably would but they are in the US and I had already built mine) I think making some yourself wouldnt be too hard and you could use Matala filter mats in them which gives you lots of biological surface for breaking down amonia and is light weight and way easier to plant in and empty than expanded clay balls which get root bound (trust me it can be hard to get the plants out) I will be experimenting with foam filter pads I have bought in my towers instead of the clay balls.
Best of luck with your build

Where did you get your Matala filter mats from and how much, cheers. Paul is still away and does not have C1 bio in stock. Cheers

Hi Bear,

I didn't get the Matala mats last time as I found these round blue filter pads that I wanted to try first.. but I have been look at this place for Matala http://www.clearwaterlakesandponds.com. ... cm_x_3.8cm and ebay too.
These are the current round filters I bought http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/281105385150 ... 1423.l2649 they are 130mm diameter so I figured they would be perfect to squeeze into my 100mm pipe
Yes I got an email from Paul that he was away and he forwarded my request to Rupert so waiting to hear from him again soon.

Thanks
Tom

So you know, when you remove the solids and some water to bubble in a separate container, when that stabilizes and you let the solids settle so you can return the nutrient rich water to the system, that water doesn't require any extra bio-filtration, the nitrification has already taken place and the water you are returning to the system should just be very nutrient rich water (NOT ammonia or nitrite rich.) There are actually people out there selling the water from such "digesters" for rather amazing prices and then others who are de-watering the sludge from those digesters and selling it as well.

Yes that is what I thought, I probably worded my last message a bit poorly as I meant the biological filtration was to go in my sumps and the mineralization tank was to be seperate. I only empty the RFF filter about once a week (not sure how often it needs emptying? does it cause problems if it has gunk sitting in it for more than a few days?)... and there doesn't see to be that much gunk in there at the moment. Since all i need to do is put an airstone in the mineralization tank I would be a bit lazy if I didn't

How often to clean out the filter. Let you nose be your guide. If the smell of the stuff you clean out makes you gag, then you need to do it more often before it can reach that point. If the build up of stuff has enough time to get anaerobic, then you risk things like Hydrogen Sulfide being generated in the system and that is not good if it can get out of hand. You want to clean out often enough so that nasty stink never quite gets to happen (otherwise you need to add a degassing tank after your RFF to make sure you can outgas any of those nasty things like Hydrogen Sulfide before they can get back to your fish.) And if it looks like you actually have a build up of solids collecting, then you definitely want to do a clean out. If all you see is a thin layer of solids particles in the bottom and can still see through them to the bottom of the filter tank, then probably not enough there to worry about.

If solids are collecting fairly fast, enough to form an anaerobic layer in them, you probably need to do the cleaning every couple days since after about 73 hours the anaerobic stuff usually stinks bad enough to send the average person retching. Large operations (like UVI) remove solids Daily if not multiple times a day but they have huge sludge ponds for the stabilization and they feed the fish extensive amounts. They clean their net tanks either twice a week to once every two weeks depending on what nutrient profile they are pushing (clean it more often to keep the Nitrogen levels higher, less often to let some de-nitirication happen to reduce the amount of nitrogen for fruiting crops but they use degassing tanks before sending the water on through the system.) Cleaning of net tanks takes place using a hose reel to pull the nets out of the tank while they are sprayed off. This is one of those messy jobs that Intern are apparently invented for.

Most other larger systems.. would just use a drum filter...

I don't actually know of may aquaponic operations that use a drum filter. Ryan might be the only one I actually know of.

Recirculating Aquaculture, well that is a different story which I don't know much about.

Thanks, that's good information to know. I do notice that it smells a bit when I empty it.. not even close to bad enough to make me sick but maybe that is just my tolerance for gross smells
I guess it will be a good idea to just empty it every 2-3 days to be on the safe side.
With a mineralization tank and biofilter I am going to have to invest in another air pump since I think my 30L pump won't cut it between both of those and my FT.. oh well more stuff