Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hey there peeps, i am have some issues with solids now my little fishes are pooping not so little poopoos. I will build a RFF if i have to but it will be difficult with the space i left myself between the Ft's and the green house. What i am hoping for is some lateral thinking on breaking these solids down a little, so they don't clog up my outlets on the GB's, a type of macerator i guess. I was thinking of maybe some air as the feed has about 2m drop from FT to ground before making its journey to the GB's. See pic, not the best but you can get the gist.

How big are your fish poos?

do you have a picture of the problem?

No can take some tomorrow arvo.
I'm running 8mm holes on my outlets on the GB's, figure can't go bigger as then only a couple would work so defeating the purpose of spreading them around the the GB. Am also considering a bigger pump as the volume is questionable.

Ill admit I aways had this issue when I had quite a low capacity pump, now that Im running a larger pump I have never had to clean out my distribution pipes. My only assumption was that is was knocking it all out by force but Im not sure.

im feeding 4 GB's with 6500l per hour pump that equates to around 4000l per hour after considering head.

That rules that out then

I used 1/4' holes in my siphon and have never had an issue? Think yours may be too big. Never mind...just checked the conversion and your only mm bigger. 1" (40mil) pipe sizing on your outflow? Maybe a better filter, cage on inlet side of pump?

Hey you might not Like this..

- had a Look at your Photo's..
Your head from your system is not 4k per hour but less I would have to say..

If each one of the IBC's under each cluster of Grow-beds is a Sump I think your going to run into issue's..
- I'm dealing with that same issue right now.. Multiple sump's linked together via uniseals..
I have 2 full IBC's interlinked and any movement at all can cause the uniseals to leak.
You have to be very careful that they don't move..


- In this Photo I left the 2 cage bars between the pipes.. They got removed and the initial leak I head went away.. the bladder settle and no more leaks for 2yr's..

Ok what I'm doing to fix my issue is to pull out Both sumps.. Replace them with a new 1[Yes 1 sump only]

Multiple sump's Could cause issue's..



From the Picture's are the Fish tanks the 2 that are outside of the Shade house..? If so it looks like the pipe from the Fish tank is a 90mm or So.. Have you ran that as close to the grow-beds as you can before you changed size..?


This is how I ran My main Feed..

100mm then reduced to 50mm up stem then split and reduced to 25mm.. It work's..



This Pic is to give you a height indication that the height of my FT is close to that of the grow-beds there is only about 20cm's difference from the top or the feed pipes to the lvl of the water in the FT..


In the Last photo, the pipe that comes up at an angle then travels to the blue barrel you see is my return Line back to the FT.. the Blue barrel is a further filtration in the system..[Moving media bed]
- In my modification that will be reduced to 32mm down from 50mm, I'm running a 10,000lt Pump that is pumping at about 6-7k..

Basically what I'm trying to say is don't follow my mistakes and make the system KISS..
Which is what I'm about to do..

Make your system as simple as you can..


I am in the process of build a very simple system, I'm aiming for height difference of no more than 20cm between the height of the water in the FT's and the sump..
The Sump will house a 6000lt Pump controlled via a float switch..

Hope this helps you..


Juergen

From my understanding, the poo is getting caught on the pipes that's pumping water into the GB's?

I'd have thought if they get clogged enough, it'd create back pressure, and the water would push it out?

Can you redesign the outlets? So they are smooth and don't have rough bits the poo can get snagged on?

My problem is that the 4 Gb's are gravity feed, if crap blocks up in 1 bed, then the flow goes to the other 3, or if 2 block up then flow goes to the other 2. I went down Sunday morning to find 3 GB;s trickling to the extent the syphon wouldn't kick in and 1 bed going flat out.
The other problem is its not just poo, its also swelled up lupin (yabby feed), beginning to re-think yabbies on the bottom of my fish tanks, the original plan was for them to be in the sumps, i just haven't made them escape proof yet.
Having said that all i have to do is poke the holes and they clear quite easily. When i didn't have the outlet spreader on, the crap just built up at the outlet where it was rotting/stinking, growing algae, breeding mozzies and blocking the corner and also root balls were forming in that corner.

Hi SnowT, i will just have to wait and see, nothing i can foo about the sumps now, the only way they coming out is in pieces.
Don't know about you but if i was to go to 1 sump for 4 GB's it would want to be a big one, i still have to do regular top ups with those 2. It only takes a poor timed syphon and i can have 4 GB's almost ready to syphon when the sumps run too low.

Can you make the holes in the trickle outlet bigger (I don't use the trickle outlet, haven't seen a need for it in my system)?

i also find it strange the water pooling up around the syphon causing issues. Isn't it being sucked out when the syphon goes off? Can you make the bell syphon lower? Mossies don't like moving water, I've actually noticed less mozzies around since I got my AQ up and running.

Mine is pressure fed, Id say thats why mine is now self cleaning now Ive upgraded the pump. I think there will always be some level of maintenance with distribution pipes but if the lupins are the main causes for blockages in your situation maybe switch to some small diced potato or something. To be honest yabbies actually dont eat very much at all.

Actually while i got you on that topic, what do you feed your Yabbies? Potato?
Also i am feeling a bit guilty about the lifestyle i have created for my yabbies, especially after reading one of your posts talking about how they can be busy critters at night. I have only put various size pipes on the bottom for them to crawl into but nothing to keep them busy, do you put anything on the bottom to keep them busy??

Also what cup size and spacings did you use on your rafts??

Cheers