Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

it according to howmuch solids in your MT and the temperature of the water in MT.. I use an aquarium heater in my MT during anaerobic cycle to speed up decomposition... and well in two days ammonia is past 12 ppm.. after I remove water for additions to system I take this opportunity to clean out filter to add more solids to MT and top it off with FT water... tap water kills bacteria and slows down the process.. soo I just top up FT with tap water instead..

is your tap water chlorinated? Mine is filtered without chlorine or chloramine

I really doesn't make much of a difference filtering water to add to a FT its really a waste of money... Tap water can be added to FT by atleast 10 to 15% of water volume without any ill problems... but for MT its better to take FT water to help culture the beneficial bacteria within system... people are too sterilize in coming to rearing fishes.. lol de grow perfectly in the wild in muddy instances too.. so why are we breaking down their immune system with all des filtering.. I never had a fish death due to a virus of bacteria till this date..

You make a good point about over filtering

How do you clean the filter material to recover the solids?

I partially fill a barrel and put the filter material in there. Then I agitate the crap (lol) out of it. There are still some acumulation on it though after the agitation. Then throw it back in the filter tank.

My pre filter is a clarifier but have come to find out, a 20 minute retension time ( per UVI) removes 95% of the solids. My retension time is only about 9 minutes ( takes 9 minutes to fill the clarifier from empty ). Do RFF require a retention time as well?

RFF needs a much shorter retention time I have heard minimum 30 seconds but seen units specified as 2-3 minutes.. I think longer is better for more solids to be allowed to settle... Can you convert your current clarifyier to a RFF?

well for my media filter.. I can take it offline without stopping my water flow to GB. after that I simply aggregate the material within the the Media filter container itself.. I don't spray the filter down with tapwater... because one that kills off bacteria.. waste water and remove the bio film that was growing on media.. a quick shake loosen any heavy solids.. after that I remove media from filter and all that reminds in container is the water thats filled with the fish crap.. this water I then transfer to MT to decompose... and thats y I usually clean filter right after I add MT to system.. both container is same size so same amount remove is added back..

to answer your next question.. YES retention time plays a big difference in how much solids is settled out in you RFF... but RFF is more effective than Swirl filters if designed properly... a 20min retention time is the optimal value.. but mines is 5 mins atm so I guess yours is alot more effective than mines atm.

Any Clarifier can be converted to RFF.. the beauty of RFF is that its very versatile when coming to containment shapes... square... cylinder.. so on doesn't affect its effectiveness compared to a swirl filter... long retention time allows for smaller solids to settle out easier and prevents re-suspension.. but basic yes its very easy to convert.. lol I converted one of my media filter to RFF and all I used was a 90 elbow so extra pipe and a 4" piece of 6" dia pipe

Cookie, most RFF don't need 20 min. A settling basin needs 20 min.
Here is some pretty cool info http://hydronov.com/2014/aquaponics.html

Lol where was this information so ppl does breakdown their solids anaerobically too... thats nice to know for confirmation.

I think Savidov used geo textile bags for solids collection and it would seem that this would be anaerobic too...

http://www.canadianaquaponics.com/p/resources.html?m=1

Und er Savidov high yield AP article

well that's good to know.. but with anaerobic digestion alot of ammonia is produced... I realize that this high amounts of ammonia is not really needed in our Aquaponics system simply because we already have enough nitrogen in out systems.. but we do need the phosphates without the excess nitrogen.. so how do we extract it... build bacteria to consume the excess ammonia and carbon to mineralize the waste after anaerobic decomposition is done.. and hence the aerated cycle after is needed.. since plants grows in aerobic conditions.. the nutrients must also be in an aerobic state as well... thats my theory so far.. after im going to experiment in how to harvest nitrates effectively... let the expermenting continue..

Quick update... the flowers are blooming... and everything is growing excellent so far... I am pleased with the MT water and the success I'm getting from that.. I'm finally getting PEPPERS to grow in my system.. which never happened in all my 5yrs of aquaponics.. lol its lovely to see organic can actually grow plants..

pics time











Happy Growing.!!!!

Quick update... the flowers are blooming... and everything is growing excellent so far... I am pleased with the MT water and the success I'm getting from that.. I'm finally getting PEPPERS to grow in my system.. which never happened in all my 5yrs of aquaponics.. lol its lovely to see organic can actually grow plants..

pics time











Happy Growing.!!!!