Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Mattyoga

I found the bottom inlet cowl on the bio filter was starting gather some solids buildup so I changed it to a piece of 50mm PVC pipe that runs the full width of the blue barrel as shown in the diagram.

The PVC pipe has numerous holes & slots and with the air stone sitting directly underneath, it should clear any solids and help prevent any buildup occurring.

Another thing I found was that the bio media was lying along the slots in the cowl and causing a slight restriction to the flow. It wasn't a real problem but I decided to put PVC Cutlery Drainer over the cowl and keep the media right away from it.

The Radial Flow Filter cowl slots have not been any problem at all, but I've now found some wider slotted cowls and I'll replace the narrow one in the RFF just too be safe.

Great idea using the small basket to block the media. I will use this idea for when I build my MBBF and for the emergency overflow in my fish tank to keep the fish from taking a ride down the tube. Thanks.

Thanks Guitarwes, with your overflow you can just bore a lot of holes in an end cap, don't glue it on and then if it needs cleaning just remove it and hose it out.

It's only an emergency outlet and possibly never need cleaning, for my outlet I cut a small section from the bottom of a PVC basket and made a small grill that fitted into the PVC tank outlet.

My fish haven't been eating due to the cold weather and I thought it was time to check for any sign of deficiency or poor health so I took a small video and all appears too be OK.

It's pretty hard to catch these guys with a still camera they're too fast so video is a lot easier, if I did find any problems I'd then take still photos for a better look.

Currently there are 28 Silver Perch, 5 Tandus Catfish & 5 Freshwater Mussels in the fish tank with another 6 Mussels in the sump. These guys are approx. 8 months old and are still quite timid, I think that will change when the weather gets a bit warmer lately they are starting to come a bit closer to the surface more than they have been in the past.

The piece of PVC pipe with the small holes drilled in it is 100mm/4" long and that's what I use as guide sizing the fish when one swims close enough to it.

Nice one Jo Blow..
One upside of them not eating much is that the tanks nice & clean

Thanks Rob.

Even when they were feeding up to 4 & 5 times a day in summer the tank still stayed quite clean, I think the twin SLO's are the answer, it definitely stays cleaner than it did with just the one SLO.

And now with 2 Bio filters and a RFF added to the system things should be even better next summer.


Rob I built the filters after watching your videos, thanks for the advice.

Joe

With the warmer weather the fish are eating 4 times a day and up to 6 on the hotter days.

Another Worm treat

These guys aren't far off the dinner table, the dual SLO is 200mm wide so they're growing:

Real Nice Fish there Jo!
I look forward to seeing these and your system,
I love this system of yours, really neat, tidy and great craftsmanship.
Good job mate,

Thanks Porter I'm looking forward to catching up.

The fish are coming along nicely and the plants have all been kicking goals even the Chillies and Capsicum that didn't do so well last year have gone well this time round.

Summer was a non event but I managed to get a good turnover in the GB's.

The pumpkins in the wicking bed didn't do all that well possibly because of the short summer but anything in the Gb's did OK.

Just read through your thread from its humble beginnings to the amazing set up that you have now. Fantastic work Joe. I love this Forum and how it records people's AP journeys. I really like your dual SLO - I am thinking that I will need to add another SLO and some more growbeds (enough already! I haven't even got my towers planted out yet!) as my new pump will have a higher flow and my 50mm SLO and current growbeds may not cope with the volume (I have made provision to throttle it down by recirculating some in the ST, but why waste all that extra capacity? And the trout will poop more as they grow...).

Thanks Joc,

I've found the dual SLO too be very effective in the fact that by having 2 - 50mm outlets I'm in fact getting a 100mm flow instead of 90mm and it allowed me to add more filtration, I could double up or duplicate the filtration.

Remember that the SLO is only an overflow running from the bottom of the tank and works exactly the same as an overflow at the top except that it's overflowing from the bottom of the tank instead of the top of the tank.

So the volume of water pumped into the tank must be the same volume that leaves the tank if it's any more you have a overflow problem. With dual SLO's that flow is slightly faster than a single 90mm SLO, plus you have the advantage of sending water in two directions.