Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Strong dishwashing liquid should remove the oil, along with plenty of scrubbing. Strong alkali will remove it with less effort, but is not recommended unless you are properly set up to handle that sort of chemical.

Awesome, back to the residue left in the tank i searched on google and i see people are using vinegar to clean fish tanks, do u think the vinegar will dissolve the olive oil?

I don't know if vinegar will do the job or not, but it is an acid, and alkalis are normally used to dissolve oils. I wouldn't expect there to be much oily residue to clean from fish tanks, just some algae.

Yeah i just done some googling and searching on BYAP and came to the conclusion there isnt any right way of cleaning these tanks, people were using degreasers and all sorts of chemicals to clean the left over stuff out, i think that would probably be more hazardas than the left over product in the tanks

For me i am lucky that the cap was left off and bottom valve was left open so over the time my tank sat on the sellers property the rain just flushed most of the residue out, i have a strip around 10cm at one end of the tank it goes to the other end at around 30cm wide this is the only oily section i really need to clean the rest of the FT should scrub up with a broom or nylon brush

The $140 for 5 bags of clay balls is biting me on the ass saying "NFT is cheaper" haha but i cant grow my peppers in the NFT system

Another concern is if i ever move house that is a lot of clay balls to be handling in among the house moving, it's around 250-300 litres of clay balls to fill the GB

I know i keep changing my mind and i need to settle on a system, F&D is saying easy to set up and use but a major hassle if i need to move house

NFT is yelling out to me as much cheaper to operate, much easier to pack up and move, however requires a little more setting up

Will one of these filters work for pre-filtering for the NFT system? http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/400LPH-Aquar ... SwAuNW5XeM

I doubt it, from the description: ... "filtration is enough for aquariums of up to 80 litres!"

Ahh bugger i didn't even see that, i watched some videos on youtube making bio filters from plastic tubs they look really easy to make as i think i have mentioned before, so to run the NFT all i need is a bio filter to pre-filter the water before it goes into the channels?

If i went NFT my over all FT/GB height would be reduced to where i want it to be

I still need to build some type of strong support to go under the base of the FT as it will be placed on a sloping down hill, i was looking at timber today at Bunnings but i didn't want to invest a lot of money in just making a support base

Baking soda and a scrubby pad should help dissolve gummed up oils.

I will try dish washing liquid and baking soda thanks for the advice i'd be lost without forums and helpful people like this

I ended up going NFT and have half built my system this morning, i had a brain fart moment and only bought 4 of 8 end caps and no intake fittings

As for the ground im thinking about laying down a base of cement to level out the tank what do u all think of this? if the land lord says anything i will have to tear it up tho

I plan on going 2 and 3 plants per channel the plants will be lettuce and strawberries

While i was at Masters and Bunnings i was drooling over the 200mm PVC pipe thinking that would make one heck of a NFT system for pepper plants so i plan on adding that onto my FT once I'm up and running, the system will be around 1x1m 2x 200mm channels and 4 pepper/chilly plants

For the time being this little NFT system is going to get me up and running, i will be building one of these bio bucket filters

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BZ6zyQIf60

This bio filter will be placed next to the fence and above my FT water level i will have 4 small feeder hoses feeding the NFT channels directly from the filter bucket after the water has been filtered

I still need another piece of wood along the back joining the two ends to make it stable

I tried washing up liquid this afternoon with boiling hot water it moved the oil a little but once i added bleach it removed a lot of the crap including the oil, it may have been a combination of washing up liquid, bleach and hot water

i have the FT half filled with 2.5 litresof bleach in it hopping to see results tomorrow

can someone help me out with what media to use is this stuff ok? https://www.bunnings.com.au/landscape-s ... a_p3460107 its cheap and should fill a bucket canister style filter easily if i can use it

Scoria is fine as media if you have enough of it, but will stain your water unless all the fines are washed out. However, if you are planning to just use it in the bucket filter linked earlier, it probably will not have enough surface area for bacteria, unless you only have a few fish in the FT. It will also probably be a bit heavy to move around with the water coming into the filter, and may clog up and be difficult to clean.

You may have noticed the bioballs in the video had complex shapes to give a huge specific surface area, ie surface area per volume, and they are very light weight per volume. Scoria isn't too much different from expanded clay.

If i go with bio balls and a 20 litre bunnings bucket as my filter do u know what size bio balls i should purchase? is bigger better?

Will the bunnings bucket accommodate the 20 fish once they are grown or is it something that will get me started but i will have to upgrade later on?

Also do u know what size pump i should be looking for? i was just looking and only have a rough clue i was looking at 1500LPH thru to 5200LPH

I have this idea in my head that i can pump the FT water up thru my filter and as it reaches the top of the filter it flows back into the FT but i might be able to place my feed lines just below the overflow inside of the filter for a gravity feed down to the NFT channels do u think i'm dreaming? one feed line per channel will be 13mm with a valve on each to fine tune the flow rate

I have no experience with bio balls, but I suspect 20l may not be enough. Someone more familiar with them may post an answer for that. It really depends on their SSA as to whether they will have enough surface area for the bacteria. There is also the issue of accumulating fish poo- the smaller it is, the more often you'll have to clean it out, plus how well that filter retains solids- you don't want them in your NFT channels or going back to the FT. You are better off with more filtration than is absolutely required than having less, which will eventually cause problems.
As previously mentioned, small fish can eat a lot, so you should size your filter appropriately for them being large, not skimp on filtration at the start.

There will be some frictional resistance through the bucket full of bioballs, so that will reduce any pump's output, but a decent quality 1500-2000lph pump should be ok if you don't restrict the flow too much.

I don't have any NFT experience, but think you'll need to place the NFT channels above the filter so you have a water flow back into the FT with a bit of splashing for aeration, and if you can introduce some swirl into the FT, it will help concentrate/remove some solids, but with a square tank, you will have dead spots that need manually cleaning from time to time - round tanks are superior.

Some solid advice there Gunagulla thanks heaps

I have two indoor fish tanks and i just purchased a powered vacuum its ran by batteries i should be able to use this for the aquaponics FT its designed for cleaning gravel in aquariums but i cant se it being a problem with the outdoor stet up here it is here

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/182027787278 ... EBIDX%3AIT

If its not long enough or deep enough for the FT i can modify it with a longer pipe

Asfor the filter i found another design on Youtube last night its a external tube canister filter but only holds 22 litres of bio balls over 150mm width and 1 meter length but after u mentioned it may be under rated i'm now thinking of getting a 60 litre drum and sitting this on the ground next to the FT linked at the base of the FT and filter than pumping the water up thru the filter than into the NFT system what do u think? can i place the filter on the ground? the water inside the FT and filter will be about level with each other but the pump will be forcing the water up thru the filter or does the filter need to be above the FT to work?

I haven't completely gotten the whole reason some filters need to be placed below or above the fish tank, if a pump is powering it i'm thinking it shouldn't matter right?

Bio balls is out of the question i just looked up 100 pieces x40mm = 3 litres that's like $13for 3 litres and i need 60 litres, i didn't win lotto last night haha

I just read people are using nylon hose chopped into 30-35mm pieces and that is their bio media

What is the cheapest or relatively cheap bio media? people also said lava rock was the cheapest but needed to be used with sand, sand sounds like it could clog the system tho

If i could find something really cheap i may go with the 200 litre barrel as a filter i have the space too

A GB filled with river gravel should be sounding pretty good by now

Unless your filter is sealed to withstand a bit of pressure, you can't have it anywhere that will subject it to pressure.