Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hey, I've been there. Just a few years ago, things weren't too rosey around here. Business' were down 50-60%, 3 kids in college, and wife's business was down about 25% also. You have to tighten the belt when things are tough. Completely understand.

There is some very good info on this site.

Some changes coming...

The sandy soft florida ground was not playing nice since I started APs. The FT were on the sandy ground at the VERY beginning of my setup. The tanks would always shift causing issues with flow patterns and water levels. For this system, I put the IBC and barrels on pallets. Same thing. Sand to soft and shifts. Have to constantly jack the tanks up and add more wood to raise up a low side. Every few months it needed adjustments.

Yesterday, I transferred the fish all into one IBC. The IBC was emptied into the sump while the growled water level was raise to help hold the extra volume. Moved the IBC to the temporary location, then filled it up and temporaly plumbed it to the the intake and the outflow just empties strait into the GB. Emptied the second IBC FT, and again, moved it to a temp location. Leveled the ground, compacted with a full 55 GAL barrel rolling it on the new pad, and framed it yesterday. Today, I spent from 9am to about 1pm mixing 65 bags of 60 pound concrete in a cement mixer. That was NOT easy work. But its done. hopefully this will stop the nonsense with the shifting tanks. Of coarse it Florida and it rains in the afternoons... So I put a tarp over the 12 foot by 9 foot pad. Now I have to wait 3 days before I can start moving the FTs back and add back the filter tanks. Waiting on PVC gate valves and k2 media to arrive in the mail to redesign the new filter tanks. Also, I'm searching for screw top barrels for filters this time. I usually use the typical 2 bung barrel and cut the top but couldn't figure out a way to keep it covered while stool looking nice.

Stay tuned....I'll post pictures of the progress as it happens. Oh yea...no food for the fish till this is all done since I don't have a mechanical filter before going into the media bed in it's temporary location.

Here is a youtube video with some updates

https://youtu.be/uI4D9fqEJcE


And this is the plan for the piping. (work in progress. Still need to add waste drains on the filters.)

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipM ... xoVzVWclp3


https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipM ... xoVzVWclp3

Suggestions and comments are welcomed. Thanks!

Ok.. Figured out how to post up the photos. Let me know what you think. The barrels will actually be the screw top type.

Got a pretty nice system going there but I'm seeing lots of metals, looks like copper and galvanized corrugated metal or am I wrong? Probably not a good idea for the fish but may or may not cause you troubles.

You referring to the cover and valve?

If so, the 2 valves will be replaced with PVC gate valves this week when the order arrives. The corrugated covers I'm still looking for a fix. Not sure yet.

Some plastic corrugated polycarbonate would be a good replacement (with some bracing) for the galvanized. Twinwall polycarbonate would probably work even better if you don't block off too much fresh air.

Yup. That sounds like a good idea. Ether that or maybe a non treated wood frame with thick black weed barrier stapled to the frame for the FT. But for the sump, something similar but raised a couple feet to prevent the dogs or kids from stepping on it and falling in.

Pretty amazing setup

Boss thanks for the comment. Its three years of transformation. And this years upgrade seems to be in progress and bigger on an impromptu schedule. Things just happen. Wheels in my head turn then I start doing. I'm tired though....but love it!

Ok...tanks are on the pad.. here is the latest video. Looking for 3 screw on barrels to procede with filters.

So valves are ordered and the k2 media is on hand. How exactly is the static upflow filters plumbed? Is the inlet pipe pointed up toward the k2 or down to the floor of barrel? How close to the floor is the inlet pipe or does it not matter much?

Was looking into getting a conical tank for a RFF but shipping makes it prohibitive. Tank depot wants about $130 for tank, $130 for stand and $250 to ship. There is a local tank dèpot about an hour away but they don't stock it ether. So back to a regular flat bottom barrel for a RFF.

Friday I'll be driving 3 hours one way to pick up screw top barrels. I have plenty regular blue barrels on hand but cutting out the tops make it difficult to make a cover. The screw top is a nice and easy way to have a tidy cover.

My system runs on a CHIFT PIST concept.

Any down sides to decanting the MT straight to the sump? Any fines would go back to the RFF and 2 static upflows.

Trying to design in a vortex brewer to the above pictured design. Id like to avoid emptying and filling the vortex brewer MT using buckets.

How long before shutting off the vortex does the top water clear before decanting can start?

First off I haven't watched your video yet so forgive me if I've messed up on what I've suggested. I'll get to the video at some point later today and fix anything at that point . I started working on this before the mention of the vortex brewer so my last suggestion about the 2 gallon bucket with K2 might not work if it screws the vortex action up (centering it will probably work but really only one way to find out).

-------------

As long as you have a way to get it from their store, ask the nearest Tank Depot if they get regular shipments and if they can include a conical bottom tank in with their next order so that you can pick it up at their store and you don't have to pay any shipping (make sure you let them know you're trying to avoid the shipping costs). Verify the total cost including shipping and expected date the store will get the tank. Most of the time a store will be glad to do this since they're already paying for the delivery with their regular goods and it's a guaranteed sale (it just depends on how their items come to them).

On plumbing the upflow filters, it depends on how you are trying to set them up. I'm setting some up right now and intend to come in high because I have an inner chamber (5 gallon bucket) with the media contained inside this. My water will go down and then back up into the media area through openings. I'm hoping to collect the solids from the bottom below the inner chamber.

My suggestion to you would be to come in low since you have one chamber but not all the way at the bottom. All your inflow and outflow pipes will need to prevent the media from flowing back in and you want to spread the flow or at least prevent the inflow from either shifting the media around or throwing up all of the solids that have accumulated on the bottom. Net pots or atrium grates will work for pipe covers to prevent media from getting in and can break the flow without restricting it too much. I wouldn't permanently attach the fittings inside the tank just drill pilot holes and use short stainless steel screws (1/2 inch or maybe 5/8ths) to lock them in place so you can remove them and change the arrangement if needed.

For the MT I think I remember Andreas saying 10 or 15 minutes was enough settling time. You may be able to get the same result with K2 around the outlet from the MT so that the outgoing solids are trapped and if this works (and I'm pretty sure it will) then you can probably automate the inflow/outflow to and from the MT (depends on what you have in the way of timers and how short the cycle will go). My plan here is to use a 2 gallon food grade pail with K2 surrounding the outflow to filter the MT outflow to the sump as I've suggested to you. It won't be perfect but it will do a good enough job I think. I think the water level in the Upflow filter should be slightly higher than the outflow height of the MT so when the pipe from the drain of the upflow filter opens water will flow toward the MT.

My system will be two 20 gallon upflow filters each having a 5 gallon center portion for the actual upflow and nothing in the outer portion. The water will enter and either go into a swirl motion or go straight at the bucket so that the flows around either side cancel each other. Either way the solids wind up going down first and hopefully stay on the bottom before the flow goes back up through the bucket with media. Both the upflow filters will be connected to a Mineralization Tank and from there go to the sump as described in my suggestion to you. I'm still exploring options for the timing but figure a small volume released every day into a well aerated sump for degassing should work.

Hope this helps and isn't too confusing.

That's all for now.

Thanks for the tip on tank depot. I'll give them a shout tomorrow and check.

SUF (static upflow filter):

I'll be going with just the original? (single) chamber SUF. So for the inflow, I'm thinking of putting the uniseal just above the 1/3 mark on the barrel with a slow elbow pointing down. I'm guestimating the elbow outlet will be about 4 inches from the bottom. Flow will be at least 500 gallon per hour. Will this be high enough you think to prevent any disturbance of settled solids on the bottom?

Is there a known volume a given cu ft of k2 media will displace?

For cleaning the RFF and 2 SUFs that's a lot of volume to collect in an MT tank. I was planning on a 55 gal barrel MT tank but not sure how to pull mainly solids and less volume when cleaning. the filters. Maybe clean 1 a week.

That was more of a tip for any store, a lot of them can work with you if you're willing to pick up at their location (can't say for certain Tank Depot will be willing to do this but check).

I'm not sure about the flow (it's less critical than for an RFF)- you may have to play with spreading the inflow out instead of down but you'll get it. Even if the bottom layers of K2 move a bit or you stir the bottom solids, the filter will work just not quite as well. I've been able to send at least 300 gallons and probably closer to 500 gallons of water through a 5 gallon bucket with K2 so the flow is pretty good through these until they start blocking up with solids which means it's time to agitate and drain the filter.



There probably is but it floats pretty high at first so you won't have all the media displacing water anyway. If you're really wanting to know you can figure it based on experimentation - graduated cylinders are great for this sort of thing but buckets will work as well.



Based on the number of fish you have you should probably clean more often but it might be enough. If you wait too long some of the solids will clump and start to float in the upflow filter because of gas production. They still won't get through the upflow filter but if there isn't enough oxygen in the upflow filter, those gasses could be toxic to your fish - the degassing by having good aeration in the sump should mitigate this issue (same as it does for the MT). Having the solids clump and float also makes cleaning just a little bit harder.

The purpose of the MT is to break down solids into usable nutrients - if you use the K2 around the MT outflow you probably can pass more liquids into the MT off the bottom of the other tanks and still retain most of the solids in the MT. It might help to settle the solids that are already in the MT before allowing the water/solids mix from the other filters to come in (as long as you don't just stir them up with the inflow).