Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hiya Lmannyr thanks for the updates.
My guess is that your settlement tanks will be too small for your water flow so the particles won't have time to settle. My settlement tank is an ibc which flows through into the sump, also an ibc. This is an accidental settling tank and works really well with many worms cleaning the floor, also accidental... These are after the gbs so the fish get a nice clean return water.
I have also tried an anaerobic mt also called a filter I didn't clean for ages and it kept my pH rock solid at 7.2. Once cleaned the pH dropped which gave me an opportunity to add calcium and potassium.
Looking forward to seeing your dwc progress.

After work ummmm yesterday (it's just after midnight), I connected the the static upflow cleanout drains to the settling tanks. All 4 settling tanks were connected. Settling tanks still need to be connected to sump though. Stuffed some bath net type sponges in the pipes between tanks. Cleaned the first static filter and drained into settling tanks. Seems be working well. Most of the poo stayed in the first tank it seems. Hard to tell since I had poo in the first 3 settling tanks from manually adding from filter drains before today. The 4th tank water was cloudy slowly trickling thru. The first two tank was really nasty. Only time will tell. Was able to clean the first static twice. It's late and need to get up in 4 hours to head back to work. I'll be at it again tomorrow.

Suggestions in filtering the water between settling tanks are welcomed. Matala? Safe?

That insulation won't be safe to use Lmannyr, it's labeled as mold resistant.

I didn't know mold resistance was an issue. Thanks for the heads up. What is the issue with mold resistance?

How about this?

http://products.lwsupply.com/content/lw ... _edge.html

Thanks.

The stuff manufacturers add to prevent mold is usually perfectly safe for humans, but not always safe for fish, and almost always very bad for your bacteria. With that one, I looked it up and they don't even specify what they've added for mold resistance, so no way to tell what it would do to your system!

The new one you just linked seems to be fine though, pure polystyrene with no nasties added.

The msds on the DOW foam says a fire retardant was used it. Still good?

Darn, I didn't see that. Hm.

...Probably best not to use it, then. Some halogenated fire retardants leach out into the environment and have assorted nebulous health implications, and the MSDS doesn't say which one they're using.

Ordered Beaver Plastic rafts on amazon. Very reasonable pricing.

Today I ordered a Laguna Max Flo 4280. About 4 times higher flow rates than my current pump at half the electrical use!! Hope to use the extra flow for venturies or just back to sump for aeration.

Also, I cleaned the 2nd static filter today. Emptied to the settling tanks. So far, the settling tanks are functioning as I wanted them to. Only clear water emptied into the sump. I put some of the water going into the sump from settling tank into a glass jar and it was crystal clear. Had the stinky smell though. So now water isn't wasted to clean the static filters.

System TDS was 150 while the last settling tank TDS (clearest water) was 180. I'll keep track of the TDS and share the trend. System pH = 6.5

Tank depot still doesn't have the conical tanks in yet. They say at least another two weeks.

For now the filtration setup is done until the conical tank arrives for the RFF. Next, I will work on overflows for the FT and level DWC bed.

DWC is up up, filled and online. Still needs some liner trimming and a top rail. Beaver plastics lettuce rafts are floating and look nice. Waiting on grow grip order to plant out the rafts. For now, it has 2 152mm round air stones. Ordered 8 bubble mac 228 mm by 25 mm by 25 mm medium pore airstones to add about every 1.2 m.

Also, my air pump had been below the water line and would suck up sand. I built an air pump (Ryan C. Idea) house out of scrap wood. Rerouted the airline to it. There is enough space for two more pumps if needed. In the future, a battery backup will be housed underneath.

System TDS continues to rise. Yesterday it was 210.

Settling tanks are not working as good as I thought it would. I believe some suspended solids are slipping by the 4th settling tank and entering the sump. This extra suspended solids is getting into FT and fouling up the water to the point the bottom can't be seen. Which I believe is why SUF1 is clogging up so quickly. I added my old netting into the first settling tank and will be adding shade cloth into the second and 3 settling tanks.

The SUFs are doing a very nice job of clearing the water up. I havnt had any slime build up in the pipes like before with the RFF/net tank setup. So well it clogs up and decrease the flow. Which is my next point. I'm currently flowing about 500 GPH (2200 LPH). I was hoping to be flowing at least 1000 GPH (4400LPH) or more. I picked up a Laguna max flo 4280. Much bigger pump than the system can handle right now but has room for expansion. The pump is 4 times strong at half the power usage compared to current flo tec pump.


I think after I get the settling tanks from releasing any solids into sump the flows will get better.

Anyhow. Those are the updates for now. I have pictures but still need upload them.

Settling tanks depend on gravity and a lot of fish waste is close to neutrally buoyant so it doesn't settle well. Any solids making it to the sump are probably getting broken up into smaller particles as they pass through the pump, if that's where your pump is. It may not be difficult to convert one of the settling tanks or a portion of it into a SUF roughing filter if the outflow is at the top. Larger surface areas should allow more filtration between cleanings.

Do you have a drawing of the system and flow direction as it is setup now?

Ok, here is a quick rough pencil sketch of the system layout.

The outlets on the SUF are really a nearly open flow.





water level isn't ever above the outlets unless I want it to be.

Yes.. K2 media in the setting tank sounds like a good idea. I'm putting put some picket fencing around the FTs this week or next and will use the shade cloth that is covering it now in the 2nd settling tank. I'll see how that goes but will most likely get 2 cubic feet (52 liters) of k2 and to put into the 3rd settling tank and leave the 4th settling tank empty. All the settling tanks flow from bottom up right now. There isn't any clumps in the last 2 tanks. The last tank has some fine suspended solids that is passing through.

It looks like the settling tanks come after the Static Upflow Filters so they should be getting clean water. That leads me to ask the question, why aren't they getting clean water?

TDS is the ions and such which the solids filter won't take out but the plants and bacteria will use. The suspended solids and settleable solids are what you're after with the solids filtration in the SUF.