Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Don't know if they would become buoyant, but if they are shiny looking the bacteria will have a hard time attaching to them. Dull of Flat color would probably mean the surface of the beads would be rough textured for easier attachment.

But beads are used for some filters in the first place.

Did you ever check the following for your area? www.thomasnet.com

Check out the shape of the Kaldnes K2. It has a ton of surface area and it spins when air is added to a MBBF. Even if you go another route it is good for a comparison.

I wouldn't think beads have enough surface area.

+1

The beads will work and as OP mentioned having a rough surface is a good thing for attachment of bacteria. The reason I don't like them is just having to prevent them passing through the pipes but if you're careful you can probably take care of this.

I think they'll be fine buoyancy wise as the growth on them progresses. Different media have different properties so there's a slim chance they won't sink as much as you'd like. Don't expect the change to come fast.

I haven't read back far enough to know what kind of filter you are building. Round beads work better for a static filter (like a static upflow filter) where it's only agitated to clean. If you're building an MBBR/MBBF type bio-filter they will work but they may be a little too good at the self cleaning during agitation because there are no protected areas.

I'm building a RFF followed by a mineralization tank.

Then to a DWC/Sump back to a media bed then siphon bank into the tank.

Where were you thinking of using the beads? I'm not seeing the need for the beads unless you put in a Static Upflow Filter before the DWC/Sump. You probably do need something like this to remove the suspended solids before the DWC I suppose you might also be able to use them in the mineralizer as a sort of final filter to prevent solids exiting back into the system.

In the MT I guess it would be more of an up flow filter.

I guess I misunderstood the difference of the two

The Static Upflow Filter is to remove the suspended solids while the mineralizer is to digest whatever solids you collect - usually what's caught in the RFF and sometimes people will add what's in the SUF as well. With the mineralizer you're usually trying to recapture nutrients from the solids so that they can be put back into the system.

So where would I put the MT in line with everything else at? Or should it be seperate and just be added back into the system?

I, always had my MT parallel to my Bio-Filter. Water would be filtered thru a Mechanical Filter to remove solids 40 microns or larger and diverted to the MT. Solids smaller than 40 microns would go thru the Bio-Filter.

All the BF and MT water would pass thru another MF to remove solids larger than 10 microns before being mixed backed together, and then used in any type of growing system.

So, your asking yourself why do I do it this way.

If you plant at 4 indetermiment tomato plants per sq/mt, you need 122 liters of media per plant at 30.5 cm deep. I, on the other hand only need 5.5 lt's of media, which cuts my cost down considerably since my way uses 22 times less than your way.

What are you using to filter particles out in those specific size ranges?

Also had anybody had luck with s product called MicroBacter7 for getting a system cycled fatter?

What are you using to filter particles out in those specific size ranges?

304 Stainless Steel mesh screens, fairly inexpensive on Amazon. Also a 15 gal. HDPE square sided container, to house everything in.

Also had anybody had luck with s product called MicroBacter7 for getting a system cycled fatter?

For faster cycling, and on the cheap. All you need is good composted material, made into a tea.

Or you could use a pc of road-kill, just before it gets ripe enough that the vultures can smell it at 1 mile high flyover.

I usually avoid off the shelf products used to cycle a system. A lot of times you don't know what's in them or what's still alive because they've been on the shelf for a while. Often times they'll work to process the ammonia but have the wrong kind of organisms (heterotrophs as opposed to autotrophs).

I wouldn't use road kill since there are potential disease issues including human pathogens. The compost tea route would be alright and you can get some muck from an aquarium that will usually speed things up as well. The compost tea route is probably the safest since aquarium muck can introduce some fish pathogens (assuming you aren't composting anything out of the ordinary). Personally I'd just wait for it to happen on it's own.

Most people aren't using a mesh filter like OP and I'm not convinced you'd need one just to grow in pots since I've seen other systems that use autopots that I don't recall them using the mesh filter first (Jim's system comes to mind). Still it doesn't hurt to have this and it does provide some needed filtration for the mineralizer output. The mineralizer is usually setup off the solids drain from the RFF as OP mentioned. The liquid portion from the mineralizer returns to the system, usually through something like a Static Upflow Filter or you could use a mesh filter like OP does.

Nor would I.

I, just used it as a humor or joke, couldn't find a emotion to paste after, that's all.