Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I drilled two holes in the top edge of my centre bucket, one on each side, and matching holes in the top edge of my filter drum; then I ran a narrow pipe through all the holes. It's kept in place by zip ties run through little holes I drilled in the ends of the pipe, and the bucket is kept in the middle of the suspending pipe the same way.

I like that idea!

Think I'll go with something similar.

Must admit, think I'll try some checks to see if I can figure out how much of a difference it makes in the out water compared to the in water.

Not that the fish seem to want to eat anything when the weather changes anyways! Always on and off their food.

Question for the gurus..
What do you think the scum that builds up in my rff would be?

I'm guessing proteins/oils from the food but not sure. It's actually quite hard, almost like fat



Hopefully when I empty it after a few days I can get a bunch of gunk out.

How often do most of you need to empty yours?

How often these get emptied will depend on the stocking and feeding levels in your system. Right now it looks like you should be emptying yours or at least skim off the scum layer. I think you're probably right about the surface scum being protein but can't tell you for sure. Looks like it's doing it's job

Check your water parameters and take a look for dead fish on the bottom somewhere in the system. It may be nothing but the foam isn't something I see that often and the water within the inner bucket seems awfully turbid. To me these indicate a high waste load. I haven't gone back through your thread so take my comments with a grain of salt on this - I don't know your stocking density

I had a good dig around for dead fish, but non to be found thank goodness!

I agree about the water in the center barrel it is exceptionally dirty! its like alot of the crud is staying in there? Its far dirtier than the fish tank water, and the outflow water. Still, better there than in the garden beds i guess.

Ive done some reading on sizing the center section, and heard about 1/3 diameter of the barrel is recommended. Currently ild say its close to half... My guess is there isnt a huge difference in flow rate from the center to the outer.

Im going to look for some.. 150? 180mm pipe to use instead. Just wish i could find some cheap supplier! 1m from bunnings is 26 bucks, which is a bit of a joke. Cant find a decent bin to chop up either.. might just have to splurge.

Hopefully increasing the water speed/flow rate difference between the 2 sections will increase the dislodgement of solids.

Can anyone confirm that putting reducers (reversed? expanders?) on the outflow pipes help? Ive seen many systems with this on the outflow pipes. Wondering what the benefit is..

I used a $10 paint bucket from Bunnings with the bottom cut off - like you, I looked at the pipes and said "no way!"

The more you spread the flow out the better, that way you have less current to carry particles out of the tank or keep them suspended. Basically with the reducer/expander that's what you're doing - there's less water going over the edge at any given point. Whether it helps enough to make much difference I don't know but the idea is consistent with how clarifiers at wastewater treatment plants are done and I think it might help. Treatment plants use v-notch weirs to spread the flow all around the tanks outer circumference. I don't think it will help with what's going on in the center well - that's probably got something to do with turbulence or the location of the pipes to one side.

Well, first idea done. Next is to find some 50-100mm reducers from somewhere..
If they think it's worth doing in a multi million install like that, I'm sure it won't hurt my little project hah.

Managed to score the pipe for free!

After quite a long time of forgetting I found a place who sell 50 to 100 reducers for less than an arm and leg and have put them in to increase my weir area.

Now, I don't know if it is placebo or not, but I swear it has made a huge difference in the clarity of the water. I just thought reducing the weir loading would make the particles who do make it up, be less likely to get sucked in, but I really do feel it has changed the efficiency of the filter.

After the fish knocked off the SLO from the tee piece last night I fished it out and put it back on... wondered why the level was rising higher than normal, and I could hear a weird gurgling sound.
Apparently 250mm silver perch fit quite snugly into 50mm pipe! Had to shake him out!
Got a quick video of his tail stick out in the air which was funny to see I thought, but not really sure how I could upload it so decided to spam my family members instead.

Ps... why can I not grow lettuce? it seems a staple for everyone elses system but seed sprinklings never shoot, and the ones I do start separate and put in always grow terribly.
Pity, I really want to use them as ground cover/ nitrate sponge.

Anyho, hope every one is well

Trent

Couple of pics of the filter after a week of run time since the last clean


And the friendly fish I found. Don't worry - he is still swimming with the fishes... Or not? Whichever way you look at it haha

*points and laughs at the silly fish*

In between work and study.. I have an upgrade on the way. Will leave a few teaser pics.






Wonder what mischief I can get up to with these...

Haha moon cycles!

Yes.. I certainly have alot to learn.

I thought it was an ok time to plant cucumbers from my Internet research. ...

Might have to go to the library for the first time in a long time and find some gardening books

Thank you for the nice comments.

I am hoping to fill my sump up with yabbies, marron would be brilliant but from what I've heard... to much of a pain.

But oh boy! Electric shaver + tomato bushes and 100s of bees everyday... = alot of fruit! I'm a bit scared to plant any more haha

Any suggestions for improvement that you can see are more than welcome [SMILING FACE WITH OPEN MOUTH AND TIGHTLY-CLOSED EYES]