Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Need some advice on transporting 50 to 100 125mm Silver perch.
I can get 2 X 220 litre plastic lockable drums for $42 each.
The problem is how do you keep the water aerated for over 5 hours in a trailer?

If the barrels have screw in bungs then perhaps you could unscrew one in each of the barrels and run a couple of airstones in each barrel driven off a 12v airpump plugged into the cigarette lighter of the car.

Hey David, long time.

If I was u I would do as Rupe says. With 2 drums, u need an airstone in each drum. I would also try and have a half blue barrel of already cycled gravel on hand. Configure a small pump to pump your water up thru the barrel and drain to ur fishtanks, all the way home. At least u should have no ammo issues and ur air should be fine. It may be a pump/drain gives u the air u need and u don't need airstones. How do u plug a small pump into a cig lighter? Buggered if i know.

Given u are talking a 5 hour trip, sounds like u got some clearance fish from Kangaroo Ground. Cut the top off those barrels and have some sort of mesh on top to stop the fish jumping out. U may lose a small amount of water but the important thing is air and removal of ammo during the trip. (I am sure someone will correct me if I am wrong.)

I have no scientific basis for saying this, but given recent issues on board here, perhaps a couple dozen max in each tank, with lotsa air/ammo removal and u may get them home ok. Caveat Emptor.

Would love to catch up if ur swinging thru Geelong. Thinking about brood fish and we may be able to share some.

Good points TT.... says he's picking up 50-100 fish... half in each drum should be OK....

Hadn't thought of the ammonia aspect.... good idea to add a filter of some sort if you can David ...

@ 125mm each .... 50 per 200ltr barrel should hopefully be alright....

Thought about cutting the tops, but thought you migh lose a bit of water...

Maybe 3/4 filled... about 150ltr... you wouldn't lose much.... maybe just unscrew the other bung to let some ammonia gass off... bit of jiggling adjitation while driving should mix the water and any oxygen around...

Only other thought is temperature on the day.....

Could add some clove oil, but I don't know whether that would last for five hours.

You can setup valves so that they release air preventing the pressure building up too much and popping the lids.
Maybe you could insulate the barrels a bit bit? wrap them in bubble wrap or something.... or maybe glue a styrofoam bit on the lid, give it a sun hat.
I have used battery powered air pumps (fisherman use to keep livebait alive in buckets) to power 'air powered sponge filters' to keep fish alive for a few days on road trips before. Fed them and all, but ya a 12 volt pump makes it too easy.
If you have no airpump sometimes you can dodgey up some water above your fish that drip drip drips for 30 min or so, then ya refill and 30min later ya refill again. Ghetto alternative to airpower or a powerhead but the drips do give a bit more oxygen to the fish than no drips at all.

i use one of these

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/AC-Dc-Air-Pump-L ... dZViewItem
as a backup to my ap setup in case of pump failure. there is a cheaper model available. when i intend to bring fish back from fishing trips i take it along and use to transport the fish.

of course roz' idea is a lot cheaper. the ac pump may be quiet expensive however when it comes to transporting valuable fish its a small price. low dissolved oxygen (DO) levels stress young fish severely. by providing them high DO in transport you will essentially be giving them the best start for the change of environment. the beauty is it doubles as an ap backup pump when not in use transporting fish.

then there is of course oxygen tanks, however this is mainly for aquacultural use.

another thing to think about is the time of day you travel. last thing you want to do is fry them in the sun.

if your concerned about solids in the water then perhaps do a half water change every couple hours. i doubt you will have a problem in that short time but never known. ammonia is what will kill them so you may like to make water quality tests every couple hours.

only other advice would be to have a well cycled system to put them into, however thats not always possible.

good luck.

If you're transporting with open barrels just put some floating jugs in the barrels. They'll cut the wave action and it's amazing how little water you'll loose.

Here's a thought David.... runs on a "D" sized battery... comes with two airstones.... pumps 1ltr/min...

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/WATERPROOF-HEAVY ... dZViewItem

Thats using your head jazz.
sneaky

Thanks guys,
My internet went down last night so I couldn’t respond
I hadn’t thought of the ammonia.
Do you think it would be that much of a problem in 5 hours?
The lid is removable giving a 300mm opening on top. I think fly wire is a good idea to allow venting of any ammonia.
An air stone in each tank run off a 12 volt pump
Dose anyone know what sort of flow rate it would require.
Yes they are from Kangaroo ground. I spoke to Lyndsay last week 125mm silvers $2 each
Great Idea with the bottles on top to reduce wave action
I like both pumps, the live bait pump is the cheapest option but is 1litre/min enough air to aerate 300 to 400 litres of water?

Here's another alternative David.... knew I had this bookmarked.... found it last night and was posting it as the site went down.....

Has another listed as well.... or you could make your own...

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll ... :IT&ih=018

Take airstones off, they restrict airflow... use precycled air powered sponge filters on the end of the live bait aerators.

No need for anything too expensive... something like this would do job

http://atisponge.com/Portals/0/Hydro-Sponge2.jpg

Just be aware that it's wise to test airpumps first to see how deep they can pump air into containers.

I think the ammonia / stress is the real issue.

Don't forget ammonia LEVEL is going to be related to the amount of fish in the amount of water for the amount of time, twice the water or half the time and the ammonia will be half.

My advice? use as much water as possible. clove oil may be an idea to sedate them for stress reasons considering their size and the length of time in transit. It may be well worth your effort getting some of that stuff that will lock up ammonia.................

O2 should be no real problem just set up a battery air pump and provide lots of air.

Trust me effects of stress / ammonia will become apparent in the days AFTER "sucessful" transport.

Ps, try and stay above the 74 fish in 60L level..........................

Don't you mean below the ..... way below.....