Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

TC , Have you thought about fresh-water mussels? For filtering not for holding the tarp:)
Natural filter ,, admittedly would need quite a few of them but I think you could breed-em up in numbers.

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I call a Spade a Spade,,,you can turn it upside down and paint itred but it's still a Spade.

I don't know much about fresh water muscles, got any links to good info? I seem to grow lots of snails that seem to like eating the gunk but they don't seem to deal much with the suspended stuff.

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Aquaponic Lynx
Main System
300 gallon System
Tower System
PeePonics

Snails feed on the algae , settle sediment ..... mussels / oysters etc are filter feeders , in nature they feed on suspended solids.
Have a link to Aussie mussels that a lot of people here use in AP.

http://www.aquablueseafoods.com.au/other-mussels.shtml

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I call a Spade a Spade,,,you can turn it upside down and paint itred but it's still a Spade.

If you want simple, colorful illustrations, and local: http://www.fws.gov/panamacity/species/p ... 202008.pdf

Some mussels/clams require fish for reproduction....others don't. There has been some talk on BYAP re mussels, but those are Australian types.

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This has been a test life. It is only a test. If this had an actual life you would have been given instructions on where to go and what to do.

WARNING: I suffer from ideaphoria. This post may contain untested ideas, errors, and excessive enthusiasm.

Small solids, now you are seeing the need for a little more than gravel.. Remove pre pump and there is an affordable option.. Go down to aquaticeco and get two FB5 Felt Bag, Polypropylene, 32" x 7", 5 Microns. If you can work it in just swap bags when needed and clean. Its a pain, but its cheap and as effective as a drum filter at catching these solids. It greatly helps with DO levels in the whole system too.

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Think Outside the Box, Do your Thinking for Yourself!

Dan ,, against the flow of information here , we both very much agree with solids removal.
For me ..... majority of solids/settlable should be removed " pre pump" , majority of medium/fine pre grow bed.
Post grow-bed or in sump fine/floating solids should meet their maker,,,at this stage ALL the solids removal system and grow beds AND worms have done their best,, but have perhaps failed,..... this is the perfect place for fines filtering ,, filter bags as you say are an excellebt option ,, but I would very much like also to try the mussells or a combination of both.

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I call a Spade a Spade,,,you can turn it upside down and paint itred but it's still a Spade.

I'll be looking into it as I have time here. All methods are good to know a bit about even if they don't work in my situation.

I firmly support catching the majority of solids before the pump now days since I think blending them up makes them even more likely to remain as suspended solids. I find the stuff coming out of the fish tank in the CHIFT set up, is good and clumpy and probably stays lodged in the grow beds very nicely for the worms, snails, bacteria, roots and all else to work on.

I might have to pick up a few filter bags to put at the returns from the grow beds perhaps only temporarily.

I was also wondering if some of that geotextile might catch solids and work out to be good worm bags or something but Haven't gotten up the motivation to get any to test out the idea.

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Aquaponic Lynx
Main System
300 gallon System
Tower System
PeePonics

Mussels worked a treat for me, there are 1 or two big threads about them on here.
Problem is you need mussels that will be happy with still water. Most need to be in moving water.
Of course we toyed with the idea of putting them in a special mussel bin under the outlet of the pipe... but nobody tried, cos we all have access to the still water variety.

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KudaPucat
A horse is only a horse for as long as we see it as a horse.
The Pale Horse Rides Again
My System #2

Actually, some parts of my systems have moving water and others are a bit more still. Trick will be finding the appropriate mussels for use here in FL and then getting enough of them to try. How many are needed to have an effect?

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Aquaponic Lynx
Main System
300 gallon System
Tower System
PeePonics

I've got mussels in every system... regardless of flow...

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>

Fresh By Nature - Distributor of Aquaponic Systems and Products in NSW
http://www.freshbynature.com.au

That sounds like a song lyric - was that a Little River Band song?

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DD's Landing Page

Have not yet figured out where to get fresh water muscles around here. Think they would be a good thing in the system.

Test results today
pH 7.4
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate High 80+ (hard to tell once it gets that high if it might be way higher)

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Aquaponic Lynx
Main System
300 gallon System
Tower System
PeePonics

the quantity of mussels needed is directly proportional to the speed at which you want your water to clear up. I got 50, but lost 50% in my 4000L system.
I would think that even 6 would do ok.
Put a cage in a high flow area, if you can't get pond tolerant mussels.
Mussels are easy enough to find in local creeks and rivers. Have a chat to some local fishermen, they may know.

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KudaPucat
A horse is only a horse for as long as we see it as a horse.
The Pale Horse Rides Again
My System #2

TC, have you started clearing any areas in your growbeds for fall planting yet?

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There is room for all God's creatures,
Right next to the mashed potatos
The purpose of government is to provide service,
The purpose of the media is to provide vasoline.
http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=6945

Well, I pruned most of the tomatoes back really hard but right now I'm trying to encourage as much green cover over my grow beds as I can get. I don't think I'll go clearing any beds out completely, I'll probably just kinda underplant and then cut away any played out older plants to make way for the new seedlings etc. I've already planted some squash in the system and there are sweet potatoes and new zeland spinach acting like bed cover. I've still got some of the large perennials in like papaya and banana now that are more or less perm. I've also already planted jicama which takes a really long time, the vines have already gotten quite long but the roots don't bulk up till winter sometime.

I expect that I'll be putting plenty of lettuce in the NFT tubes come cool weather but that is a long way off yet here (cool weather crops don't even get planted till October and it is often still to hot for them to come up well then.) Some time between now and mid Sept is good for getting more hot weather or what most of the country think of as summer crops in but it is challenging here this time of year with extreme heat possible torrential rains and abundance of bugs. Sweet potatoes love this time of year but I'm having trouble with critters eating my vines this year compared to last year. I've tried to get some new tomato and pepper seeds going in NFT cups but only two or three actually came up. Might have to try again but start them indoors or something.

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Aquaponic Lynx
Main System
300 gallon System
Tower System
PeePonics