Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi all,

I am new to the forum so hope I am doing this right. I have fish in a 220 gallon tote and I am noticing that the water is getting darker and full of fish crap. I am planning on having the fish tank water flow into a 55 gallon drum swirl filter, but I am wondering what the best method is to get the fish water into the filter. I assume you want the bottom of the fish water to go into the swirl filter because most of the crap will be on the bottom? Let me know your ideas...
Thanks!

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Square tanks don't work as a round one does..
With round, you have a vertical stand pipe sucking from the centre and air stones there, to create the sweeping action..
Do the same with a square, and you find pockets of poo in various places..

What I did was to have the drain, entering from one FRONT corner and then protrude. A few hundred mm towards the center ...
It angles down to a grate on the bottom ...
I have two air stones... one IN the corner, and a second about half way along the line ... sand raised about 1/3 from bottom

This creates a fan pattern that helps to move the poo..

Given that the fush congregate are the BACK of the tank, away from me, and the drain is at the front, they help by stiring the solids and allowing the current to do it's job...
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OUR DEVELOPING AP SYSTEM

RAS - BioCenosis - De-Nitrification without plants..


We are all but DUST of LIFE

Search the forum for a SLO, it's basically a pipe that picks up all the solids from the bottom of the tank, and takes them to the next part of your system.

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My System

My Aquaponic Youtube Channel

The Black-Byron Ice Creamery Youtube Channel

The tote will have a slope leading to the drain, that is good place to set the SLO. I plumbed my tank through the bottom with a tee to a 90. I do not have any problems with solids settling on the floor.

Video of the plumbing being done.



This video will give you an idea of the solid accumulation in the tank.



I also have a playlist of a cone bottom radial flow filter build. I use it in combination with a net filter to capture most of my solids. Check out the link below.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLD70NtsHKmismiMZlmmq4wx9ORqs5BrMc