Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Well, the cook went and got some cattle panels this morning so I guess it was time to pull out part of the quarantine system to level the ground for the mesh and liner tank. Gonna require a step stool or something for harvest.

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Aquaponic Lynx
Main System
300 gallon System
Tower System
PeePonics

So the re-arranging continues!

Plans as they are now.

The waterfall tank will move over next to the Nursery bed and bed next to it. Those two beds along with that tank will become the new Quarantine system. This should be much better as a quarantine system with a tank of almost 300 gallons and two grow beds totaling around 250 gallons. I should be able to support 60 fish up to a pound in that system. Since the grow beds flood and drain with a FLOUT, I will be able to run that system using one of my small garden pond pumps and not worry too much about flow rates. (Only thing I'm not totally happy about with this situation is no easy way to make this CHIFT PIST and also no easy way to link it up with the main system.)

The Big system is getting my version of a mesh and liner tank. Aprox 6' diameter and the mesh is 4' high so I can get higher than the grow beds and still have some free board between the high water mark and the top edge of the tank. This will hopefully make the system into a functional CHIFT PIST with grow beds between the fish tank and sump tank.
If I make the water line at 36 inches deep the volume will be around 630 gallons. I could then adjust the SLO outlet up to 42" deep if I want that would total 740 gallons. There has been some discussion about using that top portion of the fish tank as a "header" tank with a FLOUT (probably installed in an external bin) that could then drive a CueValve to feed the grow bed in sequence. For now though I'll hook them up as gravity feed and let them drain with the loop siphons. I will probably be building a new grow bed to go where the "waterfall" tank currently is.
The current big in ground fish tank will be the sump tank.
I'm thinking we may leave the 4 big catfish down in the "sump tank" for a while to see if they might still breed but I'm sure we will be eating them by the end of summer since if we leave them another year, I might not have a net big enough to pull them out.

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Aquaponic Lynx
Main System
300 gallon System
Tower System
PeePonics

If you cut the last upright wire on the mesh you can then bend the wire out and back over the other end. It will hold better than ties.

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When I go, I want it to be peacefully like my Grandfather did, in his sleep -- not screaming, like his passengers.

http://www.backyardfarming.com.au/phpbbb/

Oh, don't worry, the ties are not the intended final connections. That would be a tsunami waiting to happen.
Will be clamping or banding it properly before adding any water.

_________________
Aquaponic Lynx
Main System
300 gallon System
Tower System
PeePonics

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Give me trout any day
http://s670.photobucket.com/albums/vv70 ... ?start=all
http://forum.homeone.com.au/

I wish I saw this sooner. You should have gotten the utility panel that has 2 inch squares instead of the cattle panel. It cost a little more, but the smaller spacing make for a much more solid tank when lined.

As to the CHIFT PIST/SUMP problem. You could also just enlarge your fish tank so that it has enough water to keep the amount you desire. As long as you don't increase the fish load the net effect is the same. If you want a fish tank with X amount of water then you make your fish tank X gallons+grow bed fill amount. Of course chif piss is nice.

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Think Outside the Box, Do your Thinking for Yourself!

I wasn't having any real issues with tank level fluctuations really. My issue is more the pump trap clogging. If I go out of town for more than a few days, I need to find some one capable of cleaning the pump trap. Right now the only person I've found that I can call on to do it lives more than an hour away from my house and that is a big favor to ask more than rarely. Jazzyplayermark has helped me out on this point before but that is a fair lot of extra driving to do.
So, I am trying to give my pump a "clean sump" to draw from so that trap cleaning and be reduced down to hopefully once a week or perhaps even be able to draw out a little longer when I'm out of town and feeding is reduced anyway.

I know what you mean about using the equine panels instead of the cattle panels but since I wanted a 6 foot dia tank, I need to use two panels anyway to get the circumference and the equine panels do cost more than twice as much. I'm planning to add a couple layers of tarp and insulation between the wire and the liner and using the heavy EPDM liner to boot so I'm hoping the larger squares won't cause too much of a problem. We shale soon see since I expect the liner to show up later this week.

_________________
Aquaponic Lynx
Main System
300 gallon System
Tower System
PeePonics

Could just but a $70 pump from lowes. They don't clog and can pump small fish through without grinding them up.

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Think Outside the Box, Do your Thinking for Yourself!

ah but coming home from holiday to find all the plumbing clogged with small fish is a real bummer.
Or finding the fish sunning themselves on the growbeds is also a bit disturbing.

In my aquarium set ups that I have arranged to be CHIFT PIST I have been very happy with the operation and lack of pump clogging problems.

I am now going to have an immense amount of water in this system, hopefully that will be good for something. and the quarantine set up will be able to handle 60 lb of fish rather than just 60 very little fish. I'll avoid adding strawberries into that system so that I can salt as much as needed.

_________________
Aquaponic Lynx
Main System
300 gallon System
Tower System
PeePonics

Yesterday we had tilapia for dinner.


This morning I moved the tilapia into another cage in the big tank for the day so that I could pull out the waterfall tank and move it over to become the quarantine tank.
I would post the picture but I'm getting a "Sorry, the board attachment quota has been reached" message

The new Quarantine system.
I would post a picture of this too but I'm getting that message here as well. Hum, I wonder if this is just a temporary bandwidth issue or if something more problematic is going on.

The cook did some improving of the connecting together of the cattle panels for the new tank and then lined the frame with tarp and insulation. Will probably add a couple bands around the tank and then be ready for liner later this week.

_________________
Aquaponic Lynx
Main System
300 gallon System
Tower System
PeePonics

So with the moving of the tilapia today, I counted them twice. At the moment we have 60 tilapia in the new Quarantine tank. There are two in the large aquarium. There are 12 over in the Duckweed pee ponics system. There are lots and lots of babies, I put a bunch in the small indoor aquarium but there are many many that somehow got from the duckweed tank over into the barrel (there is gravel between those two tanks but as I've found out, baby tilapia can survive a trip through gravel beds and even through some pumps.)

Still have the 4 really big catfish down in the bottom of the big tank and there are 84 smaller catfish in the cage.

that is 162 fish not counting any of the tilapia babies.

The smaller catfish will be moving up to the new tank (provided it works as a tank.) I might leave a couple of the really big ones in the sump tank to see if they will breed. I just gotta figure out how to tell the gender to be sure I get a male female pair.

_________________
Aquaponic Lynx
Main System
300 gallon System
Tower System
PeePonics

Love the pics of the fish...they look excellent

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"The only stupid question is the one not asked"

got some stuff to report!!!!!!!

The quarantine system with aprox 250 gallons of grow bed and a 250+ gallon fish tank (if filled to the brim would be 299 gallons but I'm leaving it a couple inches down from the rim.) Hooked up as a simple system, no sump. Running with a 258 gph pump (probably only managing 230 at the couple feet of head.) Grow beds flood together and drain together by FLOUT that tips off every 30-45 minutes or so.
This system will not do at max capacity (I figure that is 60 lb of fish) without additional aeration. The tilapia (which are supposed to be fine with rather low DO) were gulping at the surface this morning. There are 60 adult fish in there ranging between half and one pound.

I've now hooked up a little powerhead with a venturi to get some more circulation and aeration going and will see if that is enough to keep them happy. Probably really need some major air and flow if I wanted to keep 60 lb of catfish happy though. I'm figuring that this will be a good tank for getting new stock of catfish when the weather is too cold for tilapia though.

_________________
Aquaponic Lynx
Main System
300 gallon System
Tower System
PeePonics

The little power head with venturi seems to have kept the tilapia happy overnight

_________________
Aquaponic Lynx
Main System
300 gallon System
Tower System
PeePonics

Can pictures be posted again?

Alright!!!!
So here are some of the pictures I tried to post the other day.

Pulled out the waterfall tank (will be putting another grow bed there at some point. Might be a good place for the papaya tree and perhaps something else, maybe a banana.


And this is the "New Quarantine system".

_________________
Aquaponic Lynx
Main System
300 gallon System
Tower System
PeePonics