bsfman
08-24-2011, 10:46 AM
I returned home to Florida after 32 days touring with my band and decided to impliment a new, bigger system.
I set up a 650 gallon wading pool to use as a fish tank, built a "Skippy Filter" style swirl/mechanical/biological filter, filled up the pool with my nasty 4ppm ammonia laden well water, connected the filter to a 1200 gpm pond pump and commenced to cycling the new system.
The 32 gallon filter (new Rubbermaid trash barrel) has about a 12 inch void at the bottom "swirl" section, a 2" shower drain plumbed into the bottom center, 1 1/2" PVC plumbing, and about 2.5 to 3 cubic feet of filter media. I salted the filter with old media I took from my 270 gallon system which already had plenty of bacteria and added some new media - the bulk of which was a couble discs of A/C filter for mechanical filtration and some dollar store kitchen scrubbies and plastic hair curlers, along with a roll of 25 foot by 4 foot plastic window screen which I cut into 8-10 inch wide, 4 foot long strips. I loosely knotted each strip in a series of overhand knots and each wound up being about the size of a kitchen scrubbie with probably close to the same surface area as a scrubbie. I also placed a cut off bucket (maybe 2.5 gallons) filled with pea gravel from my old system and placed it under one of the outflow fittings on the filter. I also rinsed and squeezed out some of the crud that had accumulated in some of the old media before replacing it in the old system. I let the crud circulate in the new system in the hopes it had a lot of bacteria the new filter would capture and trap.
That old media must have turbocharged the new filter! The initial water test showed ammonia 4ppm, nitrites zero, nitrates zero, ph 8.4. The ammonia dropped from 4ppm to zero in two days! The nitrites spiked to 2ppm, then dropped to zero in 2.5 more days. Right now the water is zero ammonia, zero nitrites, and 20 to 40 ppm nitrates.
Meanwhile, I had ordered 100 blue tilapia fry off eBay. The seller was Prettykoifish and the price was $95 with free fedEx overnight shipping. They shipped me 131 fry and I only had 6 DOA's netting me 125 fry for $95 which I was quite happy with. The new tilapia are quite happy in their new digs it seems.
I have not added a growbed yet, but will probably use a 4 foot wading pool suspended above the FT. I know that's WAY under the recommended GB volume, but it is only for Nitrate removal and not intended as my primary biofilter. If it proves insufficient for complete nitrate removal, I'll toss in some water hyacynth in the FT to suck out any surplus nitrates.
YouTube video of the new setup available here:
[youtube:105e7ijk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2gC1mbShwY[/youtube:105e7ijk]
It's an inexpensive set up and I'm sure I'll enjoy tweaking it as time goes on. Total cost was maybe 300 bucks. The pump was the most expensive component. Heck, I doubt I could set up a new 55 gallon aquarium for that price.
I have an update to post on my old system too which is doing quite well, but that'll be another thread.
I set up a 650 gallon wading pool to use as a fish tank, built a "Skippy Filter" style swirl/mechanical/biological filter, filled up the pool with my nasty 4ppm ammonia laden well water, connected the filter to a 1200 gpm pond pump and commenced to cycling the new system.
The 32 gallon filter (new Rubbermaid trash barrel) has about a 12 inch void at the bottom "swirl" section, a 2" shower drain plumbed into the bottom center, 1 1/2" PVC plumbing, and about 2.5 to 3 cubic feet of filter media. I salted the filter with old media I took from my 270 gallon system which already had plenty of bacteria and added some new media - the bulk of which was a couble discs of A/C filter for mechanical filtration and some dollar store kitchen scrubbies and plastic hair curlers, along with a roll of 25 foot by 4 foot plastic window screen which I cut into 8-10 inch wide, 4 foot long strips. I loosely knotted each strip in a series of overhand knots and each wound up being about the size of a kitchen scrubbie with probably close to the same surface area as a scrubbie. I also placed a cut off bucket (maybe 2.5 gallons) filled with pea gravel from my old system and placed it under one of the outflow fittings on the filter. I also rinsed and squeezed out some of the crud that had accumulated in some of the old media before replacing it in the old system. I let the crud circulate in the new system in the hopes it had a lot of bacteria the new filter would capture and trap.
That old media must have turbocharged the new filter! The initial water test showed ammonia 4ppm, nitrites zero, nitrates zero, ph 8.4. The ammonia dropped from 4ppm to zero in two days! The nitrites spiked to 2ppm, then dropped to zero in 2.5 more days. Right now the water is zero ammonia, zero nitrites, and 20 to 40 ppm nitrates.
Meanwhile, I had ordered 100 blue tilapia fry off eBay. The seller was Prettykoifish and the price was $95 with free fedEx overnight shipping. They shipped me 131 fry and I only had 6 DOA's netting me 125 fry for $95 which I was quite happy with. The new tilapia are quite happy in their new digs it seems.
I have not added a growbed yet, but will probably use a 4 foot wading pool suspended above the FT. I know that's WAY under the recommended GB volume, but it is only for Nitrate removal and not intended as my primary biofilter. If it proves insufficient for complete nitrate removal, I'll toss in some water hyacynth in the FT to suck out any surplus nitrates.
YouTube video of the new setup available here:
[youtube:105e7ijk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2gC1mbShwY[/youtube:105e7ijk]
It's an inexpensive set up and I'm sure I'll enjoy tweaking it as time goes on. Total cost was maybe 300 bucks. The pump was the most expensive component. Heck, I doubt I could set up a new 55 gallon aquarium for that price.
I have an update to post on my old system too which is doing quite well, but that'll be another thread.