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ferfax
11-02-2011, 12:01 PM
alrighty guys newbie question time. I have all my supplies from other projects I can do around a 1500 gal system without spending more then 20 bucks thank god for past projects. so questions 1 lb to 3 gal rule is this the whole system or just the fish tank. I plan on grow algae and duckweed for food can I grind the algae and mix it with a soy bean meal I have? how do you feel the duckweed alive or dried. next biofilters are they their own tank? a diagram on them would help a lot. where do you get the baticera for the system. side info western Colorado. plan on building a green house and raising tilpia with fresh water shrimp like red cherries. the shrimp will also be used as a food for the fishes. thanks guys. sorry on my phone maybe hard to read.

keith_r
11-02-2011, 12:23 PM
1500 gallons is a huge "starting point"
there are several "rules of thumb, but i'm sure you'll receive a variety of answers..
i go by growbed to fishtank ration, a good starter is 1:1 (i started with 110 gallons ft, 110 gallons gb) but 2:1 growbed to fishtank is better, for this you'll need a sump or a spider valve
as for stocking, i think that 25lbs of grown out fish for every 100 gallons of growbed (your filtration) is a good starting point..
for tilapia, you'll have to heat the water, they'll die at around 50f, and will have slow growth if the water is not in the 80's..
algae and duckweed will both be taking nutrients from your water, that most people want for their plants.. and while duckweed is a good supplemental feed for tilapia (and some other fish) - a good quality fish food is necessary to provide your plants all the nutrients they need

urbanfarmer
11-02-2011, 01:31 PM
$20 bucks? Only if you can find most of the materials for free, someone else buys them, or you use natural materials. Let us know what you do!

ferfax
11-02-2011, 01:43 PM
Sorry i was a bit unclear on that. I have about 95% of my supplies already on hand. I might need to get some more pond liner thats about it. I was thinking about maybe a dug out fish pond to help control temp. Going to be using solar heaters that i have built in the past also. They get the water to about 100 in the winter in 30ish min depending on the cloud cover. I have solar panels, pumps, and wood all over the place. Just finished a large hydro kit is why. But i still need help on my bio filters. I will be setting up a small scale one this weekend with a 55 gal fish tank i have also. going to do a 1:1 set up but what is better a steady flow of water or flood and drain system?

Oliver
11-02-2011, 03:33 PM
My suggestion is that if you are raising Tilapia and using Hydroton as your bio-filter media, then you will want at least three gallons of bio-filter media for every one pound of fish at maximum grow out.

If you plan on using the bio-filter just for filtering then place the filter media in a vertical container, feed air (using aerators and lots of air pump volume) and the waste water from the fish tank into the bottom the this vertical filter. That way the air and water will travel vertically up through the filter and in the process help remove the fish waste solids, which are heavier than the water, and will remain near the filter tank's bottom where they will be broken down (mineralized). The water flowing out from the filter tank's top will be relatively clean. If the filter tank is large enough, then the solids will have time to break down before they over accumulate.

Be sure to move enough water through the filter so you will be removing the solids from the fish tank. The water can then be returned to the fish tank and some of it can be used to supply your grow beds whether or not they are media filled. You can also use a separate pump of appropriate size to move water to the growing area.

One key to making this work is ample dissolved oxygen in the filter for the bacteria to convert all the waste to nutrients. The water flow up through the vertical filter will be relatively slow, thereby allowing the solids to remain suspended and not move all the way to the top where the clean water will overflow. This requires a large enough diameter of the filter, relative to the pump flow, to achieve this slow upward moving condition. Too slow of upward movement will allow the solids to over accumulate near the bottom of the filter. Too much upward flow will allow the solids to make it to the top; but if the filter is large enough, this is not likely.

Oliver

keith_r
11-02-2011, 04:13 PM
oliver has written some great stuff on this forum..read up!
even with a pond dug into the ground, you want to turn the volume of the fishtank over every hour or so (could go less at night) but my point is that the growbeds will transfer all the heat out of the "pond" pretty quickly, the water surface also transfers a lot of heat.. and don't forget about the air you should be pumping into the ft..
you need to think about heating the space where the gb's and ft's will be, or use fish that are tolerant to your weather (local fish)

ferfax
11-02-2011, 06:16 PM
Oliver to make sure i understand set up say vertical tank with a syhpon at the top pulling the water. So build say a 6 inch by 3 foot box with a screen the bottom inlet with hyroton clay and a pump or syphon to the top? I read your guides learned alot I'm just trying to get this desgined in CAD so i can run some blue prints.

Oliver
11-02-2011, 08:25 PM
Oliver to make sure i understand set up say vertical tank with a syhpon at the top pulling the water. So build say a 6 inch by 3 foot box with a screen the bottom inlet with hyroton clay and a pump or syphon to the top? I read your guides learned alot I'm just trying to get this desgined in CAD so i can run some blue prints.
In my model, the vertical tank has an outlet near the top. You would probably need to put some kind of a strainer on the inside of the outlet if you are using Hydroton, as it floats.

I don't see the need or a practical way to incorporate a siphon. Just let the water being pumped into the bottom of the tank overflow out through the hole in the side near the top. Perhaps a bulkhead fitting would work. As for the water entering into, or very close to, the bottom of the tank, either a bulkhead in the side or a pipe coming into the top of the tank running all the way down on the inside to near the tank's bottom should suffice. The same with the air line.

Remember, if you run the inlet pipe up over the side of the tank, you will need to have a good flow rate in order to keep the solids suspended while going up to the tank's top before making the turn into and down to the tank's bottom. The smaller the inlet pipe, the higher the flow velocity. Ideally, a larger pipe through a fitting into the bottom of the tank would solve that potential problem.

As for the air, you will need an air pump with enough pressure to overcome the height of the water in the tank. You can feed the airline with aerator attached down from the tank's top inside as long as you have a cord of some type tied to it for removal for cleaning, as it will be in a lot of... fish poo. This can only be done if the Hydroton level is below the water level and even then it may be a challenge getting the aerator back to the tank's bottom once removed. You would want to put the aerator in and test it with the tank full of water to see if you have enough air power before adding the Hydroton. Be careful in adding the Hydroton, do so slowly, so as not to dislodge the aerator from its attached line.

Oliver