Basement System Design

[Bioritize]

I would run the adobe updates and see if your java and browser are updated. If that doesn't work switch to Mozilla.

[Bioritize]

Hey Guys,


Working on the last video right now. I have the setup completed and it passed the water test. My brother and I are now on to the task of washing rock Love this shit!!

Anyway, we filled the two 250 gall tanks with our spring water which was at 40 degrees. The room is typically between 75 - 70. How long do you think it will take for the tanks to come to room temperature? Is there a formula for this?

Would it be worth it to heat these tanks to 78 - 82 or get species that like the room temps?

Right now I am thinking Blue Tilapia and some sort of crayfish.

Kind of excited about using this water and these rocks we just got, a load of mixed basalt and volcanic rock.

Here is a photo



These grow beds are deep!! 16" and 19" . I couldn't bare the thought of chopping them down and having a scrap piece of plastic I wouldn't use. So we decided to go deep.

[davidstcldfl]

Looking good Bioritize...

JMO...Cost wise...you'd be better to get fish, that like that temp.
'If' those block walls were well insulated ...you could try heating the room air more. Then the floors above would feel warm too. I don't know what your heating bill would be like if you did that...?
I'm surprised how fast channel catfish grow and they have a higher meat vs. bone ratio then tilapia do. Bream would be good at those tempts too.

[keith_r]

i would go with a species that is cool water tolerant..
and make sure you get a good quality fish food.. bluegill will do ok with lower protein feed, which would be ok for catfish as well..

yelllow perch or trout would require a higher protein feed (carnivore) thats usually in the mid 40% protein range..

[foodchain]

What holds the IBC tote 1/2 up? The one in the center. It appears to bow already, so if you add media to it to complete the grow bed, and add water you may have problems.

[Bioritize]

Hey Food,

The middle bed is held up by the two supports plus an additional two bars we drilled and added to the bottoms to support the frames. Here is a video to show how we did this. So I have four cross members on the bottom of the middle bed.

[video:225fnrix]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-Z4mxZT3eM[/video:225fnrix]

The Video is a little funky

[Bioritize]

Alright here is a video of the whole system ready for filling with rocks which took us 6 hours to wash for only 2 of the grow beds . We will wash the final pile tomorrow.

After a few doses of hummonia we are at 1 ppm in the water. So I will monitor these levels for the next few weeks until it has been processed into Nitrates. Then I will get the fish and drop them in. Do you think it would be wise to add them earlier, say when the ammonia turns to nitrites?

[video:gytkn7hc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk6OOUaW_fs[/video:gytkn7hc]

[foodchain]

Many people have different ways of doing it. I don't wait. I use a filter sponge from another tank and rinse in the water, then I add my fish.
I have been advised this is not the best way, but I haven't seen problems with it.

[Bioritize]

Hey Guys,

Here is an update video, we had to add an extra sump tank the system to allow us to utilize the sumps as well as to prevent overflow and under fill of the tanks. I plan to add the other pump this week. I hope to see the nitrites gone in a couple days... or weeks. It seems to have taken a long time to cycle this winter, which I wondered if it was similar to natural yeast and the best times to get the yeast to culture a sour dough.

I kinda want to get fish now, but if it takes another month for the nitrobacter to show up, my fish may suffer a long exposure to super high nitrite levels. So we wait.

[youtube76g9jp0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kx0UoA0vOY[/youtube76g9jp0]

I will update again soon.

[Bioritize]

Well I have been reading a bit more on Chop systems and it seems like this design I have constructed my not be the best. I hear a lot of talk about the solids being chopped and pushed back into the fish tanks via the pump and that is if and only if the solids actually lift out of the fish tank.

I am starting to think that I should well rethink this design a bit at least the plumbing part. Any ideas?