Metal and fish

[Roger L.]

I know that metals and fish don't play well together. My tilapia poop more than any animal I have ever seen before. I am thinking of running my return from the fish tank through a strainer to eliminate the heavy bits but I cannot find an alternative material. Will a food grade strainer be okay? I have another filter but it gets clogged every 12 hours or so. It is fed by gravity from the fish tank and not much distance from the drain to the ground/sump bottom. Thoughts?

[Apollo]

I made a large cone-shaped filter from shade screen material , a nylon paint strainer bag 5 gallon or two gallonor you could do it with bug screen material all are made from vinyl it should work, check out my whirlpool filter I have some pictures

[JCO]

Lowe's sell blue AC plastic fiber filter material and it works wonders.

So I'm going to ask a dumb question here...where is you "SUMP"?

You are suppose to have a sump between the FT and bio-filter.

It goes like this:- FT, Sump, Bio-Filter then growbeds.

The sump should be as large as you can make it so the water slow down enough to allow the Poo and other particulates to settle to the bottom.

Some people remove it from there, however I never worry about doing anythng until it gets too deep.

Why, because the bacteria are still working on it, breaking it down into much needed nitrates for the veggies.

[Roger L.]

JCO I originally just had a 150 gallon fish tank(cut down 275 gallon IBC) with a pump up to my growbed(other part of the IBCS). I added the 50 gallon sump and a 75 gallon breeding tank. I now pump from the sump to to the breeding tank and the growbed. A bell siphon system drains into the fish tank which has a constant height drian to the sump. I have played around with different filters on the drain but the restriction of the height of the drain are challenging. I built one that filters well but begins to plug up after 12 hours. I am looking for efficiency yet long lasting so I can take my camping trips without coming home to a toilet. Not the traditional setup but more like a 1 room shack added on to 1 room at a time.

[Aloha Don]

I use a large plastic creamer container as my solids filter. I drilled small drian holes all through the bottom of this and drilled a hold in the upper part that allows me to attach it to the 1/2 in PVC that is draining into it. I bought some aquarium filter material from Petland for around $3 and I use nylon bath scrunchies and that filter to fill the plastic container. I clean it out twice a month but it could go longer. Clean out is easy - just remove from pvc and take whole filter to sink. I am trying to empty out another can so I can make a quick replacement filter. Take off old - put on new - clean when I have time...

[Roger L.]

Don I did the same thing with a breakfast/protein shake bottle but it would clog in a day. What fish are you raising? The only thing I didn't do is add the scrunchies. Do they hold most of the debrie?

[Aloha Don]

I have tilapia (about 10) and guppies (unknown how many are in there) in a 75 gallon FT.
I have FT overflowing to a 5 gallon solids bucket. I have a scrunchy on this overflow and then from this bucket it is overflowing to the filter bucket I described above.
I am now actively scooping out any debris from the bottom of the FT on a daily basis now.
This seems to work very well with my small balcony system.
Plants going crazy right now....tomato, eggplant, basil, strawberry and manually feeding Okinawa sweet potato bucket
Livin' the Dream!

[JCO]

I've been meaning to ask, is that your island in your avatar or just a place to dream about

[Aloha Don]

Just dreamin.....

[JCO]

Yep, you and me both. Been to your part of the woods a couple of times (the Navy base that is) in route to elsewhere during Viet Nam. Always thought I would make it back someday to actually get to see that part of the world but chances are beginning to look a little slim.