Filter

[Craig Hartsough]

There seem to be many different methods of filtering the water between the fish tanks and flood trays in a floating raft system. For small commercial applications what methods have you found to be most economical and effective when used with a floating raft/deep water culture system. Thanks everyone!

[Kobus Jooste]

I think you wil have to elaborate on "cost" here - do you consider time a cost or not? You can go for a system such as in use by UVI - style greenhouses, that is an array of simple tanks with swirl or net filter / degassing roles, where maintenance is more regular.  You can also go for gravel beds with worms between fish tank and DWC - such as I think Oceanview Aquaponics uses (Craig Smith?) which may need to be more robust in construction but end up needing less day to day cleaning.  My designs call for gravel beds only but as a large one still need to be completed, I cannot comment on the ease of use bit.

[CliveP]

I'm hoping to build a commercial sized system that will not require too much in the way of filtration. I'm planning on stocking at low density in a rectangular tank with rounded corners. I'll pump into the tank at the sides on the long axis to induce a swirl and periodically open a bottom centre drain to get the big solids out. I'll pump from high in the water column to the raft trays and put a couple feet of some as yet undetermined filter medium at the head of each raft tray.

 

Just in case that doesn't work I'm going to leave room for a vortex filter.

 

Regards,

Clive