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will this work for filtration

I am going to use an IBC tank with the top barely cut off for a fish tank, "no pump". That will drain into a 55 gallon barrel (we hope the solids will go to the bottom, which can be drained off from the bottom of the barrel. From that 55 gallon barrel from the top will drain into another 55 gallon barrel, this one will have a pump, I am going to put in 4 strawberry towers, 2 small raft systems and a NFT system. The pump will supply water to all the systems. It will pump up to the strawberry towers and flow into a small tank with a sump, that will pump it back into the fish tank. The rest of the water from the pump will flow into the small raft and NFT systems and will then drain "without" a pump into the fish tank. My question is....will the 2 barrels work for the filtration or.....do I have to add a bio filter. Appreciate any and all help in this as I am not sure will work?????Have a wonderful day and thank you very much! Randy

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Permalink Reply by Chris Carr on May 7, 2012 at 8:10am

Sounds like you are on the right track anyway but I would browse around the forums and peoples setups to learn all you can before putting it together. Settling out the solids like you mention here is a swirl filter. A setup almost identical to this is detailed here in this HOWTO video: http://theurbanfarmingguys.com/vortex-fiters-organic-fertilizer-dis...

Permalink Reply by shannon on May 7, 2012 at 8:27am

I always tend to go for overkill concerning filtration. For me it’s fish first all else second.

1^st settle large solids

2^nd catch fine solids

3^rd bio filter

Permalink Reply by Chris Carr on May 7, 2012 at 8:28am

Also what do you plan on doing with the solids you are removing? Why remove them at all? Just empty your tank into media beds like traditional media bed growing, drain the media beds through a barrel with some filter pads just to be sure, but the output should be clean and ready for your raft and towers.

Permalink Reply by Chris Carr on May 7, 2012 at 4:08pm

The beds function just like any other flood/drain system. If your bell siphons arnt breaking they just need some adjustment. It is common. Tons of information on this forum regarding that.

The idea would be to use a gravel bed in a flood/drain setup and grow a different crop in it. When it comes out of the beds, it should be almost solid free and ready for the raft system.

Peter Shaw said:

can you really just drain it through beds? Do you not need to ebb and flood these beds other wise most of the solids will be in a low O2 environment?

if you need to cycle your media beds, then what happens when you flood... drain the beds .... to the rafts, can they really handle it?

Permalink Reply by matthew ferrell on May 18, 2012 at 4:43pm

Peter drill a hole a little higher than the bottom the bell. It will shut her off. If that doesn't work drill a hole on the top, add a nipple fora hose, and rubber band the hose down the side of the bell, this will also break siphon.

950 gallons an hour might be a lot for cycling a siphon, but a siphoning 1 inch pipe might be able to move that much water if it doesn't break.

Peter Shaw said:

can you really just drain it through beds? Do you not need to ebb and flood these beds other wise most of the solids will be in a low O2 environment?

if you need to cycle your media beds, then what happens when you flood... drain the beds .... to the rafts, can they really handle it?

Secondly, can you really move that much water via siphons? my bells dont work well with lots of water, they never break the siphon.

cheers

peter

Chris said:

Also what do you plan on doing with the solids you are removing? Why remove them at all? Just empty your tank into media beds like traditional media bed growing, drain the media beds through a barrel with some filter pads just to be sure, but the output should be clean and ready for your raft and towers.

Permalink Reply by matthew ferrell on May 18, 2012 at 4:46pm

Take a look at my system. It is all fed by a common pump. You want to filter water before a NFT for sure, as solids quickly accumulate on roots, causing anaerobic conditions in a hurry. Even with my media towers in front of my nft, I make a habit of rinsing the roots from time to time on the nft strawberries. The sump in my system is beneath the fish tank in case you were wondering. Everything you see in the picture is being run off 45 watts.