Comment

Comment by Jim Fisk on August 7, 2013 at 7:50am

Hi Brad, sorry I missed your question.

The only time I have cleaned the filter and only the swirl center section was when the dedicated pool pump seized up. I took the pump apart and freed it up and soaked the oil felts with Mobil 1 and put it back in service. (just a cheap above ground pump with the filter removed)

I siphoned out the solids and flushed until clear and sent the maybe 5- 10 (lost count and had help) five gal buckets to the dirt garden. Then I undid the outflow (that normally goes right back to the ft) outside the GH and ran it till it looked and smelled clean. I then redirected it back to the trout.

Keep in mind that I always run a 12" air stone in my filters so they are less likely to go septic during a failure like this and that gives much peace of mind. It seized up once again since (about a month later and just a couple days ago and still not sure what causes it as all I did this time, knowing it is well lubed, was flush out the pump as I suspect a large solid to be the culprit) and this time I just got the pump going again and nothing else as the filter was only down for perhaps a day and the water still smelled ok. Your nose is a great tester for septic conditions.

The bacteria in the net should not be disturbed for the most part as it takes about 2 weeks just to get it up to speed and it is doing such a great job for the trout. Of course I don't know the size or the work load of yours. Mine seems to be just about right for one full IBC trout tank. It has however made a noticeable difference on the water quality of the entire system. As soon as time allows I will make another filter exactly the same for the second trout tank. This method ads great filtration without making any changes to the GB flow which is so nicely balanced I don't want to disturb it. The siphons are all functioning flawlessly day in and day out.

Not to brag or anything but I have now sold way over 100 siphons on Ebay and everyone seems very happy with them. Took us to "Power Seller" status for the first time in 10 years on Ebay so that is pretty cool

Comment by Brad Moreau on July 26, 2013 at 9:53am

Jim

how often do you clean bio filter?

my filter is keeping my ft clear but after about a month now the ball & net in outter tank are full of gunk.

how should i clean?

Thanks Brad

Comment by Jim Fisk on July 26, 2013 at 6:24am

Hi all, been so busy building walls, floors, plumbing, electric, etc. while moving into our new house (because our daughter and fiance surprised us and moved down from Cape Cod and needed our cabin) that the AP system has been pretty much on auto pilot including auto feeders for some months now. Well I am happy to announce that the trout have reached harvest size and we had our first feast on our son's birthday on the 22nd.

After some attempts at fishing with worms that resulted in feeding the trout but little else I decided to take advantage of my 2" drain system and after placing a hand net over the ibc drain hole, and shutting off the fill hoses, I dropped the level to about a foot and while the one tank bio-filter still circulated I was able to use the hand net to select the 6 largest fish and voila: dinner. I then turned back on the 2 fill hoses (from the sump pump) and topped up the sump. Thought I should share this simple harvest method and I should also mention that the swirl/bio-filter shown in my photos has worked amazingly well at keeping the trout water just the way they like it: clear

Now it is time to get all the largest trout into one tank (from 2) and purchase more fingerlings. Also time to figure out a basket "safe house" as the trout were full of roe!! and it sure would be nice to raise our own. I will post this to the trout group as well as there might be some good suggestions there. We now feel like our AP project has come full circle. The flesh was a nice healthy pink and tasted amazing.

Comment by Jay Wolf on April 22, 2013 at 6:28pm

Sorry for jumping into this conversation late but I'll add my two cents worth.  I have raised brook trout, rainbow trout, and lake trout.  Lake trout and brooks grow best at 50-55 degrees.  Rainbows grow well at 60 degrees.  The flavor of the fish has nothing to due with temps.  It has everything to do with what you feed them.  Trout taste much better if you purge them 2 to 3 days before harvest.  Hopes this helps!

Comment by Tom OBrien on April 21, 2013 at 10:03pm

The "Warm water trout"  discussion from a few years ago talks a bit about temperatures and Matthew Ferrell posted a nice chart of growth rates. From other comments on this site, I would guess the typical temperatures for aquaponic systems are probably between 55 and 70F. The trout I grew in my system were very good tasting and my water temp was never below 60F. If you can keep your tank water between 50-60F in the summer, I'm sure that will be good for the fish and make it easier to keep the oxygen levels up. However, my experience is that, while I have had other problems with growing trout, the temperature being over 60 did not hurt the taste of the fish we raised at all.

 

Comment by Anthony Payne on April 21, 2013 at 1:07pm

I fish in the NW for trout and our rivers seem to run 50-55 f in summer months. I know that they can run 29 -33 f. In our lakes the trout only taste good in the early season as warm water trout taste muddy. Our smaller lake may hit 60 f. If the water is 60 f then the fish would be unmarketable I would think 

Comment by Tom OBrien on April 17, 2013 at 10:38pm

Anthony - I'm not a refrigeration expert, but I think you and Brad may be over-estimating the amount of cooling a small refrigerator can manage. My large chest freezer was heating up from the demand of trying to cool water for two 150 gallon tanks. From what I've read, char and trout grow best at around 60 F, but growth slows and the fish don't do as well with temps in the mid to upper 70s. 60-65 F is probably a more reasonable temperature target for a well insulated and shaded in-ground fish pond system if the weather doesn't get all that hot there. Looking at some marine tank chillers might be worth the time just to get an idea how much cooling you are talking about in terms of the FT water volume and comparing the chiller and refrigerator BTU capacity. 

Comment by Anthony Payne on April 16, 2013 at 1:07pm

I'm new to all of this AP stuff and don't have anything up and running. I'm still drawing up plans. I love trout and char so I plan on raising them only. I want my pond to be part of the landscape pumping into a sump in the greenhouse. The temp thing I'm stumbling on. I thought of getting a small under bar frig and pluming a 100 ft coil of pex pipe in one side and out the other and back to the pond having the temp set at 40 or so having the beds dumping into the ponds with the water that has been heated up I think it would be 50-55. I think this would cool the water to keep the fish happy. My other fear is eagles and blue Herons and the racoons.   

Comment by Jim Fisk on April 14, 2013 at 6:08pm

Brad, I think you'll find that once you mix you'll have a hard time unmixing. You'll end up with one temp real quick and have to run way too much refrigeration to keep the trout cool. I'm keeping the hot veggies in the media with the warm FTs and colder in the shadier raft bed with the trout tanks. All separate. I really think it will be easier all around. Stay tuned.

Comment by Brad Moreau on April 14, 2013 at 4:42pm

Jim

are you going to keep water around 59* in raft beds? or going to mix in swirl tank with the warmer ft? I was going to mix as to not shock plant & so i could gerinate in gravel beds than move to rafts & towers. whats your thoughts?

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