Comment

Comment by Jeff S on April 7, 2014 at 12:02pm

I'm in Michigan and best I can tell not many people here doing aquaponics. Lots of hydroponics though... go figure. I've made a couple of post in the aquaponics blogs offering the fish but no responses. That's OK. I enjoy the project.

Sorry about your goat Jim. I accidently killed a dozen fingerlings and it was depressing even with as many as I have.

Comment by Jim Fisk on April 7, 2014 at 9:15am

Jeff, that's great. Sorry, I thought you purchased that many. Freaked me out man. If you are good at breeding them it can pay for your system expenses. Kudos. I pay for mine by making siphons for folks and have done no breeding but then Trout aren't quite as easy as breeding Tilapia. Trout are hands on breeding while Tilapia are hands off breeding

Yea, not good to name them. I am about to harvest an 18" Trout that has become "almost" a pet. Been farming a long time and I will never get used to killing. I had a newborn Nubian goat die of pneumonia in my lap yesterday. Many tears shed. But we saved 3 out of 4. Victims of a sudden drop in temps overnight. Spent most of the day doctoring baby goats and more to come as well as sheep. What a nasty Winter this has been.

Comment by randy proctor on April 7, 2014 at 6:59am

Put them on craigslist I find when I have too many people buy

Comment by Arthur King, Jr. on April 6, 2014 at 10:27pm

Jeff,

As popular as Tilapia are, I'm sure if you are looking to get rid of some fingerlings you will finds some takers willing to come and get them.

Comment by Jeff S on April 6, 2014 at 9:29am

Oh BTW. As lucky as I am at producing fish I have no luck producing veggies.

Comment by Jeff S on April 6, 2014 at 9:24am

I'm new at this and started with 5 Tilapia. Just following "How To" info on breeding I pulled 2 females out when they showed signs of brooding. Thought I only got 300 out of the pair but after counting later realized there were 800. They're only about 1 1/2" now and I really don't know what to do with them except feed 'em. Seems a shame to trash them when I read so much about people having such a hard time breeding and keepin' them alive. My first 5 are big enough to eat but the wife named them so that's a no-no.

Comment by Jim Fisk on April 6, 2014 at 8:23am

Just to give you some perspective Jeff we purchase no more than 50 Trout fingerlings at a time and we have 1250 gals worth of FTs. I never put more than 50 in a 300g IBC FT. (330 filled within say 8" of the top) They deserve to have a life imho. I, and many others, even place scrap pipe sections in the FTs just to give them a playground. 800? in one IBC? Really? I assume you figure 750 will die in order to give say 50 a chance to mature to harvestable size? Sorry but I just don't get it. Sounds harsh I know. Or are you planning on adding another 16 IBC 330g FTs? I debated long and hard even answering your last post but here it goes.

Comment by Jeff S on April 6, 2014 at 7:27am

Jim, thanks for your in depth response. I've heard with a large quantity of fish you can overload GBs if you don't have enough GB area. I'm thinking that's my situation with 800 fingerlings in one IBC gong to a single 12 sq. ft. GB so I interrupt the flow with a small makeshift swirl filter. BTW I do intend to add FTs and GBs his summer as the fish grow.

Comment by Jim Fisk on April 6, 2014 at 2:43am

When you are using media GBs they are the filter and you don't need any other filter. The GBs harbor all the bacteria that converts the ammonia and filters out the solids. When you are running any raft beds THEN you need to filter out the solids FIRST by running them either after the media beds OR using a swirl filter for removing solids and a bio-filter to convert the ammonia to nitrites which then must be converted to nitrates BEFORE the raft bed or you will get root rot. The media beds do all that BUT if you want to keep everything looking nice and neat you can use a swirl solids filter to keep the solids out of the media. It is that simple so let's not make it any more complicated than necessary.

My media beds have been running great for 2 yrs now with no swirl filter on line. Worms help keep the media clean as well. I use my "swirl/bio-filter" just on the adult Trout tank to help keep their water cleaner. They are voracious eaters and poopers so that gives their tank (one of five FTs) an extra boost of "clean"

As far as "being able to isolate any part of the system from another and it give greater flex when you want to add." is concerned, I do isolate the FTs one from the other so that if any diseases hit a tank it does NOT drain from one FT to the other. Each FT drains to a common drain and on to the media GBs so that the healthy bacteria in the GBs has time to cleans or kill any pathogens. Just like in Nature.

It makes no difference once the water leaves the FT whether it is in one drain pipe or 10 drain pipes as that is all down stream. I use a 1 1/2" common drain from the FTs to the GBs which gets reduced in size at every other GB down to 1" at the far end. Each media GB is fed thru a 1" 90 which regulates the flow at each GB by rotating the 90. No ball valves to clog up with solids.

I again use a 1 1/2" common drain line from the GBs to the sump. Each 1" bell siphon drains into that 1 1/2" common drain. (sweep tees and 90's start at 1 1/2" and larger). Just make sure you "vent" each siphon so they stay isolated from the common drain or they can interfere with  each other. Plumbing 101 just like every sink, tub, clotheswasher, bathtub, etc, in your house is isolated from the drain system with vents that go up and out thru your roof. Perhaps that is the type of isolation that Nate refers to. Otherwise I disagree totally if he means separate lines for everything. That would be like having every sink, toilet, tub, etc. in your house all running to the septic thru different drain lines. Ridiculous, but then I have seen it all so nothing surprises me. Not everyone understands plumbing. KISS and keep it neat looking. Read a plumbing book for a greater understanding of "plumbing".

I will probably use the sump water bypass for now to flow thru the raft bed as that still has nitrates but is all pre-filtered by the media beds. Down the road I will build another "swirl/bio-filter" (see my photos) for the raft bed, This is why we advocate to start with media beds only as they are far simpler to run than raft beds.

Comment by Jeff S on April 5, 2014 at 10:49pm

Jim, I was looking at your GH diagram. I'm not sure I'm reading it right. Looks like the GBs get fed directly from the FT and drain to the sump. From all I've read, and believe me I get confused, wouldn't feeding the FT to the flter then to the GB to the raft then to the sump be the better way to run it?

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