Aquaponics Swirl filters for solids removal

Over the last few days, Ive been reading a stack of stuff on radial flow and swirl filters.

Heres what I think I know so far.

As far as I can tell a radial flow filter moves the water in a very gentle manner, first down then up. The solids stay at the bottom. It often does this by having a container inside another container. One container acts like a bucket, and the other is mounted upside down from the lid. You add water and solid waste into the centre top, where it gently moves down to under the rim of the upside down container. The water then rises up to exit near the top outside rim, leaving the solids behind at the bottom. A tap is placed at the bottom so you can remove the solids.

I think Im going with a swirl filter instead.

The swirl filter migrates solids towards the centre and the bottom, which should be the best position to remove them via a siphon. The path the solids take is a long one because the flow is circular due to the direction of flow on entry to the device. This allows more time for the solids to fall out of suspension (maybe).

So a swirl filter is a bucket with an inlet pipe mounted near the rim to introduce water and solid waste from the fish tank. The inlet tube is pointed in such a way as to make the water create a gentle whirlpool.

Normally, a tap is added to the bottom to remove the solids once collected.

As far as I can tell, a swirl filter changes the pressure of the water on the outside, making it higher than that of the centre due to its rotational ... disposition.

This pressure (and depth) difference means that the top is no longer the top as far as the poop goes. The poop now thinks the top outside edge is the new top, and the bottom centre is the new bottom. So the poop moves to the new bottom which is right where Il mount the bell siphon.

What all this means is that the poop is a little more committed to sinking than its normal, only slightly sinking self.

Its also more likely to settle out near the centre of the bottom of the swirl filter.

Instead of using a tap mounted through the bottom of the swirl filter, Ill be adding an auto siphon in an attempt to automate the dumping of the solids into a worm farm.

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Aquaponics Shell grit seed raising shoots

My attempt at raising seedlings in shell grit seems to have worked.

No real surprise there, because if its going to fail it wont be for a while yet. The point of failure, if there is one, will be the plants rotting because the water might flow through too slowly, and become stagnant.

The shoots appeared this morning.

The lettuce and rocket have sprouted, but the kale is yet to.

I think it was only 4 days ago that they were sown.

On a slightly interesting note, the seeds that were directly sown to the growbed came up yesterday afternoon.

They were sown around 10 days ago. I figured they werent going to show and moved on to trying the shell grit idea.






I still think it will be better to grow seedlings and transplant them just so you can space the plants properly. When you direct sow, you have to plant lots of extra and think them out because some dont grow, and some move around a bit and as a result you can get clumps of seedlings all in one spot.

Anyway...

So far so good with the seed raising in shell grit experiment.

120 Things in 20 years still has no taglines forming in its addled brain.

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DIY Pond Filters

Here is a link to a forum where an under gravel filter is suggested.

This also looks like a good idea to me.  One thing I learned is that at first when my fish were small there was very little debris to deal with, but as the fish reproduced and grew bigger it became a problem.  At one point I was cleaning the filter everyday. 

My feeling is that a large gravel bed with 3/4" rock and vermaculture will require the least amount of maintenance and provide a great amount of bio-filtration.   But sometime the situation calls for a filter and these appear to be pretty good.

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Activated Carbon Filters

How does a carbon filter benefits an aquarium?

Activated Carbon is amazing!  The surface area is enormous and this allows bacteria to grow much faster and more dense.  Just as we choose a porous rock for our grow beds (bio filters), activated carbon is  an ideal surface for bacteria. Its not all good because activated carbon can also grow bad bacteria that is not beneficial to our systems, but with proper care, and aeration we can avoid many of these harmful bacteria

Depending on the ionization of the carbon it also has the ability to capture a lot of impurities. For example most activated carbon filters are very good at neutralizing chlorine.

Activated carbon filters will not remove microbes, salts or nitrites, but most organic chemicals have large molecules and due to the pore size of activated carbon many of the impurities we wish to avoid are converted in the activated carbon filter.

This is how it works in an aquarium, but in an aquaponic system the goal is to utilize as much grow space as possible.   3/4" media has been proven to work best.   There are many choices of 3/4" media and I tend not  to enjoy running my hands through crushed rock. I have found smooth rock works just fine.  But recently there is a new idea being used called Bio-Char.

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New Scuds Filters and Flirting Fish

I got some Gammarus Scuds a few days ago and made this make shift aquarium for them.  Ive also included a look at some new bio filters I just built and two fish that are getting ready to mate.

Scuds AKA Gammarus or Caledonian shrimp are small freshwater shrimp amphipods that can grow to about the size of a grain of rice.

Scuds are an excellent source of live food in aquariums and will rapidly colonize the gravel, keeping it clean by eating uneaten food as well as fish wastes. They are omnivorous and will eat almost anything. Scuds also colonize the filter pads and keep them clean while breeding in them, this makes the filters last well over twice as long.

They are  extremely resistant to changes in environment. Outdoors they can survive Minnesota winters as long as they have unfrozen water beneath the ice, and indoors have no problems with my 86* F crayfish aquariums.

They are super fast breeders and will rapidly colonize,  When scuds mate the male carries the female on his back as they are swimming. The female carries about 50 fertilized eggs in her egg pouch and these are orange in color and show through her semi-transparent body. The young shrimp hatch within the egg pouch and emerge as fully developed young shrimp but MICROSCOPIC in size.

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