5,000 gallon trout tank and UV filter?

[HoundsNTrout]

Totally new to this forum, I just started a hobby from the past raising trout from fry or even sac fry to 4" then releasing to our property.

I want to get my 5,000 gallon tank up and running with stream water as the source. We have nice artesian well water but I don't want to ruin or cause strain on our house since its the same well we use for humans and my dog kennel .

Has anyone used a simple UV ( not the crazy expensive ones but lets say less than $500 ) filtration to raise trout with say a 250Gallon per hour flow rate? In the 5,000 gallon tank I would pump from the stream with a sump pump at about that rate.

I don't know if that simple UV filter would get all the bad guys or even fungus in the stream? I would also have inline bio filter just in case also pumping that into the tank, but probably wouldn't amount to much since the flow rate was so large?

Any advice on pumping from a stream of fairly good quality but questions on whether or not I'd run into any organisms that the UV would not take care of . Gram + or neg bacteria or fungi.

Thanks

 

[PUHUCBLMX2]

Damn tough question. If you haven't done so already, you might repost this in the filtration section. Those guys talk set up with detail. My guess is your tank will be fine. Especially if you are constantly doing artesian well water changes.

 

[lizardboy]

What kind of trout are you keeping? That sounds like it's gonna be a great set up

 

[HoundsNTrout]

Browns and Brookies at the moment. Will start some rainbows in another few weeks.

Main question is I want to switch from our well water with minimal flow rate to stream water that has unknown things in it, but using the sump pump to get the flow rate almost constant fresh water and will a UV system even be able to do anything at all with 250Gallons per hour of flow. I've also seen these pond pumps that have both UV and bio filters, external that could work fine too that claim to have 1200 G per hour capability. The current pump and filter I use in my small tank with 3" trout in it is just a bio filter.

 

[divemaster99]

Any pictures of the setup? It sounds like and awesome tank!

 

[snookman]

It seems to me that the UV wouldn't do a whole lot. In a tank with a looped system the water goes through the UV many times as it circulates. In your set-up it would be in-line and only be hit by the UV once. If this were my set-up I would slow the flow-rate considerably. Think of it in terms of how often you want to change 100% of the water. I wouldn't want to change it out completely more often than every 48 hours or so. 5000gallons divided by 48hrs is basically 105GPH turnover. I would settle with a 100GPH pump and run the stream water through mechanical and chemical filtration. Biological filtration is not necessary since your water changes it's volume too fast for water quality to degrade at any noticeable rate. Have your UV sterilizer in line after the filter and use as big of a UVS as you can afford to because of the concerns you already have about outside contaminents. I would also put a couple of high GPH power heads inside the tank to give the trout lots of current with rocks/boulders for them to hide behind and get out of the current. Is your "return" going into the top of your tank? I would suggest that you pipe it down to bottom of one end of your tank if it's coming from above to better circulate the water turnover and keep detritus from settling on the bottom. Then have an "overflow" at the other end of the tank for water to go up and out. If you ever plan on using chemicals for clarity or for treatment then do not route the waste water back to the stream.

 

[Pumpkinseed]

Assuming you are raising the trout for food, I would suggest googling aquaponics and/or fish farming. There is a ton of information out there, and several good forums to get advise from people that do this for fun and/or profit.

 

[HoundsNTrout]

Any pictures of the setup? It sounds like and awesome tank!

Well, sorry I took so long but just getting to some photos.

All my fish are now in 3 different ponds and one stream (w/dam lol ). But all in all I made out pretty well for percentages that lived and did well to 4-5 inches.

Here are some photos of my big tank. My smaller one that I start the eggs and up to 1-2 inches is exactly the same concept with the pumps being a lot smaller.
I included photos of my smaller tank ( 50G ) home made pump/filter.

I have pumps and air turned off just for the photos. I am keeping this tank running since I will either put some broods in or wait til Fall for eggs. Not sure yet.

 

[HoundsNTrout]

These quick vid's will give a better idea. I have a much smaller version of basically the same thing in my basement to start the eggs and very small fry in.

I took the big pile of gravel I used to use out and replaced with gallon jugs drillled with holes for the media. Makes cleaning a HECK of a lot easier and also getting the fish out when its time. I found that the jug system is really ideal in this set up. I siphon off old food and fish waste every night with an electric pump even though I have sock filters over each pump which are rinsed daily.

I also found that the submersible bio filter doesn't work quite as good or as fast as the above tank system. Although I still use the smaller subersible for the small 55G tank and it helps with airation a little bit.