Im going to run all my tanks filtration into the basement. Im going to run the water through a small hydroponics set up. I basically have that all figuired out. But I need to have a filtration set-up after the hydroponics. I should get quite a bit of filtration from the hydoponics set up, but I need to have enough filtration for 500 gal just in case I need to bypass the hydo set up for some reason. Im looking for ideas on a cheap filtration set up for 500 gal. Any ideas???? I thought about using a 55 gal plastic barrel and have a 5 gal barrel on top of that for a pre filter. Then have scrubbies for bio filtration in the 55. I could cut a circular lid out of plexi glass and drill a bunch of small holes in it and put it about 6" from the top of the barrel. Then I was thinking about having the 55 gallon barrell about 2' off the ground on a stand and have a sump under that. Do you think that would be enough filtration for 500gal? Does anyone have any other ideas how to build a cheap filtration set up?? Ive looked through the threads for ideas, But I just thought It wouldnt hurt to ask. Im running the 500 gals through 2 55 gal plastic barrels with pre filter socks to catch the debri. The plastic barrels are going to be mounted close to the ceiling Im going to run pvc pipes out of the bottom spliting into 2. So I will have a total of 4 rows for hydroponic growing about 10-12' long. Eventually I might add more but for now Im only going to have 4 rows. Im not sur If Im going to use large pvc pipes with the top cut out or gutters for the rows. They are going to be about 4' from the floor. At the end they will return undernieth to the filtration set-up. I dont know how much filtration I will get from the hrdo set up, But I still want enough filtration for the 500 gals. just in case I need to bypass the hydroponis set up. Any ideas?????????
Filtration set up after running through hydroponics set up?
- Thread starter daveolejnik
- Start date
4 rows of 10,12' will give you a LOT of filtration. If you search the internet for 'Aquaculture' you'll find quite a lot of people with some really in-depth setups. There are even some pro trout farms and a lot of research centers working on this. Some of the more researchy sites will give you free info...
I seem to remember reading that 1kg of trout produced enough waste to grow 10 lettuce, so with 4 rows at 12' thats a lot of kilos. Dont forget though if your using gravel as a growing medium rather than 'floating' the plants, this will act like a regular filter, giving a large surface area for bacteria to colonise if their are any nitrates the plants are not using. So without the plants you have a 48' horizontally laid out tricklefilter!
One thing to think about though is that plants are very greedy and will take far more than they need to grow if minerals ect are available to fill their stores. The plants at the inlet will strip an unequal amount of the goodness from the water, hence grow much faster than those toward the end of the tube, who must persist on much leaner rations. It is a goo idea to design your system so periodically you can reverse the tube or the flow, to get a more even growthrate...
I seem to remember reading that 1kg of trout produced enough waste to grow 10 lettuce, so with 4 rows at 12' thats a lot of kilos. Dont forget though if your using gravel as a growing medium rather than 'floating' the plants, this will act like a regular filter, giving a large surface area for bacteria to colonise if their are any nitrates the plants are not using. So without the plants you have a 48' horizontally laid out tricklefilter!
One thing to think about though is that plants are very greedy and will take far more than they need to grow if minerals ect are available to fill their stores. The plants at the inlet will strip an unequal amount of the goodness from the water, hence grow much faster than those toward the end of the tube, who must persist on much leaner rations. It is a goo idea to design your system so periodically you can reverse the tube or the flow, to get a more even growthrate...
Wolf3101;1202656; said:
If space is an issue yes, but it depends on what you want to achieve. It is possible to remove nutrients from the water to levels of ppb, which are way beyond physical and chemical treatment methods, but to do this you need long growth beds and to rotate the positions of the plants as they grow, plus you need to balance any limiting nutrient in your effluent... It gets quite sophisticated....
I checked the numbers again and for rainbow trout they were getting 7.5 - 10 heads of lettuce to remove the P excreted by 1lb of trout. This was from troughs 4" by 12' planting with 20 seedlings per troughand 6 troughs in a row. They got a 99% reduction in P and a 66% reduction in Nitrates. Thy didnt use any gravel in the troughs though, planting the seedlings in oasis cubes....
Any ammonia will be taken up first and if your using a substrate you'll get the normal filter bac growing on them so you shouldnt get any ammonia coming out...the question is how much nitrate you'll reduce. If you do have a back up filter after the hydro setup, it wont get any ammonia so wont be mature if you need to switch.....
Thus, if you want one you'll need to put it in front of the hydrosetup....
Ask Dr Joe...He's posted lots on this subject and has built these systems professionally...plus he knows a lot more about filtration than I do!!!!!!
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=91751&highlight=hydroponics
and this is where i coppied everything I pretend to know lol!
http://www.ias.unu.edu/proceedings/icibs/ic-mfa/adler/paper.html