fishfoods system

[fishfood]

This system has been running 12 months

Heres my system made from recycled stuff
2 1000litre ibc fish tanks with 70 20 cm silver perch in one
and 35 150cm rainbow trout in the other
being pumped with an ex pool pump 3 min in the hr
threw 3 grow beds total 1000 litre on the way a strawberry tower and an aqua lemon tree The return via a clean water sump a nother small pump supplies the nift beds and duckweed and yabbie tank
Further projects continue on to the glass house
1 Over all view
2 fish
3 tanks
4 pump

[fishfood]

further photos
5 Grow beds
6 nft and yabbies
7 grow bed
8 strawberry tower

[Jimmie]

The lettuce growing in the gutter/troughs along the side of the tank are looking good.
It would appear that the water for them comes from a pump somewhere and then runs back into the main tank at the other end.
What is that water source ?
Has that water already gone through your grow beds and therefore been converted by the bacteria ?
Is the gutter/trough commercially available or did you make it up yourself. If you made it yourself do you mind telling me how you did that ?

[fishfood]

Hi jimmie the water from the grow beds flows back via the blue drum on the left of the ibc/s photo no 3 its then pumped with a small pond pump via the green hose and 4 taps to the nft then the duckweed and then fish tanks the nft were commercial product for growing lettuce got from the recycling center

[gbj]

That's a great looking system. What is the significance of half burying the ibc tanks - is it for insulation, aesthetics, or uv or some other reason?

[fishfood]

That's a great looking system. What is the significance of half burying the ibc tanks - is it for insulation, aesthetics, or uv or some other reason?
Hi all of the above ibc/s dont like uv after a while they get brittel for insulation they are also clad in cool room pannels and by burying you can have your grow beds on the ground and have gravety return oh yea looks good to

[njh]

I've seen fishfood's system and it is very cool! How's the lemon tree coming along?

[fishfood]

I've seen fishfood's system and it is very cool! How's the lemon tree coming along?
1st lemon ripe new shoots and flowers

[Murray]

How about some more recent pix ?

[fishfood]

How about some more recent pix ?

Ok heres the latest taken in the rain
1 nft strawberrys planted 2 days ago
2 grow beds lemongrass . cabbage . mint of some sort. brockely .collies
3 lemon nearly ripe notice new shoots

[Murray]

Hi Foodfish, The NFT system....what size nozzles do you use to deliver the water to the guttering ? Is it just the size of the pipe ?
What approx volume of water is flowing through each trough ?
I am really keen to give NFT a run as I find there is a good bit of nutrient still present in the water returning from my grow beds to the sump, so I need to use those nutrients up.
Muzza

[fishfood]

Hi Foodfish, The NFT system....what size nozzles do you use to deliver the water to the guttering ? Is it just the size of the pipe ?
What approx volume of water is flowing through each trough ?
I am really keen to give NFT a run as I find there is a good bit of nutrient still present in the water returning from my grow beds to the sump, so I need to use those nutrients up.
Muzza
hi murry look at the enclosed photo you will see the taps supplying the nft are just on and look at the other end there is just a triccle returning also in the far end there is a small removable weir to start the plants once the roots take hold i remove it in my nft i have run just a small amount and a big flow no differend my finding so far is once the neutrient is astablished you can run it anywere with no side affects

[fishfood]

Latest jobs extending the system into the glasshouse it has the ability to run on its own or intergrated with the existing system

[Murray]

What species of fish will you run in the glass aquariums?
I see a bath tub there on the bottom shelf, is that where you will have the grow beds ?

[fishfood]

Murray i am going to put the silvers in there for the winter the glasshouse gets to 30 deg on a sunny day [water 25 ] .On the bath tub thats for duckweed the growbeds are the other side

[Murray]

I like that plan for the Silvers. I need to get something ready like that before next winter. This winter has been very difficult as far as keeping the water temp up.
Gary has a duck weed bed also. It is a good idea to have it close by like that.

[fishfood]

Heres pictures of the first growbed getting its fittings Its a flood and drain with an overflow .I have put it this way because i wanted to exit the side [theres a small hole in the elbow for slow drain]
1st photo All the bits [on the shelf items]
2nd nearly there
3rd the finished job

[sillyoldfart]

Where abouts on the elbow did you put the "small hole".

Was this to help break the syphon?

[fishfood]

Hi sof the hole can be any where i put mine 1/2 round the bend this is not an auto syphen its flood and drain its run on a timer [fills the bed then slowly drains ] this system has been running in my other beds with great succes for 12 months now

[sillyoldfart]

Hi sof the hole can be any where i put mine 1/2 round the bend this is not an auto syphen its flood and drain its run on a timer [fills the bed then slowly drains ] this system has been running in my other beds with great succes for 12 months now

So if this is not a syphon, then I'm not sure as to how this works. Why do you need the riser tube at all?

[fishfood]

Easy with flood and drain you fill the bed with a timer [ mine take 3 min ] that lets all the grow media get wet then you slowley drain [ mine 1 hr ] as its draining do is drawn into the water and back to the fish also gives the bacteria time to work .The plants dont mind beeing submerged .And running the pump for a short time less power usage mine costs $30 to$40 a year to run
edit the riser tube if bed fills quickly ie rain then it overflows

[sillyoldfart]

Understand those points fishfood, but still don't understand the need for the riser tube. Why not just leave it off the elbow all together.

Obviously this would drain quicker is that the reason why? If so, how do you work out the correct drain time compared to your fill time. What's the formula?

[fishfood]

If you leave of the riser tube it would drain as quick as you fill .So you would need a big pump to fill the whole bed with my pump i am filling or flowing through 10 things at once plus 2 20 mm by pass pipes back to the fish tanks my pump pumps 28000 litres an hour

[fishfood]

Also there is no set time some systems only run once every 2 hrs some run 4 times per hr .As long as what ever time you run it remover all the goo from the fish tanks that depends on how your system is designed

[sillyoldfart]

Doh.. just looked at the photos and saw the holes drilled in the big pipe. For some reason I was thinking that you just had things draining over the top of the big pipe.

Ok, so is there some "magical" formula to determine the height of the riser tube? O rdo you just start at a length the same as the large pipe and cut it down until you feel happy with the drain time?