Small Scale Sytem I put together

[kellenw]

I've read a little on protein skimmers used in freshwater, and it seems properly designed for freshwater, they can do a lot of good. Note that I've never used any firsthand in my own systems, and my knowledge of them is pretty basic.

From what I understand, when used in high density feed intensive freshwater systems, they help reduce dissolved proteins (proteins in solution) quite well.

Some bigger aquaculture equipment vendors in the US like Aquatic Eco-systems sell some pretty impressive (and expensive) freshwater protein skimmers.

It seems their benefit is really with very feed intensive operations. If you feed enough to give your water that familiar brownish red (rusty) tint that you get in a high density aquaculture system even when it is otherwise crystal clear, it appears a protein skimmer would go a long way in fixing that.

[Cecil]

Makes sense to me. I hear that brown color is tannins from the feed in systems where they feed a lot and push them to the limit.

Yeah AES has some cool stuff. A little overpriced but really cool. I'm convinced I could build a lot of the stuff they sell if I put my mind to it, and I will.

Edit:

Turns out the brown color can be produced even without pushing the carrying capacity to the limit. At least that's the case with me. I've been told the particular feed I use has a propensity to do that.

[kellenw]

AES used to sell a lot of overstock stuff on ebay. Everything was buy now or make offer. I made some seriously low offers on a lot of things, and not once was one turned down by them. I was sad to discover they quit selling overstock on ebay recently.

[Cecil]

AES used to sell a lot of overstock stuff on ebay. Everything was buy now or make offer. I made some seriously low offers on a lot of things, and not once was one turned down by them. I was sad to discover they quit selling overstock on ebay recently.

Wow I didn't know that. I'd love to get some of their stuff cheap!

[kellenw]

Wow I didn't know that. I'd love to get some of their stuff cheap!

Yea, they had some amazing deals on ebay.

Unfortunately, I just received some hatching jars from AES today that are absolute garbage. I sent them an email, so we'll see how that goes. I expressed a bit of frustration since I was planning to use them for about 2,500-3,000 tilapia eggs I need to strip from females this weekend. I have faith in them though. They've always been great to deal with. Back to the jars though. Basically, fantastic design, but the worst plumbing assembly I've ever seen. I went ahead and tried them out anyway just for the sake of satisfying my own curiosity (test run in fresh water and no eggs). Within minutes both of them began leaking at the joints! One was leaking an actual stream of water! My hatching tank would have been completely empty by morning. Imagine if I had eggs and fry in there. What a huge loss that could have been. These things have threaded joints glued to non-threaded pvc couplers, a single-barbed ball valve designed for hooking to vinyl tubing glued to pvc couplers on both ends, a threaded outflow piece glued directly to the plastic body of the jar with no gasket or anything, a threaded 90 degree joint glued to yet another pvc coupler, etc. A master plumber would have a heart attack if he saw these things.

I couldn't believe these low grade jars came from AES. I also ordered a Mcdonald hatching jar along with the smaller jars (major overkill for me, but I always wanted one). It's a brilliant piece of equipment, but considering it can do up to about 500,000 tilapia eggs (or about 100,000 trout eggs) at one time, I was hoping the smaller ones could be used for now. They are more my scale at this time. Looks like I'll either have to "fix" the small jars myself or fire up the Mcdonald hatcher. If I have to use the Mcdonald though, I'll have to run out and grab another mag drive pump for it because I don't have the right one at the moment since I wasn't planning on using it quite yet.

I'll post a follow up when I hear from AES. I'm sure they'll make it right.

[kellenw]

I think these jars may be assembled by AES in house. They do a lot of custom work for people, so it wouldn't suprise me. I can't stress enough that they are a great design, just poor material selection and poor assembly. If the correct materials were used, I would imagine the assembly would have been fine too because they wouldn't have had to kind of "wing it" to fit all these incompatible pieces together.

Got a response back this morning. I told them I was probably just going to fix the problems on the jars myself, so I wouldn't have to resort to using the Mcdonald jar for so few eggs. They offered to credit me a large amount of money instead of replacing the items or having them sent back for refund. My ideal solution in this case, and I didn't even have to ask.

Issue resolved. Thanks AES.

[Jackalope]

I love that RBC .... I've got to do some more research on it, but it looks to me that it has one huge advantage over gravel and other stationary media biofilters, etc. by being in constant movement, it would discourage the tank turning septic, as my gravel ones are wont to do! If you have any links to more info, I'd appreciate them This would be a great experiment for my new 250 Gallon kiddie pool.

[Jackalope]

Just spent the past hour looking at RBCs. They're used primarily for human sewage/waste in large applications, however, our usage of them would be for processing fish sewage, so that fits well, right? I am thinking I might be able to make use of this technology for my indoor ponds, just on a smaller scale

[Cecil]

I love that RBC .... I've got to do some more research on it, but it looks to me that it has one huge advantage over gravel and other stationary media biofilters, etc. by being in constant movement, it would discourage the tank turning septic, as my gravel ones are wont to do! If you have any links to more info, I'd appreciate them This would be a great experiment for my new 250 Gallon kiddie pool.

Well there's the book Small Scale Aquaculture by Steven Van Gorder available on Amazon.com The book is well written and shows you how to build it step by step.

Not sure what you'd have to pay since you are overseas but it typically doesn't run more than U.S. $25.00.

If you get the book contact me. There are a few errors in measurements etc.

[carolinaguy618]

Cecil your updates have been amazing. I am in the process of building the RBC in Small Scale Aquaculture and I am wondering about the media used for the biodiscs. The flat 10 mil polystyrene sheets and the Kalwall I cant seem to find them. Is the 10 mil in a roll or sheet ? Will the process be affected if I use something else ?