1st ever post! please help with filter and setup feasibility test!

[arachdog]

Yes its true, arachdog, I am not even a fingerling myself in the game, but the way I envision the system operating without any preconceived notions or bias could be at times slightly entertaining.

I wasn't suggesting it was going to be entertaining. I was genuinly interested. Quite often people coming at something from another field find a better way to do something because they didn't know the 'right' way.

Hey all! I am interested in hearing more about this overflow protection aka "chop". Is it an acronym?

Yep, Constant Height, One Pump.

Your pictures didn't come out that well, I can't make out any of your labels. One thing I noticed is that if the settling tank is your only means of solids removal I think it needs to be a LOT bigger. If your expecting solids to settle there prefferentially then you have to allow the flow to slow significantly. It practically has to be your biggest tank. Personally I would advise you look into an actual mechanical filter of some description. I'm sure you can build something to do the same job as your settling tank but much cheaper and with a smaller footprint.

[GaryD]

Hi aquapoolman,

In a basic CHOP system, the water drains from the fish tank into the growing system (often flood and drain grow beds).....and then into a sump tank. The pump is located in the sump and it lifts the water from the sump tank back into the fish tank......which displaces water which drains into the growing system......and so on.

One of the advantages of the CHOP arrangement is that, if the pump stops for any reason, the fish tank will remain full of water. Having a full tank will help to offset the impact of equipment failure......particularly if you have good aeration and (even better still) a backup pump system.

Where the growing system is either nutrient film technique (NFT) or deep water cycle (DWC - aka raft), mechanical filtration will usually be installed between the fish tank and the growing system.

In my view, the installation of mechanical filtration (and supplementary bio-filtration) makes for a safer and more productive aquaponics unit.....regardless of the type of growing system.

Gary

[aquapoolman]

hey all thanks for the replies!

sorry for the lousy pictures, it seems the website resized them!?

arachdog, I knew what you meant! It was me who suggested that my ignorance may provide some of you with entertainment.

Gary, wouldn't a chop system require water to be taken from the waters surface? If so, then additional means of water movement would be needed in the fish tanks to ensure suspended and solid particles at the bottom of the tank could be brought to the surface for filtration?

Couldn't a smaller clarifier be used if the fish tanks were cone shaped on the bottom and the water was drained from there?

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[arachdog]

This is the arrangment of my setup thought it's missing the pump in the bottom of the biofilter that returns the water to the tank. But you can see the overflow arrangment which I believe is basically no different to CHOP. The standpipe in the center of the tank also has a drain at the base so by adjusting the height of the standpipe you can actually get water to flow out of the tank from both the tank bottom and water surface.

[aquapoolman]

Thanks for the diagram, its much nicer than mine haha. I dare not try to draw bio balls.
In any case you mentioned a drain at the bottom, so if you adjust the height of the intake tube it exposes the drain and allows water to exit through the bottom. I can't quite conceptualize this, unless you mean literally lifting up the draining pipe, but then, how can the water drain from both top of tank and bottom of tank at the same time??

Is the yellow block thing a media filter as well? What type of media is inside??

- Aquapoolman

[arachdog]

No, the you dont move the standpipe. The bottom drain is actually holes in the side of the standpipe. You try and size the holes at the bottom to take away about half the flow then the remainder goes down the top of the standpipe.

No, the yellow thing is a rotating screen filter.

[aquapoolman]

Interesting. So could this work: there are two pipes, one inserted into the other and using venturi principles as you adjust the height of the tube, the holes in the sides either open up or close?


If the standpipe in the center has holes in the sides, how do you prevent overflow of the fish tank?

[aquapoolman]

I made a mistake haha, how do you prevent all the water from draining the fish tank?

[arachdog]

Its external part of the pipe that sets the tank level. You don't even need the standpipe in the tank unless you also want to also draw water from the water surface.

[GaryD]

Hi,

This is the arrangment of my setup thought it's missing the pump in the bottom of the biofilter that returns the water to the tank. But you can see the overflow arrangment which I believe is basically no different to CHOP.

It's only a CHOP system once it has a growing system hanging off it. CHOP is an aquaponics acronym.

Your arrangement is very similar to the aquaculture side of my Queenslander design.....except for the rotating screen mechanical filter and the fish tank drain which, in most CHOP systems, exits through the fish tank wall (near the top) and draws from the bottom ..........since that's where the solids are.

While I liked the overhead trickling bio-filter arrangement, I'm tending toward a Moving Bed filter located in the sump tank itself. In fact, the entire sump tank will be a Moving Bed bio-filter.

Gary