Ckma

new nozzles are awesome ... and I got some new fish ... hybridized bumblebee mixed grouper... then inhale everything. Bass are good at 68-78 ish ... ill have some pics soon I think for the system and may make a thread about it.

I see Im hoping to keep a low ph and hardness for the piranha so if I ever do an outdoor setup ill most likely follow your lead but may use trout instead of tilapia as I live in a cold climate.. what do the bass like as far as temp goes? I hope your nozzles are working out for you a system like yours is def something to shoot for imo no water changes and self regulating sounds like the life for me

The predatory feed is high in P and K while herb feed is low in p and k so I just feed the predatory fish a big more to get them. You shouldnt need to supplement at all. I don't worry about KH or GH at all tilapia like harder water so do bass probably because they naturally occur in heavy limestone bottom streams. I don't know about other fish as much but generally the plants and system and snails keep that stuff in check.

That's great my heaters should be here tomorrow.. Im trying to get this ro filter sorted out as i found my well water is insanely hard and I cannot lower my ph.. im thinking i can just add my well water occasionally for the buffer and it'll act like your limestone as well do you try to keep a specific gh or kh? Oh and I meant do you use any supplementary K nutrition for the fish waste to create the fertilizer or is it all already there? Are there any nutes you've had success using to boost growth if not?

hopefully the nozzles will be in today at 3pm my time so ill let you know how they go. I dont buffer the system with anything and have no deficiencies thats what the predatory fish is for. The only thing is ill drop a bit of iron in the biofilter every now and then to feed the iron chelating bacteria but thats just to keep everything super green ifs not actually needed. As the plants pick up nutes it drives the ph down making the solution more acidic that acidic water dissolves the calcium carbonate from limestone which reacts to raise the ph and when a base + acid are mixed you create salt or the full npk fertilizer when in the system.

That's awesome Im excited to hear you're growing this way if you figure that spray nozzle problem out id def like to hear about it Ive always liked aero. what do you use for high potassium chemicals? how do you use mag to buffer the ph? im guessing the limestone affects the ph

The bacterial buildup in spray heads is what im working on now once thats fixed this thing will run forever without water changes.

My water runs through a biofilter then into a radial swirl solid filter stuffed with trapdoor snails which overflows into a separate res through a biodiesel 10micron filter bag attached to the end of the dump pipe split with an overflow pip due to flow restrictions.. then I cover the res and plumb one pipe out the lid to the aerosystem. This ensures I filter out everything down to 10 microns leaving the 2.5 microsize of salt ferts but nothing else. Ive clocked this filtration at about 3 gpm flow rate per bag so I use 3 dumps to get to 10gpm my aero system uses about 7 right now. So the res stays pretty full and clean but changes the water twice an hour. bacterial can get down to .2-2 microns so spray heads do get clogged with bacteria

well a 50 gallon biofilter filled with mesh if its normal matala is about 215specific sqft and if filled has about 7 cubic feet area so 215*7=1505*.06=90.3g/.03=3010g or about 6 lbs of feed a day so with mesh in a 50 gallon its probably enough for about anything so if you have your heart set on piranha I did some research they don't eat snails and plecos but they will eat any other bottom feeder. So some trapdoors will cleanup the leftover organic waste so its actually quite viable. Bass will require about as much filtration as the piranha but just wont leave as much organic material behind since they dont feed by ripping apart other fish lol they swallow them whole.

Well I have a 90 gal tank running to a 50 gal barrel that directs the water under a divider through pea gravel then into another barrel that directs it through a variety of mesh material and then into the 4ft.x3ft.x8in. grow beds filled with hydrocorn.. its powered by a siphon run off the air compressor so im not sure on the gph as I dont have a flow meter but it moves fairly quickly as its 2" tubing connecting it all.. im guessing the filter isnt beefy enough for the piranha but what would you suggest I use instead in terms of #&size of bass? how do you filter your's enough to use aero?

as for the tank level.. see the amount of gallons as a buffer then less fish per gallon the bigger the buffer. If you have 1 fish per 3 gallons you have less of a buffer as 1 fish per 5 or 7 gallons... less buffer bigger the spikes and the higher the chance of your system performing poorly and crashing.. to much organic material , to little biofiltration and to much bioload is the trifecta of death. And piranha grow up to 1 foot depending on breed maybe 2 feet... which will require more food to maintain. then if you have gravel bed then yes worms can finish the scraps but you will need to rinse the bed out once every 6 months because they will break everything into soil in the bed.. which will clog it up and create rot. I use high pressure aero so no gravel bed for me just shredded screen materials at 2 times the biofiltration and full solids removal.

so if you have 50 piranha and feed it 1 pound beef a day then 1lb = 450g*.03 =13.5g/.06=225/315=.715 cubic feet of 315sqft density media flow rate should be about 6gpm/sqft in a .715cubic would be about 1` by 1` so 6gpm or 360 gph pump covering all media should keep levels normal. But if you have lava rock for biomedia which is about 70 specific sqft density then 13.5g/.06=225/70=3.21 cubic at 6gpm/sqft in 3.21 in 2` by 2` so 24gpm or 1440gph pump so at 7 gallons per cubic those 50gallons are about 1 lbs of food per 50 gallon biofilter with regular packing daily at 1500 gph pump

as for the filter those 2 50 gallons maybe not enough depending on the material in the filter should be dependent on load. And load comes from the amount of food pushed into the system. generally 3% of feed is converted so 10kg of feed = 300g of load daily and your system should be setup to convert that. Take the load/.06 = sqft media/specific media sqftage = size of biofilter.

Bass are very easy to keep they are monster feeders to they can consume fish 1/2 there body size they grind the fish in their mouths and scales fly out their gills. I use trapdoor snails for cleanup in the tank because they are monsters and 1 snail can clean a 25 gallon tank in about 2 hours. When the tank walls are clean they roll over and filter the particles out of the water directly making it crystal clear. You could of course use crays/catfish/snails/plecos/shrimp/etc.. but imho trapdoor snails take the cake.

So since im already going to be using a biofilter from a much larger setup(its 2 50 gal barrels.. prolly overkill for a 90 gal tank) Id be alright as long as i watched my ammonia and nitrite levels? if the piranha waste were to go into the tilapia tank then the worm bed wouldn't they being omnivores finish the scraps? could something like crayfish or other scavengers help break down the extra organic matter so water changes are less frequent? Im intrigued about your use of bass too are they easy to keep?

Yes I just drop a big chunk of limestone in that I usually pick up from the springs near my house around the size of a fist. Piranha may not be the best candidates for predatory fish simply because they leave behind some organic material from their frenzy style feeding. This will end up making the water look oily and turn cloudy and the biofilter will breakdown from to much organic solids. If you were really intent on using piranha because they are awesome.. you can build a much larger than average biofilter and larger res.. and test the water frequently as you may need to do 30% water changes monthly. Generally tho You want fish that eat their meal in one bite like big mouth bass, green terrors, jack dempseys, etc. Things left dead and dieing or decomposing will cause huge spikes in ammonia and nitrites. I use bass.. and they taste awesome I feed them the tilapia fingerlings, worm, guppies/live bearers from another tank basically whatever population is growing to large.

Hi i've been reading your posts about your aquaponic grow and have been very intrigued about your use of predatory fish in your cycle and how their waste reacts with limestone to create a full npk fertilizer. Do you just put a slab of limestone at the bottom of your tank? I'm about to start a system of my own and was wondering if low ph level and high nutrient requirements would be perfect match to a predatory fish like piranha. What do you use as your predatory fish? do you feed them your tilapia and snails? greens too im guessing?

thanks, Luke