Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Can talapia be raised above ground swimming pools?

Personally I wouldn't put anything from the pond into the tank. A great way to add parasites and potential disease. If it was me I'd use either fish feed or ammonia to feed the bacteria until the tank cycles. Then just before adding the fish they would get a salt dip to rid them of any ectoparasites. That is what I did and knock on wood I have no problems with parasites or disease.

All the data I've seen shows an RBC is the most efficient! They cost a little more to build but you get what you pay for.

The deer netting IS the filter medium for the bio filter

Source: http://www.doughtywatergarden.com/Tips/55%20Gallon%20Biofilter.htm

I figure by putting them in the pond they will develop microbes on them even before they are stuffed into the biofilter.

I found this about salt



Source: http://www.mortonsalt.com/faqs/

I guess that means water softener salt is out of the question.

I and most hatcheries I am aware of use simple 'Stock Salt" from any $feed store or co-op. $3/bg in bulk or ~$7/bg. It comes in 50 pound bags.

I use uniodized salt from the grocery store. I don't use enough for it to be a cost issue, at least not yet.

Good news! My family may want to invest in building a pole barn and expanding my fish business. A building to overwinter fish and hold fish for sale has been my biggest impediment on expansion.

I'm thinking of selling and delivering grass carp and producing and selling tilapia for algae control since the dummies in my state are stuck on raising them for food fish and getting less. You can only hit someone in the head with a 2 X 4 so long.

Hey Rex if I produce enough you can get them from me for this area of the midwest. Then you can just drive an empty truck one way without all the hassle.

I think one 5000 gallon swimming pool would take about a 50 pound sack and you would be just under one tablespoon per gallon. I used about a heaping teaspoon I think in my aquariums.

I read that salt kills algae. I never had a problem growing algae in my aquariums at the level I used. Do you guys think using a whole tablespoon per gallon would still grow lots of algae?

Decide what concentration you want and you can use the chart and info here... www.ca.uky.edu/wkrec/SALTTRANS.htm

Cecil, as you know, I'm an Indiana approved transporter and supplier for certified trilpoid GC if you pull the trigger on GC. You cold hold them in any of your ponds now.

Cecil, that's GREAT news! If you need a hand with anything just ask.

Surfsteve
I think this link would provide some good reading for you as well in your your project
http://www.aqualex.org/elearning/fish_feeding/english/bioenergetics/index.html

With your experience in raising fish this seems like a logical expansion for you. You might also want to look into SBA guaranteed loans and even farm loans to get this venture going.

Sounds good although i was told by Malone and Sons that a truck comes up this way from their farm and I could meet them with my hauling tank as long as I have a grass carp permit which I do and I can get any time.

What do you mean by "most efficient"? As far as foot print of the filter and bioload capacity, everything I have read points to a fluidized bed filter being the best. I have also read that a bio-reactor with kaldness media and other aerated moving bed biofilters are very good too.

I have not implemented either of these yet, so I am eager to hear about their pros/cons.

Removal Efficiencies:

RBC 74-83%
Trickling 23-51
fluidized bed 8-32%

http://www.aqualitysymposium.org/ppt...ofilters.ppt#1

Thanks for the words of encouragement Jeff!

The number for fbf looks way too low to me, perhaps they are referring to the old gravel style fbfs. The enormous surface area of the sand in the the fbf (just under 8000sqft per cubic foot) should allow a much smaller foot print and according to this site they can chew through up to 100% of the ammonia in a single pass. I realize this is a manufacturer's site but I have read about high conversion rates other places as well.

It could also be that they are referring to the cost of running the filter, as RBC can run with only a small air pump and a sand fbf requires water to be pumped into the sand at good rate to keep it all moving.

I am not knocking on RBCs at all but, I have just read alot of material that backs sand filters. I am really interested in reading that report, but the link isnt working. Could you fix the link?

Bender,

I think the link was only temporary as it was a symposium or something. I tried it too and couldn't get it to come up.

You have some good points and I don't know enough about all the filters to make a good counterargument, but I do know one thing: Several people I know of that tried to use a sand filter exclusively had nothing but problems with clogging and channeling.

If a fluidized bed sand filter is properly designed, they last forever, are clog proof, are self-cleaning, and never need repair. The surface area of the sand is unmatched as well. There is also no other filter that can respond as rapidly to changes in bio-loads.

Fluidezed bed sand filters are not intended for clarifying of the water or any other "solids" removal. The sole problem I have found with a FBSF is if water flow is interupted for more than a few seconds without having a positive sealing check valve on the inlet side, re-starting is difficult.

These filters can't use ordinary sand and to operate properly the "sand" should be angular shaped and graded to near exact sizes and uniformity.

If people have problems with channeling or clogging, the chances are they are using the improper sand.

Cecil, I googled the site and read the power point about 4am. They are right on the money! Why re-invent the wheel? Ego? Chance at making money? Publishing dollars?

My un-biased Engineering books, plus experience, tell me "You Go Cecil" with your RBC's. They are stable as a rock formation and top notch productive.

When you build your pole barn, I would do stick, like 2x6 and insulate well. After your building is up, and you want to do some nice recycle systems on a budget, let me know. No crazy electrical eating, non stable, machines are allowed!!!

Surfsteve: This is going to be a learning experience, and if things don't work exactly as envisioned or anticipated, keep on plugging away. Submerged filters are quite tricky at best. I have not got a clue as to what the surface area of the deer netting is per 100ft roll, but that is very important. I would also suggest that you throw away that link and do a down flow system with a good solids filter in place. You could maybe use one or two barrels on the up-flow side for solids filtration, then a few on the other side, down flow, for bio-filtration. Down flow on the 55 gallon drums will leave options open for aeration and gas stripping at a future date, albeit, not the best scenario. Then, at least you wont have too much to re-do, and can maybe toss in a few more fish after adjustments. Just my thoughts.

Excellent link Rex!

My pool was leaking pretty bad so I found another pool just like mine only 2 feet bigger. Turns out mine is a 16 foot even though it only measures 15 and a half. I had thought maybe the frame had stretched but apparently it "shrunk" at the factory.

Anyway after I picked up the pool I picked up my fish. It was about 10 pm and I didn't get home till almost 2 in the morning when I got home and put the fish in the pool. YOU GUYS AREN'T KIDDING! I was amazed at the amount of crap and how dirty the water was by morning. That all happened yesterday and it looks like I'm going to need to do a partial water change by tomorrow. I only have the pool about 1/3 full because of the leak. Funny thing is it looks like all of the leaks in my pool have stopped since I added the fish. I got a feeling that they all got plugged up with fish poop. Hopefully I wont have to go through too many water changes once I get my biofilter up and running.

I've decided to stick with my original plan and build my first biofilter out of 55 gallon drums according to my first plans. Leaving the pool down low makes me realize that siphoning in and pumping out is NOT practical. I found a great video of nearly exactly what I'm going to build. Only differences are I'm going to flip my drum over and cut out the bottom instead of the top. That way I have a nice 2" threaded opening that I can put a ball valve to drain off the solids. I'm also thinking of using the piece I cut out as a shield to keep the current from disturbing solids on the bottom.

I found a neat video today showing the design of my filter. The guy used a smaller container than a drum. I want to also make some bigger filters. I'm a little concerned that a 700 sq ft deer net isn't going to provide enough surface area. I think I'll just start building filters experimenting and adding more and more of them till my pool stays clean without water changes. Water is expensive out here so I hope it doesn't take too long. My water test kit is due to arrive tomorrow. I can tell without the kit that it will already need changing

Here is the video of the filter.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQugTLfN0zY
The guy used rope instead of deer mesh. I bet that works a lot better.

I just took a couple of pictures. Here is one of my pool


and here is one of my fish



Also that link about filtration was great. I did read in there that greenwater cultivation is difficult and should not be attempted by beginners so this is defiantly going to be a challenge. I can not believe the amount of algae and how fast it has grown. I added a total of 10 tablespoons of Miracle Gro to the pond. I wouldn't have added the last 5 tablespoons had I known I was going to find a back up pool 10 minutes later and be on my way to buy the fish. When I added 300 gallons of green goldfish water to it, it was so light green I couldn't even see a color change. This picture is only 4 days later. Tomorrow I intend to do a 2/3 water change. This totally blows away anything I have ever done in an aquarium!

This is going to be a fun project to follow.