Thanks for all the info guys. I definitely know how solids and dissolved solids etc. can dirty up the water and reduce water quality. I've seen it when I was temporarily holding some bluegills in this tank outdoors, when I had to drain the production pond and start over. I ran flow through from one of the ponds through the tank but the water still got pretty dirty.
And a venturi drain will be the choice de jour next time I set this tank up.
I hope to soon put the RBC in a separate rectangular tank
at a level above the fish tank, to allow overflow to return flow into the tank via gravity so another pump does not need to be added. Lots of advantages to that, including isolating the RBC to treat the fish in the tank if necessary, and simply having more room in the fish tank itself to harvest fish etc. With the smaller than optimum size of the tank I'm using now, flow in the tank is not circular like I would prefer.
The big plan it to get experience with what I have, and then try different types of setups and combinations and build everything myself. I'm pretty sure I could build a foam fractionator and swirl separator, which look pretty effective. In fact, a lot of the things they use in RAS technology look like they can be built yourself -- at least on a small scale. I see they make foam fractionators for aquariums. I looked at one at Pet Store the other day, and it didn't look that complicated. Basically air foaming the water and the foam with the particulates and protein flows away.
I'm going to try and use gravity as much as possible to move water to keep utility costs down. And most likely I won't be interested in pushing the limits on carrying capacity. My goal is fast growing high quality disease free fish.
Last edited by Cecil Baird1; 12/11/09 04:14 PM.
