Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Property Projects & Construction old manure pit uses

Here's an oddball question. We have an old concrete manure pit on our farm. It has a shed roof, 2 open side walls above pit, front and back have walls, close to 20'x20' and ~ 8' deep. It hasn't had real manure in it for years. It stays full of water (from rain gutters) and am sure there's some sludge on the bottom. It actually is a little hazardous for critters as we've found possums (who knows what else) dead in there.
What kind of project could I make from this? I've had a few ideas, like raising fatheads/baitfish, or maybe crawfish to eat. I could drain it, and even section it off for some sort of small nursery. I've also thought of making a bomb shelter out of it... It's has some uses, but, as it sits, it is useless. Throw me some thoughts.

How about an aquaponic garden?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qZPwBPAqks

Does it freeze over in the winter? If yes how long is it ice covered? How drainable is it for lowering the water level for seining out fish?

I've never seen it frozen. The ground is up high along the concrete on three sides, the low side is open where it would be drained, which is good. I can make it drainable by drilling some holes or I could pump it out.

You may have to seal the concrete. Cement will prob make your ph go way high. Painting the concrete should help.

Check the current pH of the pit water. The reading should indicate if the pH is out of range for rasing fish or shrimp. pH should be between 6 and 9.0 and preferably not higher than 8.5.

Consider raising fish for your consumption or custom grow-out of larger sizes for pond stocking. Good candiatates would be yellow perch, bluegill, hybrid bluegill. You could raise trout in the winter; stock as soon as the water temp droped to 65-68F. You could have family angling events in the pit for recrational harvest of fish then do a final harvest by seining after drainig the water down. Research water filtration using aquaculture techniques. Keep in mind that the more fish you stock the more waste they produce, and more filtration that will be needed. Install back-up power to prevent fish kills during power failures.

Post some pics so we can see what is being dealt with.

From your description, there is potential!

A number of pits have been converted to Aquaculture Facilities in the past.

Good Luck, and hopefully, you will keep it moving forward.

I'll get some pics soon. Why would the concrete make the PH that high, I thought that it would be pretty neutral? If I didn't get "into" the aquaculture just yet, what would be a good DIY ( I'm cheap, but.... handy) filter system, if I just raised some fish?
I appreciate the ideas, I've had similar ones but it's good to hear for reinforcement.
Keep em' coming.

Trust me I work with concrete for a living, the alkaline can burn you. Not saying you cant do it but its definetly somthing to watch.

The concrete can be sealed if necessary. Also old concrete won't be as bad as newer concrete.

Another possibility is a flow through operation with trout and well water. With the vertical sides it won't warm up much. Concrete raceways as far as I know are not sealed.

I will see if I can find a publication from a presentation of Purdue University on converting manure pits to aquaculture tanks and will post the link here.

It may be here:

http://southcenters.osu.edu/aqua/extension%20barn/Aquaculture%20in%20barns.htm

Old water soaked concrete should have a lot of the carbonates leached out as Cecil suggests. Also periphytic growths on the concrete can buffer the carbonates.

Some nice videos in that link. I like the "Don't Think, Just Do" attitude. Not that they jumped in blindly, but they haven't over complicated things up front.

Me, I like all the fancy lights and gizmos. I guess I just fit in that class of over complicating things. But hey, what is the sense of having a fancy cell phone if your fish cant send you a text or email from time to time

Your concrete is old so it may not be much of an issue, as previously stated.

The first thing you have to do is drain it, clean it and see what you have. Could be that, that is it!

If you have to coat the inside, you will probably have to sand blast is first. A potable water urethane specifically for concrete tanks would be on the list, but pretty expensive, so we wont go there.

Building a few cages for BG and YP, and letting a few CC roam the depths freely to scarf up the pellets that got away comes to mind. Maybe a few Suckers also, to kinda help.

Too early to try figure out a filter system. Trying to clean the bottom of a square tank that big is pretty difficult without it being designed to do so.

What bottom feeder, or other aquatic critter/plant/bug/thing would be effective at greatly reducing the solids build up that is going to happen here?

JKB,

Check this out. It's from the Koiphen website of Koi pond enthusiasts. Think he has enough invested in equipment and check out those live feed monitors!

Hopefully there is s drain in the bottom somewhere that simply needs to be opened.

I bought a lot of stuff on ebay over the past for just such applications. Panel mount meters of every flavor. Sold a bunch of them already, and will probably boot the rest out eventually.

Right now, I have my eye out for a Red Lion G3 Series HMI. A G315C230 would be cool, but probably wont happen, so I'll probably just buy a G306A000 for starters. I put these on projects for customers quite often. Pretty easy to program, and they eliminate the need for all the other meters. I kept the sensors I have, and these will connect. These things talk to just about everything, has a Web Server, can call me up and I can remotely log into/control it from any place in the world that I can get an internet connection.

Simplified Complication

I was thinking more along the lines of an interim solution. Between cleanings.


As far as biofilters go... Probably the best DIY Cheap solution is an in tank floating RBC like the one you built from the book Small Scale Aquaculture. Could start out with one and debug, then add more down the road as needed.

What do you think? Air may be less to operate as far as power consumption goes and could help circulate some water from a couple feet down. It is eight feet deep, but want to keep the poo on the bottom. Not mix it up/break it down too much in the water column as a mechanical pump would do. TDS is a silent killer!

Can you post that information on the RBC for our friend here?

I have not figured how to copy and paste to forums from my TV yet. Probably need an app for that. (BTW: my laptop is sitting on the table about 15 feet away, but I need some seat time on this new gizmo. Voice posts/replies are on the agenda, but one headache at a time! )
Thanks.

Hey guys, I finally (I hope) got my pics uploaded of this old pit (they didn't seem to show up on the image gallery earlier). It ain't pretty, but it's there, it was there when I bought the farm. Obviously, I'm going to drain it and spruce it up a bit.
I'll ask a couple questions....
If I have a constant gravity flow (how much is enough) of fresh water into this, how much filtration and aeration would I need for the fish? The water coming out of the woods is a bit low in PH, would the concrete take care of that, or could I make some sort of drum full of limestone for a flow through sort of treatment system? I have a OWS windmill aerator in my pond, and like it, I would buy another one for this if it made sense.
I thought of sectioning it off in thirds or maybe even quarters, what would be an easy/economical way to do so? Is the roof a good or bad thing?
I have quite a few things rattling around in my head, and I appreciate your input.

how are you going to clean it out? i have a similar pit, hasent had any fecal matter in it for about 20 years, but we have to get the compost out, normal method is to have a truck suck it out, but that wont get everything. do i just need to grab a shovel and get buisy, or what?

You could just use it as a forage pond for raising FHM for the main pond. From what I've been told here, they tolerate just about any water conditions and you wouldn't have to worry too much about getting all the muck out.