No I think you misunderstand. This will be the"raceway" type tank. In the book the fellow with the nice stone walls in NEPA... he is down hill from me.... like 1500 ft, lol. In fact most of the selections in the book were they mention tanks are from my area, or just over the border in NY. Like less than 10 miles. I like the guy with the 3' deep 8 foot tank that grows a few hundred pounds a year in it. More than what I plan or need. My "tank" is that size with a 10X12 14" depth area added.
I haven't yet added the drain pipe extensions. In fact in the picture the pool is full with just a bit of weeds and a rock stuck in the out flow of the drain. I was checking to see if the frame was level (I figured you would want to watch the progress. So I took a couple pictures.) Just by eye it was less than a 1/2" off over all. Not too bad. I need to shim a bit. It's back down to 14" from the 30" it was in the picture. I want the walls built and full of soil prior to leaving it full.
I'm kinda thinking it will be more like a tank type system in that the water circulates then will drain from the center. It's just a sand/soil "tank". Not really a "raceway". I think it's the best of both worlds really. You get the circulation of a tank... With greater depth and size of a raceway. You should see the water swirl into the drain... It really gets moving.
P.S. I did the jar test on the soil. It is what it is. Really just (silty-sand loam) per all the charts.
I do question how self cleaning your square raceway will be even with a center drain due to it not being round but square. You will have some "dead zones" and solids will collect there. Even rectangular raceways need to be scraped from time to time.
The difference in your system vs. the one in Van Gorder's book is yours is much smaller. The one in the book and my 1/10th acre pond have enough bottom area to act as a biofilter and sediment collector with a relatively low density of fish.
I'm not saying what you have won't work but you would have been better off with a narrow raceway or circular tank for the quicker removal of ammonia, settleable and suspended solids. Your design will stifle the pounds per gallon of fish you can raise.
On the other hand if you just want to raise a few fish and don't have any desire down the road to add more you may be fine.
