Thread: Fish-farming questions and ideas.

Originally Posted by tsicar

Originally Posted by Smithson

^ Thanks for that, from what you've written doesn't seem like they would have much place in aquaculture.

BTW, that's not my system, just a pic of the internet. Dunno about the radiation logo, but I doubt the hose is food safe.

why not? it seems like the most energy efficient system there is.

They are very tricky to configure, sometimes they don't kick in, sometimes they don't stop running. The idea for AP is that the flood and drain cycles suck air into the grow beds supplying oxygen to the roots.

Mellow, your planning on using concrete, have you considered a pond liner? There are some good ones made in Thailand, but they are generally exported, so finding the suppliers is difficult.

Originally Posted by tsicar

interesting system. where is the media though.
i assume that the media is alternately in contact with air and then with the water[/quote]

The media hasn't been added, this system looks to be in the test stage. You're correct, it is in contact with both air and water. The barrel fills, then the siphon kicks in and it drains.Media used is either gravel (heavy) or expanded clay (expensive).

Here's another pic:

^ Lava rock is suppose to work well, and its not heavy.
Tanks are a lot easier to work as compared to a pond.

Originally Posted by Smithson

Originally Posted by tsicar

interesting system. where is the media though.
i assume that the media is alternately in contact with air and then with the water

The media hasn't been added, this system looks to be in the test stage. You're correct, it is in contact with both air and water. The barrel fills, then the siphon kicks in and it drains.Media used is either gravel (heavy) or expanded clay (expensive).

Here's another pic:
[/quote]

ok, now i see it. only saw the empty tank before. the coarse growing medium is the biomedia, with the added benefit that the plant roots chomp the nasty ammonias and phosphates.

looks good.

Originally Posted by mellow

Tanks are a lot easier to work as compared to a pond.

I'm guessing you mean concrete tanks made from rings? There are some nice plastic tanks around, but not cheap. They have plug holes in the center and would be perfect for the whirlpool effect to remove solids.

Tsicar, you mentioned in an earlier post about wanting to use some sort of a road sweeping brush mounted on a powered circular filter. My thought is to have a paddlewheel with the paddles closely spaced and covered with astro turf type carpet. Instead of using water to power the wheel, use a small DC servomotor drawing only a couple of watts.

On another note, the pumps that the locals use to flood their fields are these long pipes with and enclosed prop at one end and their iron buffalo hooked to the other. These pumps do not put out any pressure to speak of, and will not push water to up to a great head, but they put out huge volumes of water. Does anybody make a smaller version of this pump? It shouldn't take a lot of power to run something like this.

Originally Posted by BillyBobThai

Tsicar, you mentioned in an earlier post about wanting to use some sort of a road sweeping brush mounted on a powered circular filter. My thought is to have a paddlewheel with the paddles closely spaced and covered with astro turf type carpet. Instead of using water to power the wheel, use a small DC servomotor drawing only a couple of watts.

On another note, the pumps that the locals use to flood their fields are these long pipes with and enclosed prop at one end and their iron buffalo hooked to the other. These pumps do not put out any pressure to speak of, and will not push water to up to a great head, but they put out huge volumes of water. Does anybody make a smaller version of this pump? It shouldn't take a lot of power to run something like this.

ok, you would be creating a type of rbc, and it would work, but nobody knows how well, or whether the astro turf would last, or rot, or fall off, or clog, so experimentation is necessary. your mention of the dc motor, though is a good one.
there are small 12 volt dc pumps available, plus a large rbc could easily be driven off a small geared down dc motor.
if you ran it all off a couple of truck batteries connected in parallel, and charged them permanently from a 12 volt transformer coupled to a bridge rectifier (all really cheap shit and does not need a genius to connect up), you could buy yourself a few hours of drinking time during the frequent power cuts in isaan that would normally have you scampering for the generator to save your fish.
alternately you could use an invertor and a solar panel to charge a few batteries to take care of this problem if using 220 volt ac., or at least supplement some of the power requirement.
once again it is easy to calculate what you will need coz the invertor has a power rating, the batteries have an amp-hour rating and you can calculate and tailor it all to what your requirements are.since all waterpumps have a pumping capacity and head height rating, it is easy to calculate what size pumps you will need. the newer type submersible pumps for koiponds are extremely energy efficient, although probably would not supply the head you would need for a trickle tower.
the thai dirty-water pumps (those long tubes with the kubota thing would draw too much power. as i remember the kubota is around 8-10kw and you would never need as much power as that for pumps to power a few tanks.
calculate how much you need to pump per hour to attain a water exchange rate of once per hour per tank, and buy a pump with a rating of slightly higher than that. remember to figure in the head rating especially if you need to pump up to a tall trickle tower.

Originally Posted by tsicar

Originally Posted by Smithson

Originally Posted by mellow

Tanks are a lot easier to work as compared to a pond.

I'm guessing you mean concrete tanks made from rings? There are some nice plastic tanks around, but not cheap. They have plug holes in the center and would be perfect for the whirlpool effect to remove solids.

or the blue 44gallon drums pictured in your "syphon" system. farang price in isaan used to be about 400baht each.
on the same note, i saw those insulated plastic "refrigerators" that they use in thailand. you get one for free if you buy the ice from the same ice factory to keep it working. the big ones are perfect for catfish tanks, if modified a bit. i am sure that a couple could be convinced to "fall off the back of a truck" to supply the cause......

Price for the 200lt plastic drums is around B450 in Bangkok, could probably get it a bit cheaper if you bought lots.

These are the cheapest way in terms of volume, but the problem is they are still quite small, which means lots of plumbing and fiddling around. Unlike the 120 lt ones, it's difficult to know what they've contained, often it's shampoo etc., but even then the labels still contain warnings.

The concrete rings are much cheaper, everything included they are less than 1B per liter.

Prefab concrete rings are good and and cheap. 1.20 meter ring ( concrete pipe) by 40 cm high, I paid 350Baht for. Stack 3 of them and you got a 1000 liters of water to work with per tank.

Can someone suggest a half decent pump?

Below is a pic of a pond roughly the size of mine, to give you an idea. The pump will go to concrete tanks that work as a bio-filter and waterfall. I plan to put it on a timer for 15mins every hour.

I don't want an expensive pump because it'll attract thieves, I'd also use it for watering trees.

Does anyone know of something half decent for less than 4K?

Nice pond. Here is a link to the type of pump I'm planning on getting when I'm ready for them. You might have to build a tiny shed out of blocks, as my neighbor did for his pump. He bought one of these pumps and they work very well.
นำเข้า/ตัวà¹�ทนจำหน่าย ปั้มน้ำหà¸[at]ยโข่ง ชนิดน้ำมาà¸� (MITSUBISHI PUMP) Model : WCL-Series

Your pond is small, and a small one of these, would be in that price range.

The pond is absolutely beautiful, but it's not mine. I didn't have a picture, so I just found similar sizes one from the link mellow provided.

I had two submersibles, one I bought for B750 from Lotus, it was a Chinese no-name, the following week the price had gone up to B1,400. Worked well for quite a while.

The I got a Mistubishi for around 2K, after a week or two it stopped working, played with it and cleaned it a little, then it was OK. It's still working, but there's a tingling sensation in the water when it's on, so I'm not using it anymore.

So now I'm not keen on Mitsubishi and not keen on submersibles, besides the dangers of electricity and water, submersibles can be easily stolen by pulling on the lead or hose. An above ground one can be bolted and locked.

Talking to both Thai and farang, everyone says Italian are the best, Japanese are OK, but beware of Chinese and Thai made pumps. The Mitsu was made in Thailand and had no guarantee, none of the cheap pumps come with any gaurantee.

I am looking for some young, fresh water prawns in the Phichit area. I was told by a worker at the fish hatchery in Phichit that I could find some in Petchabun.
Could any one living in the Petchabun area shed any light on this?

Thanks to all

I've arranged to buy bottle tops off the recyclers. They want 10B a kg, which will work out to quite a bit. They claim this is what the receive at the recycle centers.

Anyone know the price of those round, studded blue things used in bio-filters?

Don't know the price, but I imagine they will be more expensive that bottle top lids. 10 baht a kilo isn't so bad is it?

The pump will go to concrete tanks that work as a bio-filter and waterfall. I plan to put it on a timer for 15mins every hour.

Your pond will keep cleaner if you leave it running constantly, and if it's well stocked it may be a necessity.

Originally Posted by tjyflhol

Don't know the price, but I imagine they will be more expensive that bottle top lids. 10 baht a kilo isn't so bad is it?

The pump will go to concrete tanks that work as a bio-filter and waterfall. I plan to put it on a timer for 15mins every hour.

Your pond will keep cleaner if you leave it running constantly, and if it's well stocked it may be a necessity.

agreed. if cost of electricity is part of the equation, rather downsize the pump and let it run continuously, or pump to a reservour (or raised biofilter)at a higher level, set a float switch around halfway down, and feed your waterfall by gravity.. your pump will switch off and on automatically, but you will maintain a continuous flow.

Don't know the price, but I imagine they will be more expensive that bottle top lids. 10 baht a kilo isn't so bad is it?

By the time I fill the whole biofilter, it'll be several thousand Baht. Not a heap of cash, but I try to avoid being routinely overcharged. I buy other things from these ppl, which is part of the issue also. There are places with mountains of plastic bottles, I will check there and let everyone know.

The pump will go to concrete tanks that work as a bio-filter and waterfall. I plan to put it on a timer for 15mins every hour.

Your pond will keep cleaner if you leave it running constantly, and if it's well stocked it may be a necessity.[/quote]

Yes, I know. The thing is the whole pond concept is a comprise, partly aesthic and partly to provide food. The thing about having a powerful pump is that you get a good flow from the waterfall, making is pleasant when where there on the weekends.

Regarding electricity, when I had two submersibles running 15min and hr, the bill was about 20B a month! This includes all the electricity we use in the house on weekends. Not sure what was going on, I heard something about govt. subsidizes utility bills.

Well 1000 baht is going to be 100 kgs of plastic tops/biolfilter medium. That to me sounds like a lot of plastic (maybe it isn't?), how big is your biofilter?

There has been govt. subsidies on electric, but I think that scheme has stopped everywhere now.

Originally Posted by Smithson

Don't know the price, but I imagine they will be more expensive that bottle top lids. 10 baht a kilo isn't so bad is it?

By the time I fill the whole biofilter, it'll be several thousand Baht. Not a heap of cash, but I try to avoid being routinely overcharged. I buy other things from these ppl, which is part of the issue also. There are places with mountains of plastic bottles, I will check there and let everyone know.

The pump will go to concrete tanks that work as a bio-filter and waterfall. I plan to put it on a timer for 15mins every hour.

Your pond will keep cleaner if you leave it running constantly, and if it's well stocked it may be a necessity.

Yes, I know. The thing is the whole pond concept is a comprise, partly aesthic and partly to provide food. The thing about having a powerful pump is that you get a good flow from the waterfall, making is pleasant when where there on the weekends.

Regarding electricity, when I had two submersibles running 15min and hr, the bill was about 20B a month! This includes all the electricity we use in the house on weekends. Not sure what was going on, I heard something about govt. subsidizes utility bills.[/quote]

The bacteria in the bio filter will die if it doesnt get water which contain the nutrients which they need. what kind of bio filter are you using? show us a oicture.

Originally Posted by mellow

The bacteria in the bio filter will die if it doesnt get water which contain the nutrients which they need. what kind of bio filter are you using? show us a oicture.

I don't have a pic, but it's two concrete rings filled with gravel, the pump fills them and overflows to the waterfall.

If the filter is being filled 15mins every hr, the bacteria should be fine, shouldn't they? Even after several hrs, the gravel stays moist, so the bacteria should live.

^ I doubt it.

I think it might work if the filter is set up so that the media stays wet, but it's definitely going to take a lot of efficiency away from the biological filter since the bacteria will not be thriving as it should do.

It's a risk, and one I wouldn't take if I had a lot of stock in the pond.

Best advice is to leave it running 24 hrs a day, realistically it will not cost that much.

Beneficial bacteria will start to die after about 15 min., if they don't get water with the nutrients that they need.