aquaponic maintenance...

I've not heard this subject of maintenance addressed before....Poop, yes poop....I never knew fish could poop so much! I've learned to drain the swirl filter a couple of times a day, same with my pump filter...yet the poop has gotten me on this endless treadmill of yuck.
Is there an easier way and how much time does an average, one system fish farmer, spend on daily maintenance?

Terry H. : You may want to look into vermi-culture, and greens , For about the same amount of time you spend now, you end up pumping Worm food=Fish feces
to the worms which are the most perfectly designed invertebrates ever to turn that into perfect Plant fertilizer.

The worms rapidly reproduce Adding to your Fish food, and the greens ether get eaten by you, or turned back into more fish food !

Or you can increase times between cleaning your swirl filter with crustaceans, snails, and small carp! All bottom feeders that thrive on your number
1 problem no pun intended

This is where I have run out of useful information to share ! Hope this points you in a useful direction. Good Luck ! Big AL

I'm guessing you're doing a DWC system. Is that right?

I'm dealing with some of the same issues. Solids pile up fast. I'm thinking I may need to go to a larger filter with bird netting to take out the rest of the solids.

Do you mind posting a pic. of your swirl filter?

not a pretty site, sorry.......I dumped some crustaceans into it last week but they've disappeared within the dark pool of water. They'll not lack for a job for sure, lol Not sure what DWL acronym represent...

Hi Terry,

DWC refers to deep water culture. Looking at your system, it looks like a flood drain, so DWC issues wouldn't apply.

When I built my swirl filter, I tried to avoid those bottles with the handles since it seemed like they wouldn't swirl as well. I wonder if that's been the case for you? You can get a round one here or at your local brewery store.

I'm currently looking into developing my filter system further to take out more of those particles, experimenting with bird netting and such. I know UVI uses tilapia in their swirl filter to clean the walls.

Hi Jeremiah, well you're right on about the handled bottles, they don't swirl very much, although I really can't imagine keeping up with a more efficient version...I am wondering though, at present, are you able to keep your water clear enough to see through to the bottom and has the upkeep surprised you or do you think maybe my system is an anomaly to a typical set up?
I've often wondered why no one has developed a filter by facilitating the valve opening on the bottom of these IBC tanks....seems like a no brainer to me but I just haven't had the time myself to work one out yet.
Btw, I have about 60-80 tilapia at present.
Good luck on your filter development, it sounds interesting.