Better really strong filtration for a 50 Gallon aquarium?

[sidpost]

I am debating over wintering some Tilapia in a 50 Gallon aquarium primarily for my own use. I'm thinking of special event meals with basically a whole fish in Parchment or a Salt fish preparation for holidays and as a supplement if things get as bad as the talk around town is with food getting 'tight' next year. I come from a Beef cattle and wheat farming family so, my perspective is a bit different than most.

If I don't do Tilapia in this tank, I will most likely do Cichlids or some Barbs, depending on what I can find to stock my tank with here in East Texas.

I believe I want canister filtration so I can "unplug it" and take it to a bath tub or shower to break down and clean during Winter. If I am growing out Tilapia to eat, as opposed to brood stock for Spring which my buddy has, a lot of waste will be generated. I will use a "Python" to pull water to keep Ammonia and Nitrogen levels reasonable as well but, solid waste need to pulled from the water during filtration to avoid turbidity.

My problem is the sheer amount of waste that is generated. With 6 fish in 'grow out' (ideal harvest size is 2lbs), feeding will be 40g~60g per day which will generate a lot of solid waste. I want to keep water turbidity down as well so, filter capacity matters. I would like to be able to take a two week trip and not have the filter get plugged up as well. What am I looking for?

TIA,
Sid

p.s. What a I don't want to do is run center drain fish tanks to a filter tank and bio ball tank. While nice, two 55G blue barrels for waste filtering and breakdown plus probably a 35" round tank is too much for use in a living area of my house. For temperature and humidity regulation during Winter, I'm thinking an Aquarium Tilapia setup is my best option as well.

 

[duanes]

For most Tilapines, a 50 gal tank will work while they are fingerlings (up to about 4", below) it is too small to raise them to a reasonable eating size in such a small tank.

But by 6 " (below) they will need to be moved to something in the 150- 200 gal range or growth will become stunted., and aggression will become problematic

With a seaasoned canister, ammonia and nitrite should not be a problem, but in such a small tank (even in the 100+ gal range) nitrate will be the bugaboo, because normal biofiltration like a canister does not remove it.
The only thing that efficiently removes nitrate are frequent large scale water changes.
In small tanks like 50 -100 gal, to reduce waste (which morphs into nitrate, you may need daily 50% water changes to keep waste/turbidity/nitrate at a tolerable level.

The other way most aquaculture takes care of nitrate, is to run the old tank water thru channels that contain leafy plants like lettuce, chard and other types with roots in the channels, and these plants are fertilized by the nutrients (like nitrate) the fish produce.
The density of plants to fish need to be about 10 times greater.
A friend of mine ran an aquaculture facility with Tilapines.
He grew the Tilapia in a cement semi truck loading bay (a few thousand gallons) and pumped the old water up a couple stories to channels snaking back to the bay filled with leafy greens that used up most nitrate by the time old water was returned.
He'd sell his Tilapia at the size below, and the leafy greens, at farmers markets.

An account of his business (Sweetwater Organics) , and photographs of the facility are chronicled in the "on-line book" by David Naylor "Trash Backwards".

 

[tlindsey]

I am debating over wintering some Tilapia in a 50 Gallon aquarium primarily for my own use. I'm thinking of special event meals with basically a whole fish in Parchment or a Salt fish preparation for holidays and as a supplement if things get as bad as the talk around town is with food getting 'tight' next year. I come from a Beef cattle and wheat farming family so, my perspective is a bit different than most.

If I don't do Tilapia in this tank, I will most likely do Cichlids or some Barbs, depending on what I can find to stock my tank with here in East Texas.

I believe I want canister filtration so I can "unplug it" and take it to a bath tub or shower to break down and clean during Winter. If I am growing out Tilapia to eat, as opposed to brood stock for Spring which my buddy has, a lot of waste will be generated. I will use a "Python" to pull water to keep Ammonia and Nitrogen levels reasonable as well but, solid waste need to pulled from the water during filtration to avoid turbidity.

My problem is the sheer amount of waste that is generated. With 6 fish in 'grow out' (ideal harvest size is 2lbs), feeding will be 40g~60g per day which will generate a lot of solid waste. I want to keep water turbidity down as well so, filter capacity matters. I would like to be able to take a two week trip and not have the filter get plugged up as well. What am I looking for?

TIA,
Sid

p.s. What a I don't want to do is run center drain fish tanks to a filter tank and bio ball tank. While nice, two 55G blue barrels for waste filtering and breakdown plus probably a 35" round tank is too much for use in a living area of my house. For temperature and humidity regulation during Winter, I'm thinking an Aquarium Tilapia setup is my best option as well.

Welcome aboard Sid

 

[sidpost]

I was wondering a bit about the 50 gallon tank myself. We have had some really big Tilapia in our other tanks that seemed like a bad idea initially but, my friend is very knowledgeable and suggested my 50 gallon aquarium would be a good option for me. My biggest concern was trying to pull a 1+ pound tilapia out without tipping the whole thing over! Of course, my impression is a bit jaded by working with some 2+ pound monsters.

For the little guys, no worries but, pulling a 4"~6" fish to fillet seems like a worthless effort to be honest. He seemed to think a 1lb fish would be manageable though. I don't have an issue doing water changes but, the turbidity in our other tanks is a constant problem but, that is with 1,000g and 350g main tanks with a 32" settling 'poo' tank, 28" "bio ball" tank, and 55g blue barrel filter (mesh bag) return tank that refills the two big tanks. I honestly don't know how much fish weight was/is in those but, with heavy grow out feeding, turbidity was a real problem even with bi-weekly tank flushes (center drain pulls for tank floors, along with emptying the poo tank and back flushing the bio ball and return tank).

I was thinking a Python vacuum would allow me to pull poo of the floor but as noted, that won't be enough to really maintain water health. I/we tried some hydroponics on the 350g tank this year without much success but, it was mainly a learning exercise this go around. Growing out 4~6 fish though, is a whole lot less food and poo to deal with.

Aggression and Stunting growth are very good comments to consider as well.

Hmm, I need to rethink the Hydroponics though. We were using 'rafts' which which really made no difference I could see and the bio filtration tanks masked any water quality improvements or mistakes.

Any problems or gotchas with using a pair of 110g galvanized stock tanks? I'm think I could keep a few ~6" fish in one in a modest growth feed schedule and keep two in the second tank on a more aggressive grow out schedule, pulling one from the 'brood' tank as I eat one from the 'grow' tank. Would once weekly ~50% flushes keep water quality reasonable? For a couple of weeks across Christmas, could I throttle back the feed and stretch the water change to ~2 weeks?

During the 'winter' months, I won't really have any fry/fingerlings to work with so, it is looking like the 50g aquarium won't really work for me when I don't have access to fingerlings or fry over the cold months in Texas.

Hmm, maybe some "fish loaded" solar tubes are sounding like a better idea. More of a construction project but, a poly round tank in the corner of a room would allow me to do a center drain for water flushes. The veggies in a water run might be an option for some leafy greens as well over the cold months. The water would also let me temperature stabilize a room and keep humidity levels up for good skin health.

 

[NCStateFisher]

There's literally no way you're going to be able to get those fish to grow to the size you're looking for and keeping the water clean enough to WANT to eat them in any reasonable amount of time. You'd be looking at changing huge volumes of water daily and putting in hundreds of hours of work for a half dozen fish dinners. Given the possible outlook on food shortages and prices skyrocketing, you'd be better off learning to use a dehydrator to make jerky, learning to can etc.

 

[deeda]

It's usually suggested to use pond liner in a galvanized stock tub as the zinc coating can be harmful to fish. Consider using Rubbermaid Structural Foam stock tanks or similar brand instead.

If space is a problem, you might be able to stack them but you mentioned in your 1st post that this will be indoors in your home.

 

[sidpost]

I have one really big room I use as an office that would support a couple 2'x4' stock tanks that is reasonably close to a bathroom for draining waste water and my well water is close enough to reach them with one 50' length.

I'll checkout those Rubbermaid foam tanks. They look black so that is something I would like to avoid. Perhaps I can find some poly sprayer tanks that are white that could work.