Outdoor aquaculture with food grade hoppers

[ga_cichlids]

Thanks to a good friend, I've been blessed with a couple of food grade hoppers including the aluminum cage around it that are cut in half and we are experimenting with using them for outdoor aquaculture. On one side near the bottom is a heavy duty brass 1" outlet with shutoff. The top part, which I'm still trying to figure out if I can use, has a larger opening in the center of the top of it, with a plastic cap. I guess I could try siliconing that.

Anyway, I'm thinking of building a filter with a five gallon bucket if it is big enough, or two, placing it over the tank and drilling holes in the bottom for the water to come out. The inlet would be in the top. Does this seem like it would work? Is there a better way? Is the trickle down better than a pressure filter? It also interferes with a lid, if I choose to put something over it to keep the bullfrogs and snakes out. The hopper size is four foot by four foot by 2 foot, or maybe a little bigger. They would be placed in a roofed and screened in enclosure. Thanks for any help you can give.

[bobrfish]

Trickle filters may be placed above the water line. For an outdoor tub or pond, elevate the filter on concrete blocks, use bucket with holes, milk totes, anything with holes. Throw in anything bacteria will grow. Water dispersment can be via pvc pipe with holes drilled in it.
Trickle filter or wet dry is the best for bio filtration.

[Mrfiremouth]

You can use Pond netting to cover the top of the hopper, this will help with predators but not interfere with the trickle system. You can also feed pellets through the pond netting. You can fasten it by using screws and plastic strips to hold down the netting. Just spread the netting out over the hole and then lay the plastic strips over the netting to secure it down, and then screw it into place.

You can chop up old plastic water bottles or soda bottles into 2" pieces for filter media. Just fill a 5g bucket with these pieces making sure you cut them in a fashion so that they stack with lots of spaces between them. I would drill the bottom of the bucket with several holes, and try to flow around 1200 gph through the bucket. You can use the lid of the bucket to make a drip plate. To make the drip plate, trim the lid so that it fits inside the bucket, then drill it many times with 1/4" drill bit. Set lid on top of cut up plastic pieces in bucket, make sure to leave about to inches from top of bucket for splash of incoming water. Water will splash on drip plate and then trickle through the plate, over the plastic pieces, and through the bottom of the bucket, past the netting, and finally into the container.

If doing this outside, make sure not to get too much Sun as it may overheat the container. To insulate the container, bury it 80% down into the ground so that only 20% is above ground.

HTH,
~Rich

[ga_cichlids]

Thanks alot Bobrfish and Rich, I have blocks or may be able to rig something up with the outer wall of my fish house, they will be in a lean-to off the back of it. Ideally, I could maybe make a swing arm, that would eliminate some bending over, or just put some cypress boards or plastic boards across the top and set it on them. Cinder blocks will probably be the easiest though. I can get a bunch of plastic, I can get those plastic scrubbers really cheap at the dollar store and probably more plastic stuff there cheap. I have large quantities of sponge as well, but it can clog. I can use it for the initial intake.I actually have the pond netting, so that's easy. I stillget bullfrogs through it so I thought I'd switch to smaller mesh like screen.
The drip plate idea is great because I was worried about the dispersal.

The holes in the bottom or around the sides would be like a shower head and that should keep things stirred up on top.

Thanks for the help. Its terrific and very much appreciated. The fish love being out there, in the shade, it gets over 100 degrees here in the sun.

Thanks again. The fish will love the space and free bugs. We have lots of really big fruitflies and mosquitos here.