River System - intial study

17 Sep 08

Traditional system

Ever since I started to pick up the hobby to rear fish, one of the action most often I did was to visit the aquarium shop. My visits are not so much interested in the fishes but more on the water circulation system, filtration system and aeration system.

As most other amateur, the first set of equipment I picked up is a 3 1/2 feet length fiber filter tank and a 5 ft diameter poly tank. This filter is then place on top of the tank with some support and a water pump to pump up water into the filter. Other equipment I used is an airpump.

Disadvantages of the traditional system

Not for long I quickly found out that the traditional system has some disadvantages:

1. Fish waste and unfinished food quickly sunk to the bottom of the tank and then after no way out for them! Soon after they will become muddy sediment waste and ammonia starts building up.

2. The sediments will eventually stuff up the inlet of the water pump and the water pump will have to work harder to finish his job well. This will happen within 1 to 2 weeks after the water change exercise and cleaning of the pump. After the pump is stuck, basically very little water can be pumped up until you clean it.

3. Ammonia, the fish' enemy, will develop quickly if water condition is not taken care of. Then after, if the tank is expose to sunlight, algae can grow very quickly too and therefore further reduce the oxygen condition in the tank.

4. Ammonia turned nitrat will slowly got stuck between different layers of filter in the filtration system. Hence, blocking the water flow through the filtration medium, either it is a sponge, biorings or others. The blocked filter medium will attract mosquitoes to breed eventually.

5. Due to the present of sediment (mainly due to fish waste and decay food, water condition in the water tank can never be restored back to the initial water condition. Even though 50% or up to 70% of the tank water will be changed in the system, still the tank can become dirty very quickly if the water filter system is not good.

'Professional fish pond builder' did the same system

After I move to USJ 1, where I have the luxury to have a bit more land, I engaged a so call popular fish pond builder to help me construct a fish pond in the ground. Though the fish pond is big (18' L x 4' w x 4' water level), he did the same system and suggested that the new pond's water need not be changed so regularly. He suggested that his system will work well.

Haven't been exposed to the larger system built by popular fish pond builder, I have given it a try with their idea. He basically adopted similar principle approach. The only different is he has built another pond for filtration purpose. A sketch is as shown below:

He is right in a way where I don't have to clean the pond for the first 6 months. On this point, a note has to be made that during the first 6 months, the pond population is around 50 tails of fish each around 1 kg to 1.5 kg. Second point need to note is that we regularly use the pond water to water our plants, vegetables and flowers.

After 6 months, I decided to take a look at the filter pond. Wa lah! It is filled with a lot of mud and sediments. At this time, the pond's population is about 280 tails of fish. Most of them weigh around 300 to 400 grams.

And it is a tough and dirty job to try clean up the sediments and mud.

A better system is required

Ever since then I kept thinking, isn't there a better system? Can't we have a system which will work closer to the living environment like in the river of Taman Negara? Where the water flow is clear all the time, fish waste doesn't clog up at the bottom of the river, plenty of oxygen and food?

The river system

I begin to figure out this new idea and on 17 Sep 08, it is a public holiday and I have worked out a system as shown below:

The idea is actually very simple. I bought a 4' diameter poly-tank and make a hole at the bottom.

This hole is then connected to the lower filter system via the piping shown.

Water is then allowed to flow out from the tank and flow into the filter system at the lower portion. A simple fish net with fine hole is placed just right after the water outlet pipe to capture immediately all fish waste, decay food and other solid material.

With this, the net is washed twice a day but it is very simple and easy job to do. This will capture most of the solid waste and the advantage is the filter will not be dirty fast.

After the water go through the filter, it will falls into the 4' fiber tank at the bottom. At this place, the rest of the sediment will settle at the bottom and I have a pump to pump up the water to the poly tank again.

By doing this, it is noticed that the pump runs smoothly all the time and does not get clogged up by sediments.

Water pumps up to the poly tank is like a shooter, it makes the water inside the tank circulate. The effect of this circulating water is not known clearly yet but it is noticed the fishes inside will have more exercises to do! An overflow pipe is put in to control the maximum water level.

Below is a short video clip of the swirling water condition inside the poly tank:

Note: the tank is quite dark because I have covered it with 2 plastic roof cover to prevent the fish from jumping out. Other reason is the system is placed indoor at the laundry area at the back of the house.


With this set up, I put in 30 tails of tilapia weighing about 200 grams.

Below is a list of observation notice which are quite interesting:


1. The water is clear until today (4 Oct 08). That means it has pass about 2 1/2 weeks and we don't need to change the water.

2. I do not notice any left over food, sediments, fish waste at the bottom of the tank. It seems all of them flowed out.

3. The fishes seems to be more active and hungrier than using the normal traditional system. Every time I open the cover, all of them will rush over waiting for food hungrily. The picture below shows it very clearly:

4. The amount of food need to supply to them also seems to be more than when they are in the normal traditional system.

Water condition:


Out of curiousity, today (4 Oct 08) I did a sample test on the water's PH and ammonia content. Below is the result:

PH - quite neutral

Ammonia, 6 - 7 ppm

I got a shock really to see the result. PH looks OK but the ammonia content is very high. Strange enough is none of my fish die! The tilapia is really a tough fish.


I quickly took one set of sample from the big pond and here is the result:

PH - alkali

Ammonia - 6 - 7 ppm

Well it looks like I need to do something about the water in the pond too.

Removing the sediments

Well, it is noticed that some sediments and waste has accumulated at the bottom of the 4' fibre tank, this may be due to the following reasons:

1. They are the run away waste through the overflow pipe. The inlet of the overflow pipe was not covered initially. I quickly covered it.

2. They developed from the water which flow out of the poly tank.

We changed the water at the 4' tank (reservoir) and clean up the sediments and immediately I took another set of sample:

PH - remain neutral, slight improvement

Ammonia - slightly better, still high

Waste needs to be disposed off immediately

It looks like the system is still not perfect yet. Although I can get rid of the waste and sediment accumulation in the fish area, they are still trap at the bottom reservoir and ammonia developed. The system need to be improve further to get rid of the waste and sediment on a regular basis and it ought to be a simple job to do!

Mosquito & sediment

On the other hand, although sediment is now remove from the fish tank area, but they were found at the lower tank and in the filter. This nitrat sediment and water attract mosquitoes to breed.

Another problem encoutered is the filter and the sediment pond if not clean up regularly, they will attract mosquito to breed. Some how rather the mosquitoes like this kind of environment. The good thing about this set up is when we change the water, the downflow pipe can be temporary locked up and the pump can be stopped. Changing of water in the sediment tank and cleaning of filter do not disturb the fishes at all. This is a very good advantage as compare to traditional system whereby all the fishes have to be remove first prior to changing water or cleaning up of the tank.

Close system

Well then, there are many solutions to mosquito and sediment. One of the easier way is to have a close system with cover. The cover is required for preventing mosquito from breeding inside. The design of the filter requires an paradigm shift also. A new design is being work on.

Jiao Su Yu (Fish from water with fruit enzyme)

One of my initial intention to rare Tilapia fish is try to be self sufficient with my own clean and unpolluted fish supply. Through out the trial period, I have learnt that the relationship between the taste of the fish and its living environment is very important.


Water quality determine the taste of the fish

When I started with my second batch which is also the same species, the red tilapia, water was well taken care of with the water filter I bought. Of course, constant monitoring and regular changing of the water is very important too. Hence, that batch taste sweet! There is no such thing as 'muddy smell'.

Whereas for the forth batch, due to my busy work load as well as the school of fish is larger than before, at times my water filter does not seem to be able to perform its function well. I was very surprise to learn from 1 or 2 relative and friend that those fishes given to them taste muddy! Whearas most people said that the fishes given to them taste well, clean, no muddy smell.

My observation told me is because of the water! Becasue sometimes the water tank is quite heavily stuff with fish waste and decay food. Realizing this fact, suddenly I have a new idea come across my mind. I can produce 'Jiao Su Yu'.

Jiao Su Yu (fish from water with fruit enzyme)

Jiao Su, a Chinese phrase refers to 'fermented drinks'. Currently it is getting more popular to drink Jiao Su made of different type of fruits. It helps to improve our digestive power and possess medical function to make our body healthier. If some of the fishes are rare in a Jiao Su filled water tank, I am sure these fishes will be strong and healthy after some times! Not only that they will taste sweet and good smell, they could be a very clean, non-polluted, healthy, strong and nutrious fish supply for ill and old people!

My aunt's cancer resurface

Incidentally aunt Woon Pak's neck cancer (lymphoma) resurface after 5 years, as much as I am worry for her, I don't know what is it that I really can do for her! The only thing I think I can do is prepare 2 tails of Jiao Su Yu before she got discharge from her "Kimo". Obviously after the "Kimo" she felt tired and only wishes to eat some clean and healthy fishes to regain her strength.

Below is a photo of the pool I prepared for the Jiao Su Yu. I maintain the water clean and have pour in the Jiao Su inside the water. When aunt Woon Pak discharged, she will come over to pick up one of the fish. Mum and aunt Woon Tin have prepared the fish in small slices.


At least they are confident to take this as compare to those dead fish found in the market. No one really know how long they have been frozen, how much they have been polluted.

Hopefully after taken this Jiao Su Yu, it helps aunt Woon Pak to regain her strength and health!

Back to papa mama

The Fries Are 3 to 4 inches long now!

After about 4 months of incubation, the tiny fries at last are big enough to go back to the big pond to live together with the big fishes. As they grew, the side pond is now seems to be too congested for all of them.

My biggest question is: Are they big enough to be transferred back to the big pond?

To find any answer for this, I have no other means but to experiment it out.

First, we transferred back ten tails and observe how are they being treated by their papa, mama, unties and uncles. After 1 or 2 days observation, it seems like they can survive well and hence we decided to add 20 extra.

So this 30 tails of pioneer Kamikaze survived after 1 to 2 weeks and then we are convinced that they are now safe to go back.

One thing interesting to mention is, for all of them, when look at them from the top, they don't seems like that big as they really are. Only when you catch them and look at their body then you will realize that they are actually much bigger than you thought.

Ying Ying and Zong Zong did the catch

Another thing which I found very good is, this hobby of mine has also attracted the interest of my children. Whilst they are busy with their school work and studies every day, they found themselve very entertaining and enjoying with the fish. Imaging a city girl or city boy catching fishes at their own doorstep, the memory they stuff into their brain is so invaluable, so difficult to be found elsewhere.

Zong Zong and Yuan sell fish in school

As there are too many of the fries now, one day an idea sudden rang me up,"Why don't I ask my children to try to experience selling fish fries, in school?"

The idea attracted good response from Zong Zong and Yuan. So I help them to take a picture of the fishes and printed it out in colour so that they can show to their friends in school.

Immediately, both came back with confirmed sales! Yuan managed to sell 1 and Zong managed to sell 2 plus some fish food. As Zong is more mature I took the opportunity to explain to him how it actually works in real business world. Me, papa as the fish fries and the fish food supplier, they are like my resellers. The concept of cost, margin and selling price. I insist he should pay me back for getting the supplies from me! Well, it seems like this is well accepted by him and he is quite happy with his profit. Further, I went on to explain about the concept of testimony, after sales service, type of customers and their state of mind to purchase. It became a very life and practical experience for them!

In this side pond, we have about 400 tails of fish fries inside, so it is so easy for Ying Ying to do the catch.

120 tails back to papa mama

Until today, we have transferred 120 tails back to the big pond and of course all of a sudden, the big pond is seen as full of fishes again.

The harvest

The fishes grow bigger

Since we transferred the fishes to the new big pond in March, it is now coming to about 2 months. Everyday we feed them with fish paletes and almost 3 times in a day, morning, mid day and evening. Sometimes our fishes even get 'supper'!




So what is our harvest so far?

2 weeks ago, we harvested 436 tails of baby fishes.


2 May 08


Our catch today for dinner.
This is a male fish. We learnt to identify its sex today. Its' weight is 800 gram.

3 May 08

Another big fish.

11 May 08

The largest we harvested so far, 1 KG.

11 May 08

800 g also.

The New Home

Introduction

After about 6 months of rearing the Forth Batch, very soon I found both of the ponds cannot accomodate those big fish anymore. Couple with the fact that my target is to rear 400 tails of fishes so that we will have daily fish supply, there is a need for me to construct a new pond.

My new pond

After much consideration have been taken to build a new pond, I finally agreed to one of the landscaping contractor to build one measuring 18'x4'x5'. My target is to have 18' of water length and 4' of water width and 4' of water depth. By my calculation, my fibre tank can rear 60 tails with a volume of 6'x4'x1 1/2' of water, the new pond will have 6 times of water volume. Theoretically it should be able to accomodate 360 tails but I think 200 should be a more reasonable figure.

The other purpose of the new pond is to serve as a landscape in my garden so we will have more 'water', ah ha!

The construction went on smoothly initially but the contractor somehow after collected about 90% of my payment went disappear, not responding to my followup request. By that time the pond is fully constructed except those filter material not supplied yet. Hence I wouldn't like to recommend the contractor here. This is not really a problem for me as I know where to get all those filtering materials myself.



Transfering to new home

Transfering the Forth batch fishes into the new home give all my children a very good fun time as they will have a chance to catch a lot of big fishes! Some experience which is very difficult to come by for city dwelling children. This opportunity also give us a very good opportunity to work together, me and my children.

One after another one, we caught them and sending them into the big pond. All of them, including the koi, 'bak su kong' and the tilapia nile, we counted about 50 tails, they went into the big pond happily.

The Forth Batch

Introduction

After having experince in rearing fish for the following batches:

First batch: 150 tails of cat fish
2nd batch: 40 tails of Tilapia Nile
3rd batch: 40 tails of Pantin

I am ready to rear more fishes after I move to USJ 1. This time, I decided to rear 90 tails of tilapia Nile in the beginning of August 2007. Six months later which is close to Chinese New Year 2008, we should have more than enough fish for our new year celebration.

My ponds

Here I have 2 ponds, 1 is a fibre tank measuring 6'x4'x2.5' and the other is a concrete cement pond measuring 10'x2'x1'.

Fibre tank.

I purchased this fibre tank from one of the aquarium shop and placed it in the laundry area which is at the back of the house. This place is not so much expose to sun light and most importantly, the area is secured by sliding grill. In this pond I put in 60 tails of fish fries purchased from Mr. See. Length of the fries are about 4".

Cement pond (Planter pond)

This cement pond was originally meant to use as a planter box. It is located just beside the car porch and it has good sun light exposure. I worked on the conversion of the planter box over the weekend over a period of few weeks. A small section of it I use it for filtering purpose. I will call this pond by its original usage name. In this pond, I put in 30 tails of tilapia nile, same batch that I purchased from Mr. See.


These tilapia nile together with some koi fish, 'Bak Su Kong' in the pond, there are about 40 tails in total.









The intial 3 months growth

This is the first time I have a chance to rear fish with sun light exposure and be able to compare them with those rear in house. The result is fantastic. Those in the Planter pond grew much faster than those in the fibre tank! In the first 3 months, on average they are almost half the size bigger than those in the fibre tank.

The next 3 months growth

In the next months that follow, however, the situation changed. The planter pond became so crowded (I have only about 10" of water depth) so the fishes' growth are slowing down. We notice those in the fibre tank is getting bigger than those in the planter box.

As a result of this finding, I realize that:

i) Fish grows faster with sun light
ii) Fish also will grow bigger with bigger pond









On the left is a picture taken from the planter pond. Tilapia Nile has very beautiful pink color body and I really like their colour exspecially in the evening when you look at them about 10 feets away.

Every year has fish (Nian nian u yu)

This Chinese New Year 2008, the fishes are big enough for our consumption. Chinese has one saying in Mandarin "Nian nian u yu" which means every year you shall have some harvest left. In the older days, farmers shall be very happy if they have some harvest left at the end of the year, when the new year come, they will have new harvest and if every year they have some harvest left that means they will not be starving in the future and they will become richer.






The picture on the left: 800 grams








After about 6 months of carefully taking care of the fishes, they grew into a weigh range of 600 grams to 800 grams. We tried the first one, it is so fresh and taste well.

We gave some to our relative and neighbour and also didn't forget to wish them "Nian Nian U Yu".

436 tails of baby fishes

New discovery

This event happened on 13 Apr 08.

Today is a very special day, though my routine is still like normal.

As usual I went to the big pond to look at the fishes after I fetched Ying Ying back home. Initially everything seems like normal and I feed them as usual. Suddenly I found there is some thing very strange at the edges of the pond. There is a lot of tiny little things swimming there and at first I tought they are mosquitoes. However, I decided to take a closer look and to my surprise they are not the mosquitoes but apparently they are very small tiny little fish fries just hatched. I shouted and scream and was so excited to inform all others, "our fishes are breeding!"

Big fishes are eating the tiny little ones

Soon after, Ying Ying discover that the bigger fish is eating the tiny little ones and of course we become so nervous and I quickly called Mr. See (my fries supplier) to get advise from him if I should quickly separate the tiny little ones from the big ones. Of course, obviously we have to do it as quickly as possible.

So we tried to scoop them up but they are so tiny and couple with the fact that the water level is about 1 1/2 feet below, it is quick difficult for us to do that from the ground. So I decided to go into the pond!

In the pond

In the pond, the job become much more easier and I can't really remember how many scoops I have picked up. Luckily the tiny ones like to swim up to the surface and that make the job lots more easier.

"Ah!" Suddenly I felt like something bit my foot! I quickly look down in the water and it seems one of the biggest tilapia is brave enough to come close and bite me. I lifted my leg and expect it to be scared and go away. It did swim away a little but surprisingly it came back! This is a bit strange! There are about 50 tails of tilapia in this pond, all the others kept a distance from me but why this particular one not only it is not scare of me but keep coming back to bite my leg!

I became to wonder, could this be the mother or the father of the little ones? I think it is the mother and I shall call it 'Mei' for the beautiful flowery pattern she has. Of course it is very likely but I can't get the answer immediately. To find the answer, I believe I would need to catch it to examine further on its sex. Luckily, it's bite were not so painful and I continue to scoop all the tiny little ones.

When the job is completed, I came out of the pond and still observe that Mei kept circling around the place where I stood just now while all the other fishes are still far and away. Occasionally some fishes get closer but they will be quickly chase away by Mei. She seemed sad but trust me, I have done this to secure your babies.

Transfer to the side pond

Luckily my side pond is empty after we have transferred all the bigger tilapia to the big pond. I decided that we should count the number! With the help of my maid, we counted slowly. Every time we scoop up, we can only try between 3 to 5 tails because we would be able to count correctly because they are swimming around quickly.

Finally we counted all, it is 430 tails! When my son came back from school, he was so excited too and he managed to catch another 6 tails, so the total is 436 tails!

Video

Below is a short video taken after a few days, the tiny little ones are growing!





1 May 08

5 days I was away to Labuan for the Malaysia Water Festival job from 24 Apr to 29 Apr 08, these little babies have grown up to about 2 cm long.

EHIEM Compact+ 5000

I got to know this brand through my friend and he was amazed by its reliability and durability.

This pump is from made in Germany and it is expensive.

Brief spec of the pump:

l/h 2500 - 5000
GPH 550 - 1100 (Imp) 660 - 1321 (US)
Hmax m 3.0
W 78
Dim, mm 138x82x126



I used this in my six feet fiber tank and it is strong and until now I am still using it.

Price, RM590

Some of the key feature of this pump include:

High adjustable output in a compact size,

1. For use in water
2. Can also be used outside water (hose adapter included)
3. Adjustable output
4. Delivery head 3.0 m



My usage experience:

I put the pump in the water inside the fiber tank, connected to a uv hanging at about 5 feet high and it is running well without much problem at the inlet, though my water get dirty very fast when all my tilapia are between 600 gram to 800 grams (there are about 60 tails) inside the 6'x4' tank and my water depth is about 2'. My filter was not good enough and I think it is too small and during the last 2 months, I practically abandoned the filter and just filter the water with sponge.

Change water every week

As a result, the water gets dirty very fast in that kind of population and water need to be replaced every week. Luckily my maid can do it well!

The pump is working fine

So the pump is in a tough environment but nontheless, it is working fine. Never got jammed with the dirt, never breakdown yet still giving me strong output of water.

Ref:
Eheim website: http://www.eheim.de/

Download:
Manual for Eheim Compact Plus 2000_3000_5000 (1.61MB)