Help with Fish room setup using pumped river water Please

[Kerrie]

Hi everyone, I am thinking of buying an acreage property that has full access to the burnett river. I was thinking of using the river water, looks good (waiting on environ. report), ph and gh are good. My thoughts are to pump to the holding tanks in the shed then use the water directly for continual water changes using an overflow type set up, with the waste being channelled along a concrete open culvert back into a nearby dam which will be used as toilet water and watering the grass, and maybe stock occasionally in the home paddock.

Firstly Does anyone currently use a simple system like this for raising fish?
Can anyone give me any advise on treating the water before it goes into the tanks, especially concerning parasites.
Does this look like it will be effective and cost efficient way to raise discus and L numbers?
What would be the best way to heat the water up to temp? Inside tank heating or having the tanks in a heated room?
Thanks in advance,
Kerrie

[sunshinediscus]

Pump the water through a mechanical filter of some sort, probably a sand filter that can be backwashed. I would then treat the water with clorine to sterilize it, then allow to off-gas in your heating vessel. You could probably use ozone and/or uv sterilizers as well/instead of. Clorine is cheap and effective, and also easy to remove before use (usually 24 hours off-gassing is enough). All methods will require some care in handling them.

[Kerrie]

Thanks Rod, my offer to purchase this property fell through unfortunately. But, still on the search for another place. Am thinking bore rather than river, there are several properties I am heading up for a look at in the next few weeks. Hopefully I will find one that is suitable,
Cheers

[Oygle2]

Hello Kerrie.

Having grown up in western NSW and having access to both bore and tank water.
I'd like to caution you on the use of bore water. Even a simple taste test would give you an idea of water quality.
Given the controversy with FRACKING in coal seam gas recovery and the likely hood of ground water contamination, bore water may not be the best.
Tap water for me is an absolute NO! Together with chlorine and other contaminates; and let's not forget about fluoride and make -no-bones about it - it's a neurotoxin. I would never recommend the use of tap water especially in SE Qld.
As beautiful as discus are, they are way too expensive to fool around with.
I love wilds. Discus and Angles.
Rain water on the other hand, if captured in a poly tank, which I do, is soft and slightly acidic. Almost perfect for discus. The only thing I have to keep an eye on is the level of nitrate. It's generally around about the 10ppm, and that's an acceptable level for a cold, slow trickle direct from the rain water tank, even in winter - water change.
So, no. I do not pre heat the water. I like most others am affected by the rise in electricity costs and preheating can be done away with.
Having said that, my setup is five large tanks in series with a total volume of 1200 to 1400ltrs. I drop out 500 to 700ltrs and slowly refill over about four to five hours. The temperature of the existing water will vary slightly and slowly and hasn't seemed to bother the fish at all.
Good luck with your fish.
Regards
Mick

[Kerrie]

Thank you for the advise Mick, I am looking at moving to either of the following places. Crow's Nest or to Toowoomba (getting way too expensive now), Back of Gympie near Bauble or Theebine, anywhere within a 40km radius of Gympie I am searching, same with Harvey bay area, and mostly consentrating my search around Gin Gin to Bundy. Will be heading up in 2 weeks to hopefully buy something, so I can get settled during the school holidays.
Will be taking my test kits/meters with me and if it looks good and the property looks good will pay for testing before committing to anything as water is a priority to family, pets and my fish. Thanks for the advise re coal gas, had forgotten about that. Will keep it in mind.
Cheers
Kerrie

[shakadog]

I have a tanginykian tank which i do similar for refills as to what you are discussing but not quite as automated.

To refill the tank i use rainwater collected off the property and pump it back into the tank through three pre filters in series.

The first runs a 25 micron filter the second a 5 micron, i think it is, and the last is a carbon insert. Have had this up and running for 2 and a half years now and so far so good. I do not preheat the water coming in, it is just at outside ambient and usually after a water change i get major spawning activity.

When i had discus some years ago i used exactly the same aet up and never had a problem with the fish or with the temperature change, it usually encouraged them to breed actually.

Both my systems are manual in that i have to manually open a valve to drain to a preset depth so cant empty it and then shut that off and manually open a valve to refill and remember to turn it off.

Yes i have forgotten to turn it off before on both and caused a bit of a flood or two over the years.

I also had a fish room, before the wife renovated it out of existence, and it had lots of tanks all running off a single sump set up which had an overflow to outside and had a permanent fill up enabled so water could always be cycled through it and this worked really well or it could be done manually and never had to worry about it flooding.

Hope this helps.

[ILLUSN]

as other have said some kind of mechanical filter will not go astray, personally i wouldn't treat with chlorine, ozone is nice if done well but you will need a custom reaction chamber and a well calibrated ORP meter and probe to do it safely.

I have used rain water in the past with great sucess, all i did for treatment was filter through carbon. if you were to use a small sand filter and fil it with carbon it would do the job for you very nicely.