Concrete Fish Raceways 8'X1.5X100'

I'm looking for an easy, quick, efficient way for our team at a fish hatchery to pressure wash (to remove stubborn, grown-on, green algae) from the walls and floor of concrete, empty fish raceways on a regular basis (once or twice per year) before we put the next cycle of trout in them. We have 104 of these raceways. Getting them done quickly and with as few people as possible is important, because we often have to wait on the PWing in order to start moving the fish. So if we could do this quicker than we're doing it now, we could stay caught up better. We don't go for perfection. We try to get most of the algae off below the water line without removing much concrete or sand from the walls and floor. Above the water line, we spray the walls and tops off to make them look better.

When we wash them down, there is a little water running along the floor that gets deeper as we move towards the lower end. At the upper end, it varies from about 1/4 to 1/2 inch deep, but on the lower end, it maybe up to 2 1/2" deep, and this makes it harder and slower to clean the floor as we move towards the lower end where there is a drain that goes to our effluent system. We don't have a way to completely stop the flow of an empty raceway from incoming water, so, in a way, this is helpful, because it gives us some extra rinsing power to keep the dirty water going down the drain, because we have a grade of 6" drop for every 100'. But in another way, when the water gets deeper on the lower end, the dirty water tends to swirl and it's hard to see, and the deeper water slows us down alot.

Currently, we use two, 2.4 gpm, 3,000 psi, Mi-T-M pressure washers. It takes us about 2 hrs for one raceway, using both of these, including set up time and all. It takes almost 4 hrs (average) to do one with one pressure washer. We got some money at the end of the year, and I talked the boss in to letting us get a higher gpm pressure washer, as I've been doing research on them trying to figure out a way to make this a faster process. We've got a 3.7 gpm, belt drive coming. I feel like that the more gpm we could get, the faster we could do these jobs, but the supervisors are not totally convinced. They worry about over power and stripping the concrete, but I contend that if we have more power, we can simply move the tip farther away; get larger swaths; and do the jobs quicker. The 3.7 was all I could get out of the boss, and hopefully, I can show everyone how this higher gpm will help us do the work more productively. So I guess one could say that I didn't win the debate, but that we got to some sort of compromise.

Another big limitation for us is our current set up. We have no pressurized water supply, because our raceways are too far away from the water spickets. Currently, we fill up a 350 gallon water tank that is either loaded on a 1-ton pickup or on a 4-stack of pallets and then we move the water with the truck or a fork lift; and then, in the case of the fork lift, we have to drive back up to our buildings and load the pressure washers and other equipment, drive back down to the raceways, set up, and then pressure wash. When we finish that raceway, we have to do it all over again to start the next raceway. In the case of the pickup, we can keep the pressure washers on the pickup, which was an idea I recently came up with that works well and makes things much quicker, however, we've found that we can't keep that pickup dedicated to this task, and we also found that it takes alot more strapping and securing to keep the tank and pressure washers in place. In the case of the fork lift, sometimes it is being used moving fish at the same time that we're trying to pressure wash, so we have to use it for double duty and that slows both processes. Filling the tank with city water takes about 1 hr. We have a pump to fill the tank with lake water, and we've done that for years, but our supervisor suddenly decided after we started having trouble with our 1 1/2 yr old, consumer-grade pressure washers with a 1,000 hrs a piece on them, that the lake water was causing our problems even though the inlet screen has not been clogging.

I've got this idea, since we are limited on heavy-duty vehicles and moving a large tank of water requires a heavy-duty vehicle, that if we could some how tap into our adjacent raceway of lake water via a pump where the stream is about 15" deep and continually fill a smaller tank, i.e. 50 gallon tank with on-off floats and some sort of demand pump and filter system. In this scenario, we would have an unlimited supply of water and we could simply use a cushman with the pressure washer loaded on it to move around from raceway to raceway. So here is the dilemma and the area in which I need help from someone who knows about such things. How can we pump water up about 6' from a moving stream on a continual basis, across about 25', into a tank, and have an auto shutoff float. Or alternatively, we could continuously pump the water and have an over-flow tube send the water back into the adjacent raceway. Or alternatively, we could use a demand pump plumbed directly to the inlet of the pressure washer, however, I don't know what kind of pumps will do what, and I don't know how to filter the lake water to keep from damaging the pressure washer pump. And I don't know if what I'm envisioning is something we can do. And I don't know how big a deal it is to have perfectly clean water going towards the inlet side of the pump. We need the pump to be 12 volt to run off the cushman battery or a dedicated, mobile battery.

Any brainstorming, ideas, suggestions, critiques, experiences would be very helpful to make us better!

Post some pictures, those always help.

I have some ideas but need to see the raceways to know if my ideas will help.

Hopefully the two pics below will help members understand our system and our dilemma and my inquiry.

We have pairs of raceways, 8X100X1.5 (average depth) running in serial. Below each raceway getting fresh water via a packed column, is one raceway that gets only re use water from the raceway above. Below that is another set of packed columns adding fresh water, but also the raceway above flows through, under the pavement via a 12" pipe, so as the system goes down stream, more and more water is added.

When we pressure wash, we open a valve on the lower end, and place a blocker screen on the upper end, which diverts the water around to the adjacent raceway, so that it's getting nearly double the flow, but it is impractical to completely seal off the water, and so that's where we get the low-level flow of water along the floor. Below the water line is heavy, grown-on algae. Above the water line is the normal concrete dirt. Black stuff and a little moss, but it's pretty easy to clean above the water line.

My question is to members: Is there a way to pump or vacuum water from the adjacent raceway and filter out the settleable solids at the same time, wither to a external tank or directly plumbed to the pressure washer, so that we can access this endless supply of water? Such a set up would save us having to refill a tank and could possibly keep us from having to use a heavy duty vehicle to move our pressure washer and other equipment to our work area. The distance we'd have to move water would be no more than 25' across, and no more than 6' high.

Not sure what happened but I ended up double posting,..someone remove this one please.

Jeff

I'd get in there with at least 5 GPM machine and a rotating nozzle and rip the algae off the sides of the concrete walls. Probably not going to hurt the concrete in any measurable way,..unless it's really deteriorated. I wouldn't run that crappy water back through your pump. How far is the nearest water supply? Hire a fire truck or other tanker type water truck.

*I clean a customers' homemade water fall this way,...gets really long fluorescent green algae growth and he doesn't like it. I spray right through the falling water with 8 GPM and rotating nozzle. Makes short work of the algae.

**Why not just hire it done,...guys in this business will have better resources for completing a job like this.

Also, maybe consider having an EXPERT come in and control the moss growth with copper sulfate.


Jeff

I would not want to re-use the water, it will get stinky fast.

You can pressure wash the algae and filter it continuously and might not have to drain every bit of the water but the more water out of there the easier it is to clean.

I would hire professionals because of the liability, risk, professional equipment needed so this is finished in a timely manner instead of weeks or months......professional equipment works much faster and better than the little hardware store pressure washers.

I would bid on this if it was in my area, no problem.

City water supply varies in distance from our work area as the raceways go down in serial. The closest one to our nearest spicket would be only about 100 yards, but the farthest would be more like 500 yards. A second problem is that we have low pressure from our city water supply, and we get our water for free, so we can't really ask for more pressure from the U.S. Army Core of Engineers. We can run a small PWer with our supply, but that's about it.

But we have lots and lots of lake water supply that comes to us from 95' down from the surface of the reservoir from two intake pipes. The intake pipes are attached to the dam itself; they come together via a Y way down deep and run under ground via a 24" pipe gravity fed down to our property; then through a strainer; and then spider out under ground through 6" pipes to each of our packed columns. And then our property is graded so that all the water flows through, by gravity through our entire hatchery. About 12,000 GPM flows through our system and is then discharged into a hatchery-produced creek, and then that creek, which is produced by our discharge, flows into the river below the dam. In the past, we have used pumped-out water at the top of our system (lake water that has come from the lake, through the large strainer, but not contaminated by our fish food, fish waste, etc.

At one time, when we first started using PWers, the team tried using water hoses stretched from the building spickets. We could only go about half-way down the serial of raceways with the biggest hose reels we could find with several 100' hoses tied together, and we found that the pressure was enough to operate only one 2.4 gpm pressure washer; and if someone flushed a toilet, that would delay the pressure washing. We did not, back then, PW the lower half of raceways until we discovered was to use gravity and water tanks. I sort of calculated our GPM from our building spicket based on how long it takes to fill a 350 gallon tank, and it works out to about 3.9 gpm from the city water supply, but I don't know if that's accurate. I've not done a 5 gallon bucket test, but that should be close, and that's as long as no one else is using water, which is impractical to expect considering the amount of time we PW.

So what I'm getting so far is that it would be best not to try and use the water with settleable solids in it and try to filter it out. So, if that's the case, I need to push for a tank that is made for mobile transport; not like the one shown in the picture on the left that is really a stationary tank. A mobile one can be banded down, so that it's safer and easier to move around the hatchery with lots of water. And also, if it's best to use fresh water, I need to push for a dedicated trailer or vehicle to keep all of our equipment on for quick set up and pressure washing. Of course a self-propelled, dedicated vehicle, as opposed to a trailer would be best, because we could just get in it; fill up; and then go unless we could have a dedicated vehicle and trailer that we could just leave hooked up most of the time. We do have a farm tractor that could stay hooked up to a dedicated trailer. The boss wants to surplus it, because we don't use it.That leaves one last question. Is the boss right? Should we be using city water instead of lake water even if we've not had issues with the intake screens of the pressure washers clogging up?

I guess I didn't make one thing clear: Contracting professionals is not an option; both due to budget constraints and the nature in which this work needs to be done. This is an ongoing, year-a-round process. We have done this pressure washing for several years, but we have used our distribution truck tanks in the past (the same trucks we haul fish in), and when those were in use, we used smaller water tanks, which have to be filled often and is very inefficient. The clear water tank shown in the picture is something new we are trying. That tank previously housed an imperiled species of fish but now that program has ended, so I sort of stole the tank and put a garden hose spicket on the bottom.

We never have a bunch of these raceways empty at the same time where we would have a big job to contract someone to come in and PW them. We remove fish and empty these raceways one at a time, every week, take them to streams and lakes all over east and middle TN. It's only so many fish per month going out, so only so many raceways will be emptied at a time. We usually need to pressure wash them as they are emptied, so that we can thin out another raceway that has gotten too heavy as fish grow. We'll empty between one and eight raceways per week, depending on the scheduled distribution of trout, and usually, we'll need to start pressure washing them as they are emptied if we have the bodies to do it at the time. And then, after pressure washing them, we'll start moving fish in to them from other raceways or from inside our building. It takes about 45 minutes to "split a raceway" (moving half of the fish weight from one raceway to the PW'd empty raceway, and the other half back weighed into the same raceway), and like I say, it takes about 3-4 hrs for one person to pressure wash one. This time disparity means that we need to be as quick as possible at PWing, so that we can stay caught up with what we call "fish work".

A couple of years before I came to work there, we did no pressure washing. The raceways were cleaned with two or three bodies with two or three wire brushes, which is archaic and barbaric and only makes the algae thinner and shoulders sore. Since going to pressure washing instead of wire brushing, it is much easier on our bodies and fights back the algae better. The problem with built up algae is that it'll break off and clog the screens below where its built up. When the screens clog, the water rises, and if the water was to rise too high, the fish would come out of the raceway onto the pavement. This could happen at night when we aren't there and could kill lots of fish. So basically, we have to control the algae or otherwise, we'd have to keep someone watching and cleaning the screens 24 hours per day. The more often we pressure wash, the better it keeps this algae in check. I'm not sure why the algae is so bad at our hatchery. I've been to other hatcheries and have never seen algae like we have algae. But the river gets it too, so I assume it's something about the water that promotes growth, and it's especially bad in the Spring.

As for the concrete raceways; they are 49 years old, but were done to a high standard when built. There will be no money to redo them or coat them in the near future, so our staff wants to take care of them and make sure we don't strip them down to the rebar, but on the other hand, we don't want to be overwhelmed with algae by not trying to at least knock most of it off when the raceways are empty.

I think concrete is tougher than you realize,.Unless the concrete is in a VERY SERIOUS state of deterioration,..it is NOT going to take it down to the rebar. 300' of supply hose wouldn't be that big a deal in my opinion. Is there any way you adjust the water pressure from that outlet for the time in use? Also,..using 3/4" supply hose would make a difference in your flow. Start with a 300 gallon tank,..and let he hose feed the tank and run the washer from the tank.

You're long winded, Ha,Ha,...Anyhow,..I didn't read the whole thing,..so maybe you did address my suggestion on having an EXPERT come in and with the use of Copper Sulfate keep the algae growth in check?

* Hiring a professional doesn't seem cost effective or worth it,...until the job is done while you're still wondering how to do it.

Jeff

with all your problems to overcome, you are just going to have to find the money to hire it out

junker1 said:

with all your problems to overcome, you are just going to have to find the money to hire it out

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I really appreciate everyone's input and suggestions and it is helping, so please keep it coming. I'm pretty much ignorant about the industry, work processes, and equipment other than what I've learned recently looking at higher end pressure washers that I didn't even know existed until a couple of months ago when I started looking to see if we could some how speed it all up some.

I can say this much though; the continual suggestion to hire it out is not going to happen. We're not even hiring out to mow our many acres of grass, because we have to do pretty much everything that is regular and occurring with the staff we've got the best we can. And with respect to pressure washing our raceways, we don't even know in advance how many we're going to have week to week, and if we decided one day that we can't give up the time to keep doing it; it would just not get done; and we'd just be dealing with the algae more. In order to use professionals, we'd almost have to keep contractors available with only one day notice all the time in order to use them. As fish are shipped out, we empty raceways. Within the next few days, we've got to pressure wash them (if they're going to get pressure washed) and then thin out other raceways by moving fish to the newly-cleaned raceways. We can't leave them empty for long, because we've got to use them. As time goes by, density of raceways builds up as fish grow; and we have to keep thinning them out. Sometimes, when time gets really crunched or we're short help, we'll have to skip the pressure washing; move the fish and then hope to do it the next time.

I missed the suggestion about copper sulfate. I'll definitely look at that.

For the most part I agree about the concrete durability. That's something that the two supervisors are worried about more than I am, but there is also the issue that all the sand that is stripped off goes down the drain ends up in our waste-water (or effluent system), which I don't think is a big deal, but they do. Our drum filter salesman told us that the sand actually keeps it clean, but they still worry.

The whole reason I got interested in trying to make this move along better is because I have ideas sometimes about improving things that seems like we don't do very smartly, but overall our culture is such that we don't look at what we're doing and ask if we can do it better or faster. That's only something that I do probably because of my retail background. But some things I can't affect at my level. We're not going to go all the way and get what we really need, which is the people or contractors to do the work or high end, professional equipment that this job really needs.

Sorry about the long windedness. It's a character flaw. The comment about 300' of distance. That's not what I meant if that's what I typed. It's more like 500 yards or over 1/4 mile from the building down to our far-end raceway. It's starts at about 100 yards at the closest raceway, but we periodically clean them all one time or another.

Thanks again!

The hose length was mentioned in your first paragraph,..either way though,..you cleared it up.

Copper Sulfate is used in fish ponds to control algae growth very effectively,..BUT,..it has to be done by someone who knows what they're doing. You would have to hire it out,..or risk dead fish.

Jeff

814jeffw said:

The hose length was mentioned in your first paragraph,..either way though,..you cleared it up.

Copper Sulfate is used in fish ponds to control algae growth very effectively,..BUT,..it has to be done by someone who knows what they're doing. You would have to hire it out,..or risk dead fish.

Jeff

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Probably the biggest questions for us are (1) If we would have the $$$ to treat 12,000 gpm of incoming water, because that's probably the only way it's going to help? Sort of stop it before it gets started. Our water is basically algae free when it comes in @ 95 feet deep, but when it hits our packed columns, which aerates the water and supposedly degasses it (removes nitrogen supersaturation), that's when things happen like algae growth, dissolved metals oxidize; etc., and as it flows through our system, the growth just gets worse. (2) If we could get copper sulfate approved for our state discharge permit, which is very strict (we have only a very short list of chemicals that we're allowed to put in our water)? Even something like iodine and hydrogen peroxide, which are harmless in small quantities to the ecosystem below can be applied only for specific diseases (after fish health diagnosis), only for specified duration, and only in limited quantities. Really, the only things I know of we're allowed to put in our water are: fish food, salt, formalin, H2O2, and iodine and even that stuff has to be a specific dose for a specific duration; logged; and reported to state regulators. Part of these limitations are due to the discharge and others are due to the fact that we are animal caretakers, and we're not allowed just to start treating the fish without using approved substances.

As for who would apply it, I'm sure our supervisors would either hire it out or become totally confident about what they are doing. They are biologist. They don't just have us put substances in the water without knowing what we're doing.

I fixed up a second water tank yesterday. Used both of them, because we started pressure washing down at the end of our serial; about 350 yards from our building. Took about 1 1/2 hrs each to fill them up, and took about ten minutes each to drive them down there on a fork lift. But for now, that seem to be our best bet within the limitations we've been given.

I'll update when we start using our new pressure washer and let everyone know if we've sped things up any with the higher-end equipment.

I would run some 3/4" hose to the tanks or if you can afford it, some 1" pvc coiled tubing or pvc pipe as more of a permanent fixture to fill the tanks.

You could put a float valve so you could fill them the nite before so they are ready to use in the morning.

If you use white tanks you will have algae growing inside them, just a fact. It would be better to use the black tanks so the algae does not grow inside them and either put a sight glass on the outside so you can see the water level or just open the top cover to see how much water is in there.

You don't need more than 3000psi to clean that concrete but the more gallons per minute you have, the faster the job will go, you will appreciate this.

I would not buy locally as you will pay sometimes double or more than the great vendors on this site, call Paul or Russ and tell them your situation and they will help you out.

Good luck.

Thanks to those who have chimed in and given me some advice and recommendations. I had no idea about white tanks, which makes me wonder why that's mostly what I see when I see a water tank on a trailer. Right now we're stuck with these tanks, and I'm probably not going to make to many modifications to them, but later on, when these tanks will be used for the primary purpose of holding host fish, I'll be lobbying for a couple of dedicated tanks for our PWing operation. I'll definitely be looking at black due to the heads up given, and I'll be asking for two of them, because I think it would be helpful for us to keep at least one of them full of water and ready to go at all times, and a second one to fill up while using the other. And sometimes, we could PW two raceways, in two locations, with two PWers. I think our lift could easily handle 400-500 gallon that is more of a mobile-type tank that we could band or strap to the lift or pallet. Right now, I'm moving the 350 gallon tank around on a pallet with the other three set on top for lower center of gravity while moving, and then when I get to the work location, I'll take the three pallets off the top; set them down, and then the tank and pallet on top of the other three. It seem to be safer and more stable moving around that way. I also need to strengthen our pallets by nailing some cut plywood pieces on the slats to make them all strong.

I agree that we need to upgrade our plumbing on our tanks, and a float for night fill up would be helpful, because that way, we'd have water pressure during the day for other operations at the hatchery.

I've thought of one thing myself that has helped us. I borrowed a second 350 gallon white tank, put a garden hose shut off end on it, and so now we can be filling a second one while using the first one and then this way, we should never have to wait much on water other than the time it takes to move the tanks up to 1/4 mile with a fork lift. The other day, we had to PW four raceways, all about 350 yards from our fill-up point; all of the raceways could be PW'd with the tanks sitting in one location, since these four were all adjacent to each other. That's when I finally got my head out of my a** and put a second tank into operation. I set up the 2nd tank, filled the first, moved the first down, then moved the PWers down and the other equipment. That put one PWing person to work. After the second filled, I moved it down, and then we had two workers cleaning.

I used the new 3.7 gpm, 3500 psi PWer for the first time yesterday. I used a little more water than I've been using working with a 2.4 gpm machine. It took about 300 gallons to do one raceway; it's been taking me about 260-280 gallons, but it cut the time by about 1/3, and that's after only the first time using it, so I'd say we'll get even better and learn to make more productive use of the extra gpm over time. I can see how even more gpm could help us even more, but that's probably all we're going to get for a while.

I'm sort of limited on the amount of time I'm given to work on such things like these tanks. This week it was my rotation to be the "feed man", so I've had some flexibility with my labor time, but on a typical week, I have to beg to get time to do maintenance work, or do it during lunch, but we'll eventually get to a better place. We're way ahead of where we were a year ago using a distribution truck. We'll get even better thanks to the tips I've learned on here.

I've PW'd about 4 raceways now with the new PW'r. Definitely faster; about 2 hrs instead of 3 so about a 1/3 cut in time; but is taking a little more water using a 3.7 versus a 2.4. However, I can still easily compete one raceway with a 350-gallon tank though it takes nearly all of the water on a really dirty raceway where before it would take about 270 gallons.

Having 2 water tanks set up really helps. I can move one of the full tanks to a raceway; PW it; bring it back and start filling it up; and move the other tank to the next raceway; sort of alternating them. This works well for one worker and one PW'r, but if we needed to split up with two jobs going at once, then we'd be waiting on water if we had more than two on a particular day.

The way to speed this up and make it even more smooth with this method is to build two platform pallets for each tank and pressure washer to set on. It would be about eight feet wide with the pressure washer on the right, and blocker screen, etc. on the left of the tank. We can then get all the equipment moved to the job site in one trip with the fork lift. The second thing is to do has been suggested on this forum, and that's to have a float for each tank and fill them at night and then that way we're ready to go each day when we come in if we need to use one or both of them. I'll probably wait on the platforms until we can get some real, mobile, dedicated tanks. I'm thinking that two, 420-gallon, leg tanks banded to pallets would work great.

Thanks for the help, tips, and suggestions. Maybe one day soon we'll be more like the pros, which is what we're going to have to become. I'd say that two of us are already semi pros.

Just a thought. Considering this is going to be an ongoing thing,..is it possible to get water plumbed permanently over to where you need it? Seems like the easier solution in my opinion. Wouldn't need tanks,..and no hassle,...and no thinking about how to do it effectively.

Also,..getting a 5+ GPM machine would also be of benefit more than you even know. I know you just bought the 3.7,..just saying though.

Jeff

I have been idly sitting by and have a few comments.
First, I do think that a 5GPM machine would be beneficial to you. There is far more cleaning capacity in a 5 GPM machine than the numbers would suggest.
Second, I am assuming that the raceways are close to each other. Why cant you clean the first raceway, using city water and a booster pump, and the pressure washer, then use the same pump from the clean raceway to clean the second raceway? A small screen to keep out debris from the pressure pump would be beneficial, but the a belt drive pump would have sufficient suction to supply the pump. Another option would be to have the hose constantly running to the static tank to keep it filling while you work. It would reduce the number of times that you needed to stop to fill the static tank, and you could use the time to top it off as your breaks.
Third, I would build a T-Trolley, that had multiple nozzles on it so that all you would have to do is drag it down the raceway and it would clean all three sides at once. Something like the trolleys that some hood cleaners use would work well. Problem is, you need enough pressure and volume to make it all work.
Really, to me this is not that big a problem.

Turbo nozzles would be the item to use they work underwater we sell them to several aquariums, boat and fishing net cleaners and but you need to be closer to the surface than you would above water. Higher flow will definitely help and you may consider a flat surface cleaner however I think the wand will actually be easier to do tis job with. A belt drive machine will also help so the water does not have to be elevated. If the water from the pond is clean and filtered it should be fine just so no debris is running through the pump pre filter before the tank an before the pump and you should be fine.

Scott Stone said:

I have been idly sitting by and have a few comments.
First, I do think that a 5GPM machine would be beneficial to you. There is far more cleaning capacity in a 5 GPM machine than the numbers would suggest.
Second, I am assuming that the raceways are close to each other. Why cant you clean the first raceway, using city water and a booster pump, and the pressure washer, then use the same pump from the clean raceway to clean the second raceway? A small screen to keep out debris from the pressure pump would be beneficial, but the a belt drive pump would have sufficient suction to supply the pump. Another option would be to have the hose constantly running to the static tank to keep it filling while you work. It would reduce the number of times that you needed to stop to fill the static tank, and you could use the time to top it off as your breaks.
Third, I would build a T-Trolley, that had multiple nozzles on it so that all you would have to do is drag it down the raceway and it would clean all three sides at once. Something like the trolleys that some hood cleaners use would work well. Problem is, you need enough pressure and volume to make it all work.
Really, to me this is not that big a problem.

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Again thanks to those who have added thoughts and suggestions.

My thought as to the water-source limitation is that we should, when money becomes available, tap into one of the six inch, lake water pipes with a water spicket at each line of the serial of packed colums. This lake water has come in to us from 95 feet deep and has not yet hit oxygen, and therefore, has very little algae and really not that dirty. It does have some dissolved solids, dissolved metals, etc., but not alot of settleable solids in it before it starts going through our system.

These pipes come up out the pavement, eight of them at each level and attach to the blue columns, and so there are eight of them in each line, and then down another 220 feet or so, there is another set of eight. This means we'd have a total of about five or six spickets going down the line, approximately centered along the line at each 220 feet or so, thereby requiring no more than a couple hundred feet of water hose to PW any given raceway. It's hard to see in the pic I've taken, but if you look closely at one of the blue columns, there is a 6" pipe attached to it. That's where I'm thinking about asking for a spicket tap. One reason I contacted you pros was that the boss was saying that we should quit using lake water, and I didn't know whether or not the boss was being overly cautious, and if he is, then something like I've described above would work. But if he is right, then we've got to work in something like what we're doing now with alternating water tanks and hopefully upgrade to floats where we can fill up at night. The problem I'd have with the spicket idea is that lake water flow, leak free, is so critical to our operation that the supervisors may be against tapping into the columns for a water source. I'd have to talk to the people who installed the packed columns, and get them on board and then get them to help me talk the boss in to such an idea. Of course we could have the city water plumbed the serial of raceways with spickets every 100 feet or so, and that would be another way to make our lives easier.

The problem with Scott has said is that we clean these raceways only when they are empty and we're ready to put fish back in to them. Sometimes we might need to clean ten in a week, and other times, we might need clean only one or even none. Each of them get either one or two cleanings per year, and it's random where they are cleaned; it's all based on the need at the time and the cycle of the fish and the amount of workers we have to move fish. The rest of the time, they've got fish in them and we usually have no more than ten empty ones at any given time out of all the 104 that we've got. And they are scattered all over the place. Sometimes we'll leave an empty one dirty for a month or two, because we're saving it or don't need it at that time. We don't clean them really until the week we're ready to put fish in them. Otherwise, they'll start building up algae again. We don't empty them until fish are stocking size, and we don't necessarily keep like-sized fish beside each other, because we'd be doing alot of extra lifting of fish to keep it that organized. So while several raceways are close to any given raceway being cleaned, and they are adjacent in pairs, it is rare that we have a recently-cleaned one close by when we're cleaning another one. I did something similar to what Scott has said in the past w/o a booster pump. I simply primed a 25' water hose down a recently-cleaned raceway right next to the one we needed to clean. Plugged up the end of the hose with my finger; pulled the hose over the wall; ensured it was primed; and attached it to the PW'er sitting down in the dirty raceway. It worked well this way, but even with a clean raceway as a source, there is dirty water coming from the raceways above, because we have a flow-through system; and so, unless we're working at the very top of our system; the intake screen we'll clog up from time to time, even with a recently-cleaned raceway as the water source.

I'll have to take a look at the turbo nozzles, trollies, etc, and see if any of this can help us in the future.

As a point of reference, the picture shown with the blue columns in the above post. The water tank is about 600' to our nearest city water spicket, but is only ten feet from adjacent raceway water and only 55' from fresh lake water supply via a 6" pipe shown above and behind the blue column. The priority of cleaning raceways is based on what fish need to be moved to thin them out and when and what raceways are empty at any particular time. We clean them in the order that we need them, but it is usually as we empty them, because we usually need the space as we empty them out. Only fish five inches or larger would be put that far down the serial, and so when we're cleaning that raceway shown in the picture, we already have a plan as to which raceway of fish are going to be split into that particular raceway.

In fact, the computer will list raceways of fish by length in descending order, and we know which set of raceways will be empty next, because we ship them out longest first (with some exceptions). We start planning what fish are going to go in the empties even before they are empty. So the boss will put out a work plan that states something like "PW C11 when empty, then split C6 to C11". Since C11 comes up next on the length list, we know it will be the next one empty even before we start shipping out of it. The computer will also list raceways of fish by density, and so we know which raceways need to be thinned out the most. So in the example given, C6 would be the raceway of fish over 5" that need to be thinned out the most throughout the hatchery, and C11 is the first one available and PW'd. This is why it would be very hard to keep it in any kind of order. PWing doesn't drive the work; the fish do; but PWing is a necessary step for keeping the "fish work" caught up.