slurry aerator

oldsmokey

these systems are advertised a fair bit...we have trouble agitating our tank and would love an alternative...can the aerator be retro-fitted, and whats likely cost for 2-side 4 bay ?
tia

grazeaway

oldsmokey wrote: »

these systems are advertised a fair bit...we have trouble agitating our tank and would love an alternative...can the aerator be retro-fitted, and whats likely cost for 2-side 4 bay ?
tia

Most likely but it would be a specialist job requiring breathing gear. Our contractor was saying that he has seen a few of them. They work best on night saver electricity and it needs to be run every night. A few lads have issues restarting them if the power goes off for a few days so you'd probably need a back up generator.

oldsmokey

ok...so its a system of pipes blowing air thru the slurry..any ideas out there of typical cost for 8 bays?
ta

49801

We retro fitted and we like the system. Cost I can't remember but not insignificant.

However before you go this route I'd wonder why you have trouble agitating in the first place? Addition of water is very very important. If your trouble is because you have very thick slurry or cattle draging fodder ino the tanks this system is not for you!

With aeration you have to have 1.5-2feet of water in the tank before cattle go in.
Water is very important! Also it suits chopped silage compared to bales as feed dragged in by animals and that goes into the tanks will cause lumps that will never be broken by the aeration.
We have the system 6yrs and we had to agitate one tank this year as we did not follow that advice and we always had lumps. But we will follow that advice now.

To retro fit you have to empty the tanks completely!
This is dangerous due to slurry gas!!!

We did it by adding water once the slurry pipe would not suck any more and agitating and sucking out again weeks later allowing for gases to disapate. We entered the tanks (our tanks are 6ft deep and not as dangerous IMO as the more common +8ft). We had a jcb come in a reach with is back actor for the silt that was still left but there was still a lot of hand/donkey work.

Once the tanks are clean the retailer will fit the pipe work in a couple of days.

A 4inch sucktion pipe for the slurry spreader was very very handy!

Best of Luck!
It's a hellish job to fit but it is fierce convenient to be able to spread without an agitating.... Just hook on the spreader and off you go!

Did I mention that water is important?;)

oldsmokey

Terrific info! thanks..Could you tell me the name of the outfit that fitted the system?..I can see a day when the safety crowd will put a stop to mixing in the shed, then the troulble will start.
We have trouble with mixing because of the system in place, built in the 90's...mixer outside is supposed to draw slurry thru a 3' square hole in a wall built across the tank...a complete balls of a system...its a case of knocking that internal wall in the tank, or fit the aerator..
thanks

countryjimbo

Just wondering if Slurry Wizard by http://naturalbiotics.ie would be any good?

I haven't tried it myself but if it works it could be a cheap solution without too much effort. Might be worth trying for one year.
Maybe someone else on here is using it, would be interested in any feedback.

49801

oldsmokey wrote: »

Terrific info! thanks..Could you tell me the name of the outfit that fitted the system?..I can see a day when the safety crowd will put a stop to mixing in the shed, then the troulble will start.
We have trouble with mixing because of the system in place, built in the 90's...mixer outside is supposed to draw slurry thru a 3' square hole in a wall built across the tank...a complete balls of a system...its a case of knocking that internal wall in the tank, or fit the aerator..
thanks

Ours is fitted by dairy power
Can you do a quick sketch of the tank... You might have to knock the wall anyway?

oldsmokey

skills dont go as far as drawing on the pc!!...anyways, I might give dairymaster a call for approx quote...yup, will end up knocking that ghoul of a wall anyway, it was a dumb system..thanks for help..

49801

oldsmokey wrote: »

skills dont go as far as drawing on the pc!!...anyways, I might give dairymaster a call for approx quote...yup, will end up knocking that ghoul of a wall anyway, it was a dumb system..thanks for help..

Rent one of these things... Not sure where from though.

agrostar

We were thinking of fitting an aerating system to a new tank we are going building the tank would be 140ft long by 16ft wide. The tank would be too long to agitate conventionally but we could consider aerating the tank :rolleyes: Any ideas as to cost of fitting and running cost of these systems?
Being able to spread without need of agitating would be a major advantage to us:pac::pac: