Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

The PH in my system is only 5, I'm doing flood and drain with coco husks. I thought shell grit would be the answer, but I couldn't find any so I just added some sea shells from an aquarium shop.

After 3 days there is no change. All my levels are way to high, I have about 1:1.5 tank:growbed ratio, but there are only a few small plants at this stage. Is the lack of plants the problem?

Any advice is much appreciated. I'm looking forward to post pics of my system, but at this stage it's a bit embarrassing!

plachon get some calcium carbonate from the local produce shop and add half a cup aday till the ph is right.

Aussieponic

calcium carbonate is going to be the same as crushed up sea shells.

tw ways to make it work quicker are;

crush it up (more surface area)
place it in a spot where much water will flow over it (or distribute it through your existing media)

Thanks, at the moment I've just put the sea shells in my sump. Should I crush them up and place them somewhere with the water running over them or is just crushing them and leaving them in the sump enough?

Also, are my all levels high because there is not enough plants or is it related to the PH?

probably. (the levels)

you can bring the ph up much quicker using bicarbonate of soda, but rapid PH increases are VERY stessful to your fish.

Crushed up and in the sump would be better than not crushed up in the sump. but a few shells isnt going to do it, you probably need a good bucket full especially with an acidic medium like you have.

If you have fish and your ammonia and nitrite are not ZERO then i would suggest that you stop feeding them and do a partial water change too.

wow - PH 5, what caused that?

Perhaps the coco husks are responsible for the low ph. What is the source water pH?

You may need to add small amounts of baking soda to get your pH moving in the right direction but as steve said, be careful. Moving the pH up more than perhaps a quarter of a point in a day could be harder on the fish (If any) especially with that hight ammonia reading. Moving pH fast can also do in your bio-filter bacteria too.

I would guess that those high readings are from the low pH.

A few questions. Was this system already cycled or is it just set up? Are there fish in it or are you fishless cycling?

Shell grit can be the answer but it doesn't work fast, you probably would have needed to get a bucket of shells into the system when you started it.

I use powered calcium carbonate form the produce shop it is a horse supplament. It raise my PH with in one day. you can bring it up very quickly not slowly as in shells. I smply premix it with some water and add it to the sump.

AP

Provided that there are no fish in the system.

right while it is possible to bring pH up quickly, it is not always good to do it that quickly.

Most of the time I raise my PH from 6.0 to 6.5 by adding 1 cup of calcium carbonate powder in 1 ltr of water and pour it into the sump (My total water volume is 7000 ltrs )the next day the reading has moved up by .5. No problems with the fish, have been doing this since January. Sometimes I add half a cup of both calcium carbonate and potassium carbonate to do the same thing. Again no problem with the fish.

AP

Have you got some shells in the system to try and keep the ph up a bit more stably?

No I have no shells in my system. I adjust the PH on a weekly to fortnighly basis. Just like adjusting the ph in a pool. The movments in the ph are not great movements.

AP

I would slowing bring up by adding sodium bicarb or calcium or potassium carbonate over a week or so and also spread 5kg+ medium shell grit to your growbed media. Because shell grit is very slow acting it won't bring your pH up but hold a correct pH level once it has been lifted by other methods.
LB

Thanks for all the help, I'm living in Thailand and am having a little trouble finding the shell grit and calcium carbonate. As I'm working 7 days a week it's difficult to find time to chase things up.

All the answers are appreciated, hopefully I can correct the situation in the next few days. At the moment I'm just changing water and feeding the fish very little. I'll keep you all posted.