Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

hi was wonder somone can help i have a new ibc setting up and got with coir growing with clay ball on top and i getting a fair amount of colour from the coir will a bio filter remove this all ill it clear in its own . all can use something else

The color is probably caused by tannic acid. The tannic acid will likely continue to leach out of the coir over time. I know I've seen others with this issue but don't know if they tried to correct it, if the biofilter helped reduce it or if they just let it run it's course . Some of the aquarium sites talk about using activated charcoal to hasten the color change but my understanding is that it will clear on it's own. I can't give you an idea of how long this will take but maybe someone else here knows.

I introduced a small amount of coir (maybe 10-15l) into my trial system (about 250-300l total) in an upflow media bed to try water chestnut/kang kong.
It did stain the water, and it did eventually clear up. IIRC, it took maybe 8-10 weeks though. I have not thought of a better replacement, so I'll probably still use the coir if I do larger similar beds, and i suspect the tannins may be good for the plants, but esthetically it's not so nice.

I have not heard of coir in AP....
I am assuming that you are growing COIR and not using it .. so what is the benefit of coir..

I have a significant coloration issue within my RAS, where the fish food is leaving a tannin like stain and I would love to get rid of it..

I would wonder what effect Activated Charcoal would have, given the amount of other nasties like Ammonia and Nitrites in my system (no nitrates)
Has activated charcoal found and general.application in AP.. I know that it ain't all that cheap..

PS... a really dumb question...... how do you grow coir... you could grow coconut palms with practical difficulty

PPS...

Now that is interesting..Magnesium Deficiencies ... I tried coir in net pots in my first AP system, and plants generally struggled... I blamed the lower light through cream roofing..

Coir has been used as a cheap growing media in AP for some time. Usually coconut coir.

Activated charcoal has also been commonly used. Usually to break up the bond in Chloramine to free up the chlorine to aid in off gassing. But the ammonia remains.

I sure did get confused... Could not understand how you grew COIR, if not a palm tree first..



And I too have used COIR, but mainly as a soil additive in wicking beds..

I was a bit interested in the WiKi comment about how

which is what I was doing in my net-pots..

and I would still love to economically , get rid of the Fish-Food color from my RAS..
..

I have seen virtually hundreds of aquaponics systems and bar a few that were clear most are a weak tea colour
My current system 3 weeks ago was a dark colour and you couldn't see the fish now its so you can count the fish
Don't worry over time and with a few water top ups she will be ok

hi i have decided to make a charcoal home made filter with no bio as the bio removes the nitrates but the charcoal will remove suspended matter also clean the water from very fine suspended matter i will also use some filter wool so trickle in the top and run out the botton back into fish pond . i hopping this will work as i have another ibc to do after xmas. also thank you for all the advice to every body as i am new at this. some of you guys though i was trying to grow coir or coconut shell. no i have in my grow bed as follows

course coconet shell mixed with pearlite

then layer 2 fine inside shell coconut

final layer clay balls

this seems to be working great apart from the colour issue

BUT - i thought the problem was the colouration..


No-Bio - what does that mean.. A bio filter usually creates nitrates

And Activated Carbon... don't they make activated carbon filters to remove all chemicals from tap water..
ie... the carbon should have an effect on ALL chemicals

Fine wool filtration will remove particulates , but what will that achieve..
..
.

Just be careful of your cleaning process and don't clean all the beneficial bacteria away
I have done that

yea charcoal if from your fire pit will just dirty your water more unless you wash it really well, even then will rub against each other and dirty the water more.
activated carbon absorbs nitrate, etc doesnt it???

Perlite in AP is not a good idea, it crumbles down to nothingness and may irritate fish.


If you want to get rid of the tanins from your water its pretty much do water chantges or buy some purigen, its expensive but i bought a 100g portion and within 2 recharges it had removed all of the tanin from a large hollow log i put into a 2.5kl pond.