Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hey guys my one grow bed is doing amazing you have probably seen a few posts on it! It's 8 by 4 foot and filled with lettuce and tomatoes and strawberry's. My tomatoes are doing ok the lettuce and strawberries are doing AMAZZING. sadly my resivior is turning green no matter how hard I try. Any advice?

what sort of algae?
stringy or pea soup?

probably need to get rid of some light, but if its pea soup algae and its a new system, just wait.
if is pea soup and an old system, you may need more growbeds / remove light or as a last resort, can try a UV clarifier.

may be best to provide some pictures here...

green as in pea soup like water or green as in there is green stuff all over the sides etc.
the first is resolved by lots of air and circulation and it will run its course.
the second (green coating) is probably actually biofilm and is good bacteria and quite normal.

[edit] pipped by Yav while writing this one

I will post pics when the son is up! It's a green film around the liner as well as the water being clouded green where I can't see the fish anymore.

Check your Nitrate levels too. Sounds like you could have high levels of Nitrates and possibly too much light.

As DLF says make sure you have plenty of aeration too and cover up the tanks. It may take a week to clear. I had a similar problem with brown algae a couple of weeks ago and now my water is cystal clear.

Hey guys I'm in the middle of uploading the pics now. We have had a straight week of down pouring rain. I am running two giant airators currently in both ends of the resivior. I believe it was due to high sun light because today the first sunny day in a week I can now see the bottom of the res. The trout unfortunately also ate all the other fish that where in the res but I'm assuming that is normal trout behavior (even if they act like piranha) I'm uploading now. I also adding pics of the grow bed. There's a few signs of either deficiency or to much nitrate maybe you guys and girls can help me with this as well? It's hard enough in Massachusetts with the weather and catipillars.

rain is a hard one as it can cause a pretty big change in the system.
I note my own pH tends to dive after lot of rain.
Chnages also promote algal blooms (they are often triggered by change in water conditions)

Not much you can do apart from putting something like clear polycarboate sheeting over your grow beds and fish tank. The polycarbonate would let light though for the plants and keep rainwater off.. or else something like greenhouse material over a steel or wood frame or a hoop house.

note your pics not here - if having issues take a look here > viewforum.php?f=4
(second one best, and then the first one.

Here is a few pics.

Hey Darren thanks for the help. I had to resize them real quick as I'm not tech savvy I had to get some tech help from my four year old .but I was thinking of doing the green house hard plastic over the top. Last year I had the same resivior in my green house it did amazing! Except I couldn't fit anything else that needed to be in that green house and out of view in there. Luckily the pH hasn't taken to big of a dive yet. The water itself was green before the storm. With a bit of green on the liner. It seems that the rain maybe swapped enough water out by itself that it either diluted the green or like someone said before it ran it's course?

I covered a part of our outdoor Koi pond

As you can see the water is clear there is some algae on the sides which as mentioned probably not a bad thing.
I also floated a board for the honey bees to safely get drinks.

Always nice to look after the little guys. Good on you. Bees are so important. Hope they don't become a snack for the Koi.

Good to see your water cleared up.

Hey BOSS! I'm going to have to try the floating board idea! The honey bees near me usually get destroyed by ignorant home owners they tend to be sprayed to death. Personally we welcome all of them!
The trout are getting bigger then expected I'm thinking next year of doing a pool sized resivior and upping the anti with at least ten 4foot by 8 foot grow beds but custom making them so they can be deeper.
LETTUCE: I have noticed if I cut my lettuce during harvest down to the stump new growth shows within two weeks! They are quickly catching back in growth as well. I fear that my beds aren't deep enough to support the weight of the tomatoes. I am planning on doing a trellas for those.
Has anyone had crazy success with strawberry?

We are hopefully moving to a climate that will be 24/7 warm relatively soon so we can do bigger and year round. Hopefully who ever moves in next will enjoy it as much as we are! I will keep posting pics in here to keep you all updated as I love the input from people who I can learn from!

I had to take ours off line and water them separately because of the salt in the AP. I should have put our strawberry towers on a water timer too that might have helped.