Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Finally found the bulkhead style fitting at hardware and general in the tank section. I also just realised 5 minutes ago that I installed it backwards... I'll have to either put a big hole in the top of the elbow with a holesaw or pull it off and install it the other way. It's only stuck in with silicone though so that won't be too hard.

Can you put the T piece on the outside of the tank?

I topped up my growbed so the water level is about an inch under the top of the gravel... and I made a very annoying discovery. The white stones in my gravel look to be limestone and there's at least 5% of that crap in my media... I have to either get all new media or pick the stuff out. The most annoying thing is that i got blue metal instead of river gravel because the river stuff bubbled a little tiny bit. Turns out this stuff is at least 10x worse. Might have to buy some river gravel for my other 2 beds.

Water is still cloudy from the dirt in the gravel. If it doesn't clear by friday I'll pop in some egg whites and try and clear it up a bit.

I put in a bit more ammonia and will probably wait about a week before i throw in some goldfish. I don't have a test kit and I'm out of money temporarily so my $5 worth of goldfish will be my test kit.

I've prepared my SLO. I think the slots might be too narrow so I'll have to monitor and possibly cut some bigger ones.

pics soon

pictures of sump and some other things.

more pictures

Yes the T can go outside.

Thats how I did my tank fitting too... I also put stainless nuts n bolts through the holes with some rubber washers.
My tee is on the outside.... ummm... forgot to put it in, so it's 3m away from the tank. it's where I add sesol and chelated iron.

The purpose of the tee on the inside is so that if your SLO clogs, it can act as a backup drain. I know my tee acted as such when I had to put netting over my SLO. As long as you don't get clogs, you will be ok. I did get clogs and am happy the tee is on the inside.

I'm planning to put a 20mm or so overflow in going back to the sump

I found a test kit really cheap in a local shop so i picked it up. Only did ph and ammonia as I know I'm not cycled and I know my ph is high due to the white rocks in the system.

I have been soaking one of the stones in vinegar and it actually looks like the reaction stops after a while... I even put in fresh vinegar but it's not fizzing anymore.

Should I leave the ph as is or try to bring it down? I don't have plants yet so don't care about nutrient lockout at this stage... JUst want to build my bacteria colony.

Leave it whilst the system is cycling, which is an acidic reaction.

Yeah just leave it for now. Will naturally come down over time. Mine started out at 8.4 and slowly came down once I added the fish. It's now at 6 so have added shell grit.

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Convinced the local fish place to rinse some of their media bags in some water for me and got some duckweed to boot. I also cleverly spilled about half the bag on the ground when i got it home cause I'm gumby.

almost another week gone by and I still have 0 nitrites and nitrates... haven't tested ammonia or ph today

"It wont happen overnight, but it will happen!"

http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=337073#p337073

What's your water temp? How many fish do you have? At the start of cycling there isn't really a lot of point monitoring for nitrates as they don't appear until after the ammonia and nitrites. You'll see changes in pH and ammonia before anything else, so they'd be things I'd be monitoring if I wasn't monitoring everything.

If the fish aren't producing any detectable quantities of ammonia then you're going to have to VERY CAREFULLY add another ammonia source, such as Charlie Carp but be careful because if you add too much then you'll kill the fish. Dilute outside the FT first, then add the dilute solution to the FT.

In general, if you've planted out and have fish added, the system will eventually build up and it will cycle although you might have to supplement the plants with a little seasol or similar from time to time.

Like I have said to a few others recently, have patience.



Scott

I have no plants or fish at this stage. I wanted to cycle before adding fish and at least have some nutrients before adding plants. I dosed the system with 25% pure ammonia solution and it's been steady at around 2ppm. pH started at 8 but is down to about 7.8. I think that's from rain water the last day or so.

Temperature I have no idea... bloody cold when I stick my hand in it. I'm in Sydbney we're having 11 degree mornings.

I might put some more ammonia in to bring it up to 4ppm.

After 2 weeks of the pump running, dosing with cycled gunk a week ago and ammonia in the system I really expected to see some nitrites or nitrates. Both still at 0.