Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I bought them as seedlings and replanted them into the system.. and yea the gravel does stablize everything.

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One of the problems I'd been having with tomatoes, the vermiculite compresses when the wind blows the plants around, and it end up with nothing around the base of the plant, and the plant ends up looking sad.

How much of the gravel do you have touching the water?

well the foam is 1 1/2 inch and I use 2 inch net pots so about 1/2 is contacting the water but if someone is starting anew I will suggest using 3 inch net pots allowing for the tomatoes to send out alot more roots. I use 1/4 to 1/2 inch gravel. preferably one that doesn't react with acidic substances.

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G'Day Cookie,

Are you controlling the aerobic and anoxic conditions by having aerobic conditions at the filter entry, say at the top of the vessel, and as the water progresses down through the filter DO decreases and the filter conditions become anoxic?

Then into a degassing chamber and back into the system?

And you are doing this on a continuous basis with the small amount of water containing the solid wastes drawn from the bottom of the RFF?

Ohh....tre clever.

If I have understood what your saying about how your solids filter works ( and that would be a miracle ) how much water are you processing through it a day?
It must only be a small percentage of total system volume daily.

I know at this point I might look like a empty vessel , that's probably not far from the truth, but waiting for the earth to revolve again to find out the answer would kill me.

ok I'm assuming you meant to say controlling anaerobic and anoxic conditions by having initial aerobic conditions. if this what u meant to say... then u are totally correct. but my inlet actually is at the base it the base of the filter and then flows up thru the filter medium (fishing nets) and out to the top. reason I choose this configuration is to always have even distribution of solids and to always allow the solids to be suspended within the filter. it seem to mineralize better this way, compared to letting the solids enter the top and flow down since all the solids clumps onto the surface alone.

secondly I don't use RFF anymore because I don't intended to frequently remove solids from the filter. also all my system's water flow is entering the filter continuously 24hr. mind you this is experimental stuff I'm conducting. I will not advise anyone to adapt to this as yet till I is time proven atleast 6 to 8 months. but I will be uploading pics all the step of the way and updating water testing and fish conditions. oh yea the degasing chamber part is on the money.

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Cookie,

Good luck with the experiments and I look forward to reading in the future.

This is all new to me and I feel a bit of a Dummie most of the time but I like to learn about new things.

thx telonline I will need it anyhow some morning pics before I leave. oh plz tell me if pictures are showing up. tryin this phone uploading feature... anyhow enjoy..








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Nice growth. Do you tie the broccoli up? Seems like it would be top heavy.

yea I have to tie mostly everything on a DWC to pervent tipping over

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Awesome start of your thread! Everything is looking great. A thread like this gives you some solid credentials. We look forward to what the future holds.

thx Ron for your praise... coming from you it worth alot. will continue to update you all.

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I agree with Ron, your fish look happy, your plants look healthy and vigorous with good form and fruit without excessive foliage..... even your bio-slime looks good:-)

Great work with the photo's as well

Thanks Telon for your blessing as well. I try my best to takecare of everything as much as I can. god knows how much time effort on money I have invested into Aquaponics.

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ok so to continue from topic before..
The importance of mechanical and biological filtration before Growbeds.

Firstly suspended soilds pose two types of risk especially to DWC grow beds. One obvious risk is fouling of the plants roots submerged within the water. this not only blocks dissolved oxygen from interacting with the roots, it can also restrict water uptake and even create localized pH problems when the organic matters on the roots starts to decompose. you may not pick up a drastic change in system pH but you may see selective plants showing nutrient deficiencies. So the installation of a good mechanical filter is always encourage just before water enters the system.

Secondly suspended solids can directly affect the BOD or biological oxygen demand in your system. ever living organism with the system need oxygen to survive and only the little thats dissolved within is shared up between your fishes, plants, and bacterial organism. surprising the bacteria utilize alot of DO and most of the time aeration is needed to supplement oxygen into the system. However as the level of suspended solids increase, so too does the level of Dissolved Oxygen is needed to decompose these solids. most of the times it holds no big threat in the fish tank. but as it hits the GB it monopolize the oxygen available and the plants roots starts to be affect within the DWC which can even lead to the plants dying off. So hence aeration was encouraged with the GB as well to conteract this problem. But to tell you the truth, my growbeds contains no aeration whatsoever only a degasing section before.

Thirdly its important to try to convert all the available ammonia and nitrite before it enters the DWC simply because this too needs oxygen and well starve the plants roots of their share. and if the slippage is continously high in the water entering the GB, bacteria colony (slime) will start to form on the surface of everything including your plant roots. and well the effects are the same as suspended soilds.

So in conclusion proper system design is highly encouraged and adequate mechanical and biological filtration is needed before GBs to maximize your plant growing power.

Happy Growing.

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