Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

But remember, do not pay sales tax on rainwater harvesting equipment. My RMST Growbeds were tax-free, as were my rain barrels from Plastic-Mart.com
It's one thing they have gotten right in Austin...

So very sorry to hear of your loss.

I picked up two rainbarrels from a local farm for $12 each. I joined them together in about 30 mins and they are now full after yesterday's rain.

I never thought of using it for my tank (was going to use it in my garden) but, now, thanks to you, we can all learn from your tragedy and figure out a solution.

I hope you figure out a way to make it work.

Thanks,
Thefishingangler

Damn! Bad news. Sorry to hear it.

And upon investigation I find that Austin water has chloramines in it too, and I've been using it to top up my system regularly. No apparent problems so far, but I've only added a small amount of water at a time, less than 10%, but now I'm nervous. This crap doesn't break down? Maybe the chloramines are building up. And I have to add more in the hot weather due to evaporation; it'll probably be a couple months before we get any significant rainfall here.

So bad news all around, but thanks for taking one for the team and getting the word out.

A nice backyard system. I like it.
There is usually an upside to any mistakes
and I call them acts of genius.
DIFFERENT SIZE TANKS WORK.

Comming home from work again...the mishaps continue. All plants looking sorry....bring out checklist:

everything still plugged in - check.
timer still have battery - check
manually turn on timer - nothing
check outlet - no power
Check red button - bingo - someone pressed it.

Now you may have to ask what the red button is. When I wired the garage I knew I would be using a lot of power tools in the garage. So I wired all the outlets into a main cutoff that you would find in just about any shop.

Call to wife where she askes the little ones if they pressed a red button - yup - kids did it! The little buggers weren't satisfied killing all the fish - they were after the plants today! Oh well - I love them anyhow.

After an hour of pumping the plants are starting to perk up a bit. They should be ok by tomorrow.

Ya also gotta watch out for those CGFI outlets that sometimes start to go faulty, they especially don't like big pumps kicking on and off when they start getting flakey like that so it's another one of those safety things that can be darned if you do darned if you don't.

I second the well idea. Do you know what your water table level is? If it is high enough you wouldn't need much of a hole. Definitely be careful with the kiddos, though.

Also, can't you just get an IBC or something and let water sit in it for a while? according to wikipedia, you can add some HCl and let it sit for 24hours and you're ok.

That rainwater storage website has nice pictures and a good idea, but I can see two problems. 1, anything that can get dirt in it will. I don't see how they will keep all the dirt out of the system. Eventually it will gum up. Maybe not this year, but next... And, with it underground, you're going to have a heck of a time cleaning it out. The second is price - I'd be surprised if it were less than $5k.

How much water do you think you need? Do you have any idea evaporation/leak rates? What is your annual rainfall? Can you depend on that?

OK, here's a possible chloramine solution: potassium metabisulfate, aka Campden tablets, which should be familiar to any homebrewers out there. Used by brewers to neutralize chlorine and chloramines; reduces them to nontoxic chloride, which dissipates. As a home brewer I used to use them, probably still have some around somewhere. Didn't know if they'd be safe for fish, but the little research I've done so far suggests that they are; even if you overdose them, they simply react with oxygen, byproducts being potassium and hydrogen sulfide. Or since sodium metabisulfate is also sold as Campden tablets, maybe sodium, but it would seem to be preferable to add potassium instead, since there always seems to be a need for that, so get that kind. Should be available at any homebrew shop.

Anyone tried this? Any information on why it wouldn't work?

I wouldn't use it .... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium_metabisulfite









Four good reasons... IMO...

Oh, yeah, I don't know where I got hydrogen sulfide; sulphur dioxide is the one. Smells like rotten eggs, but so what? And the bit about inhibiting yeast and bacteria - well, it's added to beer before fermentation, so it can't inhibit yeast growth too much. And it's regularly added to wine and beer, and I haven't heard of too many people with allergic reactions. 'Course I'll be using it in a goldfish/koi pond, so I have less worries about chemicals in the fish than most of you, so while I feel fine about it, if you have concerns by all means avoid it.

How volatile are the different biproducts? If you could let it sit out for 24 hours, are they practically all gone?

Hum, after looking at a little about the stuff, I definitely would not add it into an active cycled system with fish since it probably would impact the bacteria probably as much as the chloramines.

However, more research is probably needed because it might be a reasonable way to treat a bulk amount of initial starting water or water on hand for large water changes. Would have to find out if the byproducts will dissipate with some bubbling or if they would remain in the system.

Bat, bacteria are one of the most important parts of AP, we don't really need to inhibit growth

Sorry to here your lost Deja,

If you can leave the water out for 24 hours to get rid of the nasty's, than that sounds like a solution!
I read that if you cycle or put an air stone in tap water for 24-48 hours it gets rid of some of the additives that are added. Not quite sure which ones???

Don't let this mishap make you give AP away mate.

Regards,

Matt.

After talking with the TCEQ and the science director over there, the definitive answer is that water treated with mono-chloramine disinfectant needs to be chemically treated to remove the chloramines. The side effect of all the chemical treatments WILL result in ammonia in the water. Activated charcoal cannot by itself remove them.

The other way to remove the chloamines is to allow the disinfectant to break down naturally over time. Since mono-chloramin can easily move between di-chloramine and tri-chloramine with regards to temperature and pH, the process takes a long time. The answer I got was three weeks. Exposed to UV the process speeds a little.

It was recomended I age the water for three weeks in large kiddie pools to maximize UV contact time. So perhaps I see a large water garden with perhaps some crayfish for aging water in my future. I am also going to persue rain water collection.

Thanks for all the kind words everyone. Without all the support here, I probably would have just quite.

Mark