Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

that's just algae from it being wet.. some people will put a "scrubbie" pad down where the water goes into the ft..it's not an anaerobic area.. that would be a spot where you had water that wasn't moving

Today the post brought my parts for the Indexing valve. Inside I found two sets of rotors and stems. One with a small hole and one with a big hole. I dissembled my valve and played with all three rotor stems and decided to put in the one with the big hole. I assume that is the low flow and high flow models. The spring tension in the stem seems to be the same on all three stems. They appear to be interchangable. The outside clearance is much smaller on the one with the smaller hole. All three seem to operate well on the bench. I installed the valve about 4pm and it was working fine about 9pm when i came into the house for the day. Both beds are watered. I went back to the 15 on and 15 off timer settings again. I also put the auto water make up back on. Needed a bit of make up water.
Pic of the rotors.

I ran my water tests again for laughs.
Ph 7.9 or 8 seems to be increasing slightly. Will check the rocks in the beds for limestone. I did not check the river gravel for limestone.
Ammonia 0
Rites 0
Rates 80 Looks like I need more plants. Seems like I buy a few more and half of them die. Too much or too little water for them.
Temp was about 90oF
Salt is back to 0ppt again Who says plants don't eat salt also.........

No problem there, I'd run the pipe right to the surface of the gravel so that the sun can;t get on it at all...

But looks like you have your valve back up again..

Hi Don, yes the valve cup on the right is the "high flow", the one on the left the "low flow"...

What cam set are you now running with???

I am running on the three hole cam at the moment as I was told by Mathew that the black two hole is not supported for the 6 hole model. I have a 2, 3, 4, & 6 hole cams.

I am considering either putting my hydro unit back on or modifying it to lay on the edge of the barrels so it would be under the shade when I get the hoop house built for the shade. I have to start it soon. I need to mount the bender somewhere so I can bend the tubes, probable on my front end loader bucket. It would be solid enough.

You have a hoop house bender Don? There was a guy on here who was selling the benders, look like such a simple device. Does your require just man power to bend it?

The indexing valve is still indexing as of 5 pm this evening. Jerry got his parts in the mail today also. Both of us will be using the High flow plate and the 3 hole cam for now.

Yes. My Cousin bought it and decided to build a square one and did not use the bender so when I was contemplating a Green house he suggested I do a hoop house and use his bender. It is just human power. IT uses fence rails to make the hoops with. It is a 20 foot bender and I am trying to make a 25 foot house with it. I welded two pieces of square stock to my loader bucket and mounted the bender to that. I bent 4 pieces of the fence rail and now I need to lay it out and determine what to do to get 24 foot hoop. I got 3 laid out so I could measure it as originally designed. it is 8 foot tall where it would be 12 wide at the top. So at that rate it would sit on my vine hangers.

I need a little more height and width. I will need clearance for the shade cloth. I plan on putting eyelets in the edges and string it on a cable from end to end so I can just slide it back and forth like a curtain. If I cut a 10 foot piece in half and put a 5 foot straight piece on either side of the center piece what will that get me. I could put only one 5 foot straight on one side and make it wider and only a little taller. I also could make the ground anchors longer to raise it up some. I still need it to be 24 feet at least so I will have room to go around the beds. More head scratching.

Hay Don I changed out the plates they sent me, and it looks like the new one is going to work. I ran it through about 10 sycles it tied every bundle. Every time I ckecked it was working. Maby this will be a cure. Thinks Jerry I quess we should of said something before now. At least now we can tell other people that they trying.

Yes Jerry it is much nicer to work with people who care about what they do and sell and service. I would like to see more American companies do the same kind of service. I just checked my system and it is running fine. Some of the plants are looking wilty still so I really need to get my Shade House up. It is supposed to be 112oF here Friday. Was 100oF yesterday and was miserable.

Glad to hear the valve is running smoothly guys... and I will get back to you regarding the suggestion I was going to make Don... slightly modified with the above in mind...

Well mine is still working by it self, but I just can't making change every time I go in the green house just see. I am still runing a black # 2 cam because that is what I have and have not started on any more beds yet. catch you later Jerry

Hey What the heck is this eating my garden stuff now. Imm gonna spray it again.

I can see a mealy bug and aphids you want some ladybirds to eat the aphids.

Do these bugs get on all the plants or just the cabbage type plants? When I looked further I could only find a few eggs and a few bugs so maybe all is not lost. Will the Thuricide do anything to help?
Could I also use the old remedy Cyan Pepper, Garlic, Onion, and Dish Washing Soap. Supposed to drive off bugs. Used it before to do good things in the garden.

The Thuricide targets worms and caterpillars and the like. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't work on aphids. the pepper/garlic/onion/soap mix might be worth a shot, but I don't know how the fish might react to the soap if any of it washes into the water.