Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

More pics

WOW
Those look GREAT!!!
your beds are in full sun right ?

Yep - full sun AM

VB, that growth is phenominal - puts my little system to shame

LKB - I still long for a syphon that is 100% reliable like yours. I have not really put my mind to syphons at this stage - but have watched your thread with great interest. My big system (which is being designed in my head and in my dreams) will have syphons on each bed and will be run with continuously running pump/s. Will definitelly have to talk when I get to the point of wanting to install syphons. Are you coming to Murray's?

Got my seat booked at Muzza's

I find it really interesting that the plants could extract all the nitrates in such a short time frame. Will be interesting to see how long it takes to get the nitrates back up to 80 again.

Kicking goals VB!

Mon, well when you think about it, th plants are "removing" a days worth of feed, per day in a ballanced system. So if they were only fed a few times over 5 days it makes sense.

Getting it back up may be harder than you think with that growth! Will be a very interesting experiment VB please keep us posted on your NO3 levels. If you struggle then you might find that you'll have to thin your grow bed out (lots of salad lunches )

Stu - I am interested in that also. I expect that my toms use a heap of the stuff. I tested again a few hours after I fed the fish on my return. Still 0 readings all around (I expected that would be the case - but did it anyway). I will test again tomorrow.

LKB - Excellent. Would love to see your syphon in person if you have one that is not in use.

See if i've got enough bits left over, alternatively I am only up the road a bit for a personal showing - we can talk about it on Sunday fortnight

Don't go to any trouble mate. A vist to your place is on the cards before I launch into auto-syphon beds. Maybe by that time you will have perfected it in a larger bed .

Done

VB, It is looking good, the silver beet is great, and what a fine looking grow bed stand there !!

Grow-bed stand is doing the job Muzz - but not as flash as yours. I will definitelly change the design a bit next time to give a bit of extra support under the bed - I expect that my future ones will look very much like yours (call it industrial esponage).

Tested for Nitrate again today. Still pretty much zero, though now closer to 5 than previously. Might take a while to get it up again considering the plant life I have in the bed that is probably stripping what is produced straight away. Perhaps I should test early in the morning before the plants start feeding???