Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

What do you reckon the total water volume is now?

Since you dont have any fish in the system, you could bring FT#1 with town water online straight away.

I'd recommend buying a reasonable quality pH meter (and some standard solutions for calibration). That will avoid any uncertainty in your measurements.

Lol! Fingers, hands, legs, and any other appendages crossed...

I had a minor freak out when I noticed water pooling in the window cavity but it seems to be condensation from the tank area above the window.

There was a fine film of moisture over the entire surface area of the tank after filling - like a cold bottle pulled from the fridge.

And eventually all of it was converging into drops all around the tank. But the internal water level is not dropping.

Very humid and warm in Sydney today.

That filled tank get 1/2 doz cheap gold fish and chuck in the kids will love it

Crap! After reading your comment I went to go check on my sump tanks' water level. Almost down to 1/3 of their volume!

Oh NO! Does this mean I have a serious leak in my system? How could they have lost that much water so quickly?

Wow I love your thread! I will read every page several times and it should save me asking tons of questions! I am just starting, bought my first 4 ibc's today so your posts here are spot on for me, thank you so much and to all those who have helped her along the way, this is great, thank you, thank you, thank you!

Maybe I was pannicing prematurely?

Just turned off the pump and took out all the standpipes.

STs filled up to about 15cm from the top.

I also remembered I put the pump on a timer yesterday and it was nearing the end of its "on" period.

That seems about right. So do I have a leak or not?

Surely you wouldn't want the STs to fill up much more than that or you would risk overflowing if there was heavy rainfall or pump failure?

These are photos of the STs full after draining the grow beds:

Sump tank #1:

Sump tank #2:

If you put ST overflow outlets to direct the water somewhere where it wont cause any issues, heavy rain wont be a problem.

Hard to say if you have a leak or not, without being able to see the system. Leave the pump off so that the water levels stabilise in the FT and ST, mark those levels, and then run the system normally. In a day or 3 turn the water pump off again and see how much water you have lost. It should be easy enough to calculate a volume. In hot weather I can lose 50-100l from my small system in a day through evaporation! All that water loss is helping keep the water cooler though, so it shouldn't be considered to be a total waste.

Ok I've stopped laughing now, thanks for sharing.

As gunna says you will lose a lot of water through evaporation and transpiration and on a hot dry day the water level will drop markedly. The fact that AP used 1/4 of the water compared to a dirt garden makes me wonder sometimes. I hadn't thought about the cooling properties of the system evaporation, thanks for putting a positive spin on the water loss gunna.

Thanks for the updates I've been enjoying your set up come together.
Is the cubby finished?

Hahaha Skeggley!

The amount of blood, sweat and tears that has gone into my system you can forgive my freak out!

A leak in the sump tanks particularly would be devastating.

Cubby is almost finished. Very proud of hubby!

Here are some photos of the cubby:

Oh an today's water test results:

pH = 7.8
Ammonia = 0ppm
Nitrites = 0ppm
Nitrates = 160ppm plus

Hi Sophia, you have done an incredible job! I just finished reading all 26 pages and have learned more than I ever dreamed, thank you again.

I do have a couple questions if you don't mind.

What is or are chooks? ( sorry, i'm a yank )

How much did that load of scoria cost you?

Great reading, great job!

Thanks Wkinne! I think I've come a long way - though still so much to learn as you've probably gathered from reading about my mistakes and experiments.

Chooks is the Aussie way of saying chickens. The scoria cost me AUD $450 though I have a whole pile leftover

May I ask what that grow cover is on page 24 and how much it costs?

You can find out about it at www.growcover.com.au

Thank you.