Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hydrated lime.. is Calcium Hydroxide...

And yep.. alternating between hydrated lime and potassium bicarbonate is a perfectly good idea...

Thanks Rupe,

It's all a little bit clearer now

Hydrated Lime is Calcium Hydroxide Ca(OH)2
(CaOH is incorrect, Calcium has a valency of 2, requiring 2 Hydroxide ions)

I use KOH and Ca(OH)2 in my system- additions are detailed in my thread, as well as Shell grit- CaCO3

Ok so I have added a mineralization tank... well a 70L barrel with an air stone, not really rocket science

and I made 2 x biofilters by using plastic laundry baskets supported in 2 of my sumps.. I have placed them under the GB water returns and will also be adding air stones to each when I source 50L of K1 media in Brisbane, which is currently a scarce product apparently!

Nice job Tom, here a source a few miles up the road from you.

The Tech Den Store Unit 1, 3 Lear Jet Drive Caboolture Qld 4510

07 5400 5822 or 0408 471 517.

https://www.thetechden.com.au/25_Liters ... ed+filters

They sell it in various quantities

Yep... but they say... "Out of stock"...

Hi Jo,

Yes there are a few around Brisbane including the tech den but they are all waiting on more stock... but I have talked to a few and it seems they should have some soon... for the moment I have just reduced my feeding a bit and waited with the new fingerlings... the RFF filter has also reduced my amonia

No shortage of biomedia down my way...

hehe yes too true! it's just a shame that it's 50L i need and not some little box with a water pump in it or something

It's just a slightly bigger box...

So the strawberries have been doing really well and we can pick probably between 200-400g every day.. the picture was 400g

So I have no got my fluid bio bed thingies running since I got the media for them last week… I still need to add air to it as the water returning from the beds won't be enough to circulate the media… 25L in each basket.

Also I am experimenting with a new media in my towers… today I tore out 2 towers and cleared them of plants and expanded clay. It wasn't as hard as I though it would be since I had heard some people had to use drills etc to smash the clay apart when it became root bound… although it still wasn't fun.

So now I have installed new media in the two towers and I am using some medium filters I bout on ebay, they are 130mm and the pipe is 100mm so they fit quite snuggly. All I do is cut a slit in one side and stick a strawberry runner in the slit. I have a tonne of runners on the strawberry plants, they are hitting the ground at the moment.


I will probably use a coarser filter later like the grey/black Matala filter matts cut to size since I think they will clog less easily!

Everything has beed growing really well, even the Dill, Rhubarb, tomato and capsicum which have been a bit sad before.. there is enough nutrients now since I have increased feeding. Also I empty the RFF into my mineralization tank and aerate that for a week and then pump it back into the system which may be giving it a nice boost too.. instead of watering the wicking bed with it (the wicking bed is doing just fine on it's own
!)

Looking really good now Tom.

I forgot this comparison shot of the newly planted towers and the older ones on the right.. you can barely see the pipe though the growth on the older towers.. there have been lots of strawberries too, the last 2 days worth got picked about an hour before this shot was taken… it's certainly a narrow passage between the GBs and strawberry towers