Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I use a humic acid/seaweed product called Root Magic, and it keeps my water dark as well. After I dose, which I haven't been doing in a while because system is more mature and fish are bigger, the water will eventually start to clear, but it takes a few weeks. My PH is still a bit high, so when add iron, it turns the water red. I have about 4" visibility in the AP. It doesn't seem to bother the fish, and the plants are doing great. The fish in the RAS, where the water is very clear are very skittish. Reminds me of spearfishing. The crystal clear water is great to dive in, but it's a lot easier to bring up dinner, if you have limited visibility.

As long as your water tests out and your plants are doing well, I wouldn't do anything drastic.

A question for anyone that might see this who knows something about koi.

I know koi get big, real big. It's my intention to stock relatively heavily with babies, and as they get to the 1' range start to sell some of them and transfer the biggest fish to outdoor ponds.

When I look around at stocking ratios for koi, all I can find are backyard pond ratios of 1 fish per 1000 gallons; I can't find anything on koi stocking ratios for aquaponics or RAS. I've found ratios which describe the amount of fish food needed per square foot of plants (which vary on plant needs of course), and from the amount of fish food and knowing what the fish eat I can figure out how many fish. Which is WAY, WAY more than 1 fish per 1000 gallons.

I'm not missing anything, right? The fact that they're carp, in and of itself, doesn't make it so I can't stock appropriately for aquaponics, right?

Eeep, 4" visibility? I hope I ultimately have more than that, I'd like to put pretty koi in my system and I'd like to see them. Even if not crystal clear, a couple feet would be nice!

My system runs the same as yours, fish tank overflows to the sump tank, and pump in the sump to the GB.

It works beautifully. I know that theoretically, it should be breaking up the solids, and the beds can't catch them very well; but my water is crystal clear, fish don't have a problem with it, and I've got no build up of solids anywhere in my system.

And when you add some of the seaweed extract, it'll colour your water like that, give it a week, it'll clear up.

I just wish I could have kio here too

I see 'em when they eat, and they like, so I'm good. Not much to look at with tilapia...until they're on my plate stuffed with crab & shrimp! If I could use the regular Iron, it would be a few feet, But I kept getting iron chlorosis when using the DTPA , so I'm sticking with the EDDHA and I'll live with the low vis. If I want to see fish, I'll have 3000 or so in the RAS system. I think you could stock at 1 fish per 5 gallons and then if they get to large and your Nitrates get too high, you could always just take a few of the big guys out.

I added a bunch of koi this afternoon They seem very happy, though they're totally impossible to see when they're not near the surface. They were MUCH more fun to watch than the feeder goldfish I had in the system a few weeks ago.



A question for people about SLOs. Are all SLOs noisy? Because I have a constant flow into my fish tank, I have a constant flow out. The SLO gurgles and slurps and the plumbing shakes more than I'd like to see as it seems to start to siphon and momentarily speeds up, then sucks air and breaks the siphon, then starts to siphon again. Or that's what I think it's doing, but it's pretty violent. I don't know that it's actually siphoning - when the water inside the SLO is higher than the top of the horizontal pipe the water speeds up and quickly sucks the water, then the water level inside the SLO goes below the top of the horizontal pipe and air is sucked in and the whole thing shakes for a second, then the water goes higher than the top of the pipe, repeat. I think it's scaring my fish. I hope they'll get used to it, but anyone have any ideas?

I've played with various fittings and pipes where the water enters my sump - with the water from the SLO entering the sump underwater, above water, and various lengths of vertical pipe on the output.

(As a reminder, my system goes from fish tank to sump, pumped up to grow beds, then back to the fish tank.)



I also got some worms today. It's a little early to throw them into the GB, there's no decaying plant matter nor much in the way of fish poop in there, but they're in a bucket and ready to go when things get going.

In that photo of the SLO you are pumping too fast, SLO's don't make any noise, the one in the photo is taking water from the top it's not meant too do that, back the flow off and extend the height.

The water level should be half way up the horizontal pipe no more.

Tori, I'm no expert, but I recently had a similar issue with a smaller slo. Once I got it worked out, it is smooth and quiet. Basically, little or no water should be entering the overflow portion at the top of the slo. It took me several attempts, and playing with pump speed and outlet levels, even spacers on top of the slo to raise the tank level to try to raise flow, before I figured out that there was not enough open space at the bottom of my slo. I removed the downtube, and the system settled right in, so I modified the bottom of the downtube, and increased the area of the strainer, and now it just works, regardless of pump speed.

May not be relevant to you, but perhaps it will help.

It's close, but it's not overflowing the top.

Maybe that's the problem... Not enough holes down near the bottom! I'll try that!

Hi Tori,

Could be something like algae covering the holes too. I'm going to describe my setup because I don't have a pic at the moment.

What you need -
1. Net pot for a 5 gallon bucket that has a wide lip - somthing like this - http://www.amazon.com/Highest-Quality-Hydroponic-Bucket-attached/dp/B00R39ZXCG/ref=sr_1_10/189-3576273-4500905?ie=UTF8&qid=1430364185&sr=8-10&keywords=net+pots+for+5+gallon+buckets

2. A 5 gallon bucket lid - similar to this which is relatively flat - http://www.lowes.com/pd_276477-1152-53000_4294625957__?productId=3029999&Ns=p_product_qty_sales_dollar|1&pl=1&currentURL=%3FNs%3Dp_product_qty_sales_dollar|1&facetInfo=. You'll need to make a hole that matches the size of the pipe.

3. An atrium grate that functions as the bottom of the SLO - This helps to hold the net pot on and functions as a final strainer (might be able to rig something else up but this is easy) - Something like this - http://www.lowes.com/pd_508021-676-L78U_0__?productId=50077473&Ntt=atrium+grate&pl=1&currentURL=%3FNtt%3Datrium%2Bgrate&facetInfo=

4. Some short stainless steel screws. Probably 1/2 inch will work about right.

Slide the SLO pipe through the 5 gallon lid with the hole and lock the atrium grate on the end of the pipe with a stainless steel screw. Align the net pot with the 5 gallon bucket lid and join the two using screws where the net pot lip is. You're done, just put it back in the tank. Junk like leaves will collect on the net pot but won't be likely to cause problems for the flow since it's got lots of surface area. This works much better than the atrium grate alone.

Hope you find this useful.

Thanks Scotty! And all materials I have on hand, too!

You must have a bone pile like I do from AP projects gone wild (oh yeah maybe I'll need a spare or four) .

Cheers

I do, from hydroponics though. I've been doing hydroponic growing on an urban rooftop many many years, but recently moved to the country and now finally have room for a greenhouse, and am just now starting my aquaponics adventures.

I rebuilt the new SLO as suggested, and it's working much better than the old one! Thanks!


But this morning I found something a bit distressing, and it explains a few things, I think. I found a pretty good sized dead critter attached to my pump. I think it was a frog, but I can't tell. I'm thinking that its decomposition is responsible for my ammonia not dropping to zero after three weeks of fishless cycling. It seems as though there's been a steady supply of ammonia, but because of a vacation I never saw the nitrites spike - just go from 0.25ppm to 0ppm where it has stayed. It was almost as if the nitrosomonas have been asleep, despite comfortable ph and temperature.

If I wasn't worried about grossing people out I'd post a picture of the carcass and ask if anyone could identify it for sure. I think it was a frog anyway. Certainly not a fish. Not sure how it entered my greenhouse, but clearly it did.

Can you post a picture of your new SLO setup?

Sure, but it'll be a day or two before I'll get a chance to pull it out. I didn't take a picture of it when I put it together and I'm not home right now.