Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

More progress


I fairly well finished the pluming this afternoon, and ran it through a cycle with the water hose, only to findout my gravel wasn't completely clean.


Oh, and I picked up two of these crates that are about 5ft X 3ft, 1ft deep. any ideas? I thought about some pond liner and making them into more grow beds, but any other ideas?

TCLynx has done that with wooden framed GBs and liners' here is a good place to start looking at her GBs - she has also done a barrel ponics setup (in earlier pages of her system) - have a look and read, should be able to answer a lot of your ques ( and throw up a heap more )

viewtopic.php?p=117112#p117112

here are a couple pics since it has been cycling for a couple days now.

Rubbermaid and blue barrels a match made in heaven.
Hows the covering ideas going?
Fish?

well since spring is in full effect, which means summer will be here next week, I've decided just to wait till fall for a film. if anything I may put a shade cloth over it sometime during the summer though

Looking good!

well I just checked my ph with a pen I barrowed from work knowing my well water is fairly acidic. it is 5.9. Should I begin working on this, or just wait till my test kit gets here and let it run for a while more?

What should I do about it? Limestone rocks in the growbeds?

thanks,
Steve

Get some shellgrit and put it in a stocking under your water return... or some calcium carbonate ....

Hmmm. Shellgrit....Where does one go about finding this stuff?

Anyway, I may have made a mistake, but I put about 12 tuffy minnows left over from a fishing trip in the tank tonight. I always hear (read) people say "you kill a few fish" so I might as well start with a few small ones I get 36/$1USD. and who says the value of a dollar is down?

Anyway. I am thinking about a contraption to heat/cool my water through temperature extremes, but I'll get back with that info once construction begins. Right now my water temp in the morning is only about one degree warmer than ambient, and this morning that was about 44.5F

As for now, my test kit showed up this evening so I will begin testing the water tomorrow. Or should I just wait a few weeks, cause we know the bacteria aren't established after one week?

I also dropped in a few seeds today. I don't expect much from them, but the fell out of the packet so what the heck, right?

I also have not started on my big wood and liner GBs yet, but Friday is pay day so I will be picking up some liner then along with some extra wood for more sidewall support.

More pics, and video to come.

Thought?

Later,
Steve

In Aus, shell grit can be purchased from most pet stores, used for small birds...also sold in 25kg bags for chooks (poultry/hens) as a medium size or also as a small sized shell grit...costs less/kg if purchased in the larger bags, doesn't go off and will eventually be used

Feed store carry it. You can get a 50 pound sack pretty cheap. Its used for feeding chickens for calcium and for their gizzard.

Could it be....?

So I tested my water today, after cycling for two days less than a week, and before adding shell grit which I got from the local farmer's co-op.

Results "appear to be" as follows:

Ambient temp - 73.2F
Water Temp - 77.1F
pH - 6.2 (this test was done with the pen, not the test kit)
NH3 - 1ppm (I have added humonia to the system once on monday, and now have around 12 small minnows in it)
NO2 - 0ppm
NO3 - 10 ppm (HUH?)


Is it chemically/biologically/humanly possible?

While shaking the nitrate test vigorously I was getting drops on my hand, i.e. the cap was leaking. Could this be a reason why it is so high so quick, or could it be true that my system is a bacterial pot-o-gold?

Thoughts?

Thanks,
Steve

Have you checked the water that you put in the system? With that ph reading to have cycling happening is unlikely. Also I have found that 'humonia' gives some strange test results for a couple of weeks, but TC is the expert at that.

just checked the water out of my sink and it showed to be 4.9 pH.

Hmmmm...think the pen may be running out of ink - or needs calibrating