Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Just spread it over the beds and turn it in [like digging the garden]

Gemmell, great read, really feel for ya and your losses. We aren't progressed enough to even experience a loss, but I can just imagine how GF felt with not switching the pump back on

To be honest, I fully expected to come back to zero fish, and I would have been fine with it. She did really well to keep 100 alive. She was really really upset about the 50 trout.

So here are some photos:

The beds have filled out nicely



But the plants aren't exactly healthy:




And some weeds have really taken ahold!


But I think this might be due to the low pH. I've also dosed it with iron. I've no idea just how low the pH was, it was 6 or below (my kit only goes down to 6).

Some of the fishes dorsal fins have gone white at the tips, so I've dosed with salt (it's now at 4ppt) and Rupe tells me it's a sign of stress - could be pH again.

Low PH so I dosed with Iron ,, AHHHH OOOPS .
The iron will further lower the PH.
UMMM shell grit?? I think you need some ,, preferable PH is around 6.5-7.5.
The fish are more than likely deseased from the stress of low PH ,, if you are below PH 6 ,I recon they are suffering.
WORSE that ute-gate:)

Heh, can't believe I didn't say that. Wow. Yes, I added about 10kg of shell grit. I also supplemented with iron just in case it was a deficiency. pH is sitting about 6.2 so it's on the way back up.

A typical day.

I noticed my water level had been dropping for the past couple of days, so I did a search, and found a leak. A quickfix silicon job didn't do it, so I decided I'd do it properly....

I twist the pipe, it tightens in the socket, good, leak fixed - oops now my elbow at the other end is pointing straight up, I didn't get a union, so I'll just cut it off and reuse it..... ooh look my pvc glue wasn't closed properly and is now solid, try to use it anyway to burn out the fitting and just melt the whole lot together. Shit.

So I don't have a car, jump on the motorbike - it doesn't start. My system is sitting in pieces, it's gone from fixing a leak to regluing elbows etc

The story has a good end - I bought the bits, and a union. So no more of that stuffing around for me.

How's the pH doing now? Some of that tip burn might just be the way some lettuces are however it may also be potassium deficiency. If the pH hasn't made it back up to the good range then perhaps the potassium bicarb is in order. Otherwise perhaps seasol would put things right?

pH is reading 6.4, so pretty good again. I'm not 100% sure what the tip burn is either - could also be frost. I'm watching the new growth now that I've adjusted the pH and it seems to be doing better...

I've also been foliar feeding with seasol. I'm not too keen on whacking seasol in the water because my water is really dark already (can't see the bottom at all). Time will tell, spring around the corner.

yep sounds like things are getting better, just keep an eye on that pH since it can go south quickly from those lower levels.

System is doing well, the pH seems stable at 6.4. I have no idea why the shell grit is buffering to 6.4, others on the forums seem to think it buffers to 7 or above. Maybe difference sources buffer to different levels?

The fish are doing well:



I did a little experiment where I pumped 300L out into a bin, put it's lid on and left it for 3 days. When I came back it was still as dark as when I'd left it.... so stuff wasn't settling or was taking a damn long time to settle, which leads me to believe that it might be colouring from the bitument paint. That and the paint looks like it's thinned a bit in spots.

However, my Nitrates are quite high:


So to lighten the load a bit I took some fish out and put them in the old system. Here is a brown and a rainbow in the net:




I've got a great video of the fish going crazy for food, gotta work out the best way to show you guys (somehow it's 101MB!!).

Wow... that brown trout certainly is "brown"....

Stick the video up on Youtube Gemmel... then link to it from a post...

I dosed all my systems with iron and maxicrop before I left town. Well the water in the big system is quite clear now (has the most big hungry plants in it) and the duckweed system is pretty clear other than all the sediment from removing gravel fromt he tank (duckweed probably sucked up all the additives before being eaten by the fish) the quarantine system still has a yellow tint to the water but relatively clear. However, the aquarium which has no fish and only lettuce and a few house plants growing in it inside, it is still quite brown!!!!! And the aquarium system has the least amount of "dirt/worms/leaves" getting into it because it is inside but I guess the house plants and lettuce don't suck down nearly as much iron and maxicrop as the outdoor plants. Currently the aquarium has no fish in it and while we were gone the quarantine system had almost no fish (some escaped fry is all.) I find it interesting that the systems with more fish are also the ones with the clearest water, wonder if there is a relation.

Anyway, as to why your system is brown, could it be from supplements? Perhaps you want to take a rag up to the roof and rub it on the coating to see if the rag gets stained the same color as the water is staying.

as to why the shell grit is only getting your system up to 6.4, well that is probably because shell grit is better at buffering and keeping a pH up rather than bringing it up from below. Also it may have to do with the amount of shell grit and the size of the system, that bag of shell grit just might not be able to keep up. Most shell grit starts dissolving when the pH falls below 7.6 and will stop dissolving when the pH gets up to 7.6 that is why it is said to buffer to 7.6. However, if the pH is a lot lower, that poor shell grit might just be dissolving its self away with little chance to get back up to 7.6 in the effort which is probably why the pH rise has stalled. Some times stirring up the shell grit can help but most people find they need a little extra help beyond shell grit for increasing the pH by much but once you get the pH up where you want it, the shell grit can help keep it up there, as long as you replenish it before it is all worn out.

Why didn't I think of that? I took a white rag, dipped it in the tank and wiped it against the roof and what do you know - the rag came away black. It would seem that the water is condensing on the bitumen painted metal roof and then dripping into the tank, staining the water. I'm hoping this isn't poisonous - I painted it on originally because it was to stop my aluminuim roof from contaminating the water with zinc when it condensed and dripped...... potable water bitumen paint.....

I'll check the label and see what I can find out. THe fish certainly don't seem to mind.

An update:
The water is still dark, I can't see anything. Plants are doing well, fish feed like crazy. pH still 6.4








Me with a basket full of greens and the biggets pok choi I've ever seen (from the old system). Anyone know if it is actually a bok choi? Gunna harvest and put it in the comp tonight.



This is the condensation that I was talking about. I think this is causing the colouring of the water. It also drips into the tank from the guttering when it rains.