Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

yea TCL I read the same thing about coir, that it stays too wet, grows algae and causes root rot so have ruled that out. Saw a very interesting recipe for goat poo clay, so its down to that, getting custom clay balls made for myself or getting those river rocks in a smaller grade or hitting the big ones with a hammer for a while.

Regards soaking the whole bath of rocks in vinegar, I thought of that, but thats a wholllee lot of vinegar, and I doubt if it will work :[ will try it if it comes to that though and be sure to test the results.

Am so close can almost hear the autosiphons running happily

Ah so! It is done!

Have placed the order, it won't be LECA or Hydroton per say, but it will be little balls of clay that have been fired in an oven. There will be 1000 of them, custom sized to fit my three GB's with bigger ones on the bottom, about 2 1/2" to 3" diameter and smaller ones on top with about a 1" diameter. They get delivered on Tuesday.

This is of course just the plan, cheap labour tends to be just that, cheap labour. Theres no real telling of what its going to be before it arrives, so fingers crossed and hoping for the best.

Now, what can I get done before the grow media arrives, any suggestions...?

Ohkay so I've cemented all the PVC pipes together, may have done it a bit too post haste as a they can no longer be taken apart from themselves or from the grow bed, also din't make trickle holes in the standpipe in the GB but I don't think that should be an issue unless pump failure is encountered. ST still proves to be bit small in testing, but am praying, fingers crossed, that the grow media makes up for that.

The grow media, well the horrors continue. The custom made clay balls, after six days of waiting, are not going to come through. Apparently the manufacturing people din't understand it and all that waiting is down the drain. As I'm not willing to wait another six days, which it will take even if I go down there myself and show them what I want, I've decided to splurge on the river rock tommorrow. Finally, FINALLY, my system will get started then.

The seedlings, the pictures of which are back in this thread, were transplanted the other day, apparently they don't have much for roots, but I think even an inch of roots should be enough to get them happy in their new AP home

Unless your continuously pumping, the trickle hole is for draining water when the pump is off. This is to avoid water remaining in the growbed during the off cycle of a pump and not having enough water to kick the siphon into gear.

yea will be continously pumping into the GB's. The water at the bottom will get flushed at the next cycle. Have checked the pump, its so powerful now that when I check it with one GB the water level doesn't go down even when the siphon is in full gear will be good enough to handle the three of them andconsidering the GB volumes will be cycling the FT volume at LEAST once every hour. If I can just get my grow media blues done with :[

Am going to roll myself a J and then get to work putting silicone on the GB's, get them ready for the final test

If the pump is too strong, you can always make a bypass to spray water back into the sump tank where the pump is, just hook up a ball valve on that feed so you can adjust it as you put more beds online.

(Warning: This post may contain ranting)

O HORROORRRR

I put silicon on all the GB today, checked them for leaks, put everything into its final place, filled the FT a couple of inches below the SLO, filled up the ST, bought 4 goldies, put the bag in some tank water to get temp. together then chucked them in, air and filter in the FT already running, pump in the ST running but not connected to the FT. Basically everything was up asides from the grow media. Sat down to watch the fish swim around, have a smoke and leave, everything was running beautifully and on scheduale to get me to rehearsal on time.

And then it happened.

I heard a sharp sound, I was about 8 feet away from the system, I saw water gushing, thought the pump or the filter or something had popped a pipe and made a dash at the electrical connection to them and flicked it off, moved quite fast as I live on the floor of my room, my bed, computer, most things are on the floor so can't have water pumping onto the floor.

Only it wasn't a pump, the water continued to gush, out of a long crack that went down from the center bottom to the top corner of the FT.

For a moment I was flabbergasted, and I must admit I panicked a little, din't know what to do, then quickly grabbed a pipe and siphoned the water in the FT into a tub, but of the almost four tubfuls that were in the FT, I only managed to get one back, the rest spread.

This is something my friends with aquariums told me, water spreads.

Then they laughed.

Bastards.

The fish survived, shifted them quickly to the ST, they're in there now, swimming around happily I think, there is a small aquarium filter and two 8" air stones in it. They're swimming against the flow of the filter pump and around the air stones, swimming up and gulping at the bubbles at the surface every now and then, they're very active. Plenty of air in there so I don't think its an aeration problem, I think they're just hungry, but I won't feed them till tommorrow evening, in abscence of a test kit am going to take it very easy with them.

Other than some reciepts and some papers on the floor din't lose much. A network splitter that was next to it isn't working anymore but computer seems just fine. Power tools also got picked up in time I think.

My spirits are low, very low, shattered I feel. This post made me feel a bit better and going to go over to friend who gave me the aquarium and 'tell' him about it, which may be read as hurl obscenities and strike him, repetitively, so hopefully that should be a good pick me up.

Now either I will grab a four foot long aquarium another friend has, get myself a new aquarium or I happen to have access to another box same as the ST, which my mum actually bought to store stuff in but its 24"by16"by12" so I immediately commandeered it, perfect size for the three GB's it is, theres another one can use it I think if I play the sympathy card a little, but I want a FT in which I can SEE the fish! Could happen that the take the system and shift it upstairs onto the roof with garden there using the boxes as ST and FT and put a smaller aquarium in my room, lets see what tommorrow brings.

Have set an appointment with the stone supplier tommorrow evening as well, have to remind him the morning though, going to get about 100 kilos of river rock and if it isn't the right size going to hit the bag with a big hammer till they are.

I think theres some more, but I just can't articulate it at the moment, I need a drink, and its God damn Friday and the wine shops are CLOSED ON FRIDAYS!

mutterjabbergroanscreamcacklesobcacklejabbergroanmutter

Bugger Abdul.... glad everything seems to have worked out OK...

And thanks for the post... needed a laugh to start the day..

Awwe Abdul, I feel for you mate. No fun in everything going to the crappers (I will let you have that one !!!!) ...Wishing you the best of luck ,sorting through this minor setback

It would of been horror for sure..you handled it far better than I could off

Sorry to hear about your dramas. Anyway I believe you should have got it covered, but just in case, glass aquariums are quite sensitive to uneven loading. So you really need a flat surface to support the whole bottom of the glass aquarium evenly. Hence most aquariums have a styrofoam layer at the bottom to help spread any uneven loads out. But if you have made sure all that has been done, then it is probably time for that aquarium to retire.

Better luck next time Abdul.
Looks like the bus might be delayed a little

keep swinging mate!!

Matt

Wasn't laughing at your misfortune Abdul... just the way you desribed it... and the picture that came to mind...

Hope you didn't take it the wrong way... most of us have had a "little flood" somewhere along the way... for one reason or another...

Yep most of us have. And not such a big deal outdoors but with an indoor system it takes on a whole new
As to keep on swinging, well be careful what and how you swing with a glass tank in the room!!!!
Lucky you were there when it happened!!!!!!
I always keep lots of towels and rags in the "fish room" as well as some buckets.

I had a big glass aquarium that had started leaking so my Mom and I took it apart and cleaned off all the old silicone very carefully and siliconed it all back together very carefully and waited days for it to cure fully. Then when I started re-filling it to put it back in service, it broke!!!!!! Luckily it was an outdoor situation. I wound up giving up on the aquarium at that point. I only have a little 10 gallon one anymore.

Sigh, good luck in the future.

i drained my tank 2x when i first started it up!
and i plan on doing something inside this winter, i'm sure i'll hit my share of snags, so i'll definitely be keeping it in the basement

we just had a power outage yesterday, i just plugged my power supply into my car, luckily it was only out for about 90 minutes