Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

It depends on what you want to produce/grow. As you increase Gb size you might need to add more fish or supplements to keep the nitrates above zero.

Pete.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

I'm thinking Asian greens mostly - bok choy/Chinese cabbage etc etc, as well as lettuce/spinach too

ohhhhhh as for adding fish, I think the amount I have is perfect for the size of my grow bed/my density of plants grown etc .... when it comes to future GB extensions the 2 strawberry towers will be the route I take... from what I've seen both bok choy and lettuce work nicely in towers... not sure about Chinese cabbage cos it's a tad bigger but I'm sure plenty other Asian greens would work growing in towers.

DWC or PVC pipe systems works well for those types of things...
Filter will help or else a drum of media with bottom drain is a simple substitute as biofilter.
They will grow lettuces and asian veg no problem.

I'm not too fussed on aesthetics but my wife more so than me put it that way.. anyways I'm liking the look of this set up but does it work as good as it looks?

Hey Darren what is the deal with filters/bio filters needed to used for floating rafts to be a success?

edit; so it won't work floating directly on the surface of my main tank? ..... seems from what I read is it generally goes - main tank > filtration > separate tank with dwc rafts .. right?

floating on top wont be an issue - nothing needed - though the fish might nibble the roots...

to 2nd question = yes. If you run a separate DWC it typically needs to be filtered in some way (grow bed or media or drum type).

I was reading that you were going to run some additional bed options from your earlier post.

If you get stability issues you can use them handles.

Pete.

Yes but seeing as I need a cover for my tank, something more long term and a DWC floating raft would protect my fish somewhat from sunlight - why construct a lid outta wood when you can use a raft and make use of the dead space which a lid would create.. well that's my thinking.......

Depends on the shape of the FT. Build a PVC pipe frame under the raft 6-8", wrap it with a plastic mesh, attached to the bamboo. The fish can't eat the roots. Even going 12" deep any hatchlings will have a place to hide from the other larger fish.

Nitrates are up, more 5ppm but less than 10ppm .. 8ppm I'm guessing? My plants have grown 2.5 cm or about 1 inch in 1 week , not sure if that's standard for a system running smoothly (I hope it is..) but I'm a happy boy.

As for my set up this video opened my eyes up to the potential of using an air lift, it was suggested before but I'm didn't give it much thought ... I didn't realize an air lift could move the much water, to this sorta head high..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOVZ4oklBFw

I'm thinking an air lift might service both my strawberry towers, and even a 3rd in the future but yeah as of now seeing as it's 2 x strawberry towers at a head height of 1.8 meters an air lift could move enough water upwards (1.8 meters head height) to do the job?

ohhh as if the raft I think I'm gonna look at bamboo, I can source it at a good price and it will look the part .. a bit of Asia/the Pillippines in Australia lol, my wife is a Filipina so she would really like it

few posts ago

main issue with airlift is that it can really only lift 1 water depth.
so the trick to a high lift is to have a high water depth.
that is where pump assisted airlifts come in - you have a large diameter pipe or whatever (even blue drum).
Build the airlift in that and then use the pump to keep that container filled.
There are a few YouTube etc that show this type of approach to get 2m+ etc and it requires a much less powerful airpump.

The pump issue is offset if you are having the pump running anyway and have some excess flow.
If the airlift container overtops then you just run it back to fish tank.
If water level drops then airlift flow rate drops. So bit of a balancing act.

p.s. there are much better and more relevant YouTube's than that one.
You probably want to focus on the ones using 15-25mm pipe - few of those there.

Sounds dumb but watching the colored balls flying around thur the clear PVC pipes was hypnotic haha

2 fish dead.. I tested the levels and they are:

pH: 7.6
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0

Aw bummer! Any idea on the cause?