Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

hello all, still relatively new to the forums here. been fiddling with a couple test systems for the las couple months and thought its about time i show them here
everything is working nicely so far, only 1 issue has arised that is being a pain.
started both systems with pea gravel as the grow media, after 2 months of running the ph will not budge from its high horse and by high horse i mean high it sat around 8.4-5. my tap is 7.2-6 so it had to be the rocks causing it. over the weekend i switched out the media in one system to river rock and hydroton mix thinking that would help a bit. the river rock slightly helped but im still running higher than i would like at 8.0-.2, and the plants arent enjoying it to much either.
any ideas on getting the ph down? ive tried some auto correct tabs, and gone through a small amount of ph down solution and it bounces back over night

and pics of the other system

What is that??

http://www.amazon.com/Tetra-77340-Corre ... =ph+tablet

something similar to that.
its a tablet designed to set you ph to a certain level and hold it there. my water my be too alkaline for it to work but i thought id try it

You have really put a lot of work into your systems, VegasAP, and they look great - well done! Do you have a fish keeping or hydroponics background? And in keeping with the title of your thread, have you seen 'Salmon Fishing in the Yemen'?

ive raised fish for a long time, koi/reef/salt. and im the kind of person that loves to do research when venturing into new things, aquaponics came up while i was checking out some new aquaculture supplies and i found it very interesting and useful.
these are prototype kind of builds so they are still messy in my eyes

Looks great!

Just a thought, draw some tap water and let it sit for a day or two in a bucket without media, then test it again for pH.

p.s Ive got fish in the desert.

todays test results. been running for 2 days. the ph vial didnt agree with my hand and decided it wanted to meet the stone floor instead.

ill let some tap stand for a day and see how that results

Confusion reigns

Only really cared about the pesky pH tube. Are these others done with water that sat around for two days and you then tested or did you add the chemicals and then let them sit for two days? Can't say I like the looks of the ammonia test but it may not be valid.

Cheers

Those test were the system water. The pH turned out high on a test bucket after sitting for a day.
Went and purchased some pure acid and dosed it at just a tad under 1ml per gallon and it dropped to 7.2 and has remained steady for 2 days so far.

Well at least it sounds like it's not the media. Might want to keep adjusting the pH of the top up water as you did and check it before adding to the system. Eventually the system pH should go down on it's own and hopefully you can stop with the pH adjustment at that point. If you decide to instead adjust the pH of the whole system do it slowly over several days or weeks.

system is finally settling down, ph still requires some minor adjusting with topup water but bacteria seems to have made all the adjustments and are in nice working order.
have noticed that the spinach seedlings and mint leaves have started to yellow over the last couple days, hopefully its just a phase. the basil still hasnt fully recovered for the system change, perhaps i should prune it?

Looks like there is an iron deficiency based on the mint leaves. Have you got some chelated iron or Maxicrop plus iron you can dilute and spray on the plants?