Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

My name is Mario just normal Mario not SUPER Mario

I converted my pebble concrete swimming pool of some 50000 liters to a fish pond.
about 6 months ago and have purchased some lilies and some floating plants which I stole from a local wild pond.
4 months ago I bought about 800 gudgeons to rid mosquito larvae with great success even gudgeons multiplied.
my ultimate goal is to have Jade perch in the pond and an aquaponic ecosystem that will give me fish and vegetables for very little effort.
I have 2 fountains in the pond as well as a 3 layer waterfall with a total pump capacity of 9000 liters per hour.
my PH is close to 9 and would be grateful if someone can tell me how to bring it down to an acceptable level of say 6-7? also there is considerable amount of algae in the pond, the visibility is about 250mm deep although the water appears clear in a glass. I had some gudgeon fish die, and they floated to the surface, would Jade perch float to the surface also?I would like to get the pond right before I go to the next stage to aquaponics, I think they complement each other and that is next on the agenda but want to make sure the fish stay alive till then.
i read in a number of articles that the salt is good for the fish, but have not seen anything to say that pool salt from Bunnings is ok to use can you enlighten me on this and what volume would be good in my pond.
Any help offered will be greatly appreciated as I am a complete novice in this.

Welcome to the forum Mario

I'm going to let someone from your side of the pond answer your question since they'll be more familiar with what's available there.

Cheers

Hard to advise without photos plus I would love to see this! My initial hunch is that a sooner move to aquaponics add on will solve this, even if you redirect one of the fountains to a gravel filled bath tub with venturi on inflow and the return to the pool. Gravel bed filters are amazing biological filters.

Algae build-up results from high nutrient load in the water column, few plants taking up that nutrient and low dissolved o2.

Cheers, Sam

Thank you Sam

Do you think that will lower the PH and do you have experience with salt additive to the pond, would common pool salt be suitable for fish or and vegetation,
I am in SE Qld. logan council area, anybody in the vicinity with pool to fish pond conversion would like to see it.

Cheers Mario

High alkalinity may be due to pools construction, my system is running aound 8.2 atm, and I suspect this is from the concrete pond. Most water input has been from rainfall and the murray river, both of which are usual acidic. I focus on replecation natural systems rather than chemistry. So the movement of water, increasing surface area and creating micro niches are my main considerations.

The pool salt from Bunnings is fine to use. At low levels things like strawberries may not flourish, but most other plants do fine.

I used the Sunray brand one.

Some fish float when they die, some sink. With your volume of water it will be hard to find the sinking ones I reckon. How many fish you can have in a pool that size will be limited more by the amount of growbed volume you can attach to it.