Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I never thought i would be writing this
The other day i had a problem i hadent had before i asked for help one person answered with 3 letters what meant nothing to me
Over the years when my systems were running i answered hundreds of questians to try and help people theres been 103832 hits on my systems i have had hundreds of emails asking for help i have always answered them
Seems like if you are not in the chosen few you are forgotten so be it
Its not only this forum others i look at are the same
A cert en bbq forum if a newby puts in a photo normally nothing is said if a regular puts in a photo theres a dozen questions [what temp did you cook it what did you cook it on ect ect
Caravan forums are the same You put in an idea theres a dozen want to shoot you down
Any how i wish every body a happy new year
I am logging of now probley forever cheers F&F

Happy New Year Milne.... I know what you mean... there's quite a few people that want to either ignore... or forget me...

Stick around mate... I laways read what ever you write...

Think I found the post you're referring to F&F.... check your mail...

Hey F&F sorry I didn't see your post If I knew the answer I would have said something but yea seeing as I learnt of both you guys above this post I'm probably a bit of a novice. If you log back on thanks for all your posts in the past they have helped a lot of people probably more than you know.

Just found the question HCL stands for Hydrocholoric Acid you can use it to lower the ph, I've also used Phosphoric Acid from a hydro store which aparently you can get algae blooms from but I never did, but yea I noticed when I was using it the ph seemed to jump back so in the end I stoped using it and the system naturally came down, now for me its more of an annoyance now to keep the system above a ph of 6.

The way to do it though is add a bit each day and do it gradually for 2000L I would probably do maybe 40ml per day until it comes down to what you want. Best of luck mate,

Happy New Years! hope its full of fat fish and fresh veg

Cheers,

Matty

Happens to most people over the years on a lot of different forums. Have a great new year mate and please come back, your knowledge is need by people like me who are just doing their first system.

I think Food&Fish's inquiry was "I need to knock 2000 liters of 8.5 ph water down - any tricks?"
Erich of Adelaide answered 'HCL', which is Hydrochloric acid. Food&Fish needed to know how much of what to add to adjust his pH, presumably to get it to neutral (7), but unfortunately received only half an answer.
A container of HCl would likely have directions concerning the amount to add per unit volume of water to be adjusted, as with a swimming pool, so that would be a start.
I enjoy your dry, witty and very knowledgeable posts, Food&Fish and, for what it's worth, hope to be reading many more of them.
I hope you have a really fruitful 2013!

Hey F&F.

When ever I see a post from you I certainly read it but I do not recall seeing a post from you seeking assistance (not that I would expect to be able to provide you with an answer as I normally get answers to my questions from you and the more experienced people on here).

I also second what PLJ says.

Its unfortunate you feel this way Milne... I too am an avid reader of your posts and I think Ive been through your system thread countless times and I even watch your you tube video with Murray from time to time... simply because I enjoy your honesty and catch phrases.

In relation to the thread you have mentioned, I strongly believe that your question hasnt been answered for a number of reasons like bad time of year and the forum is pretty slow, also many of us dont know the answer including myself and also there has been a massive influx of newbie threads that push the unanswered ones down the list very quickly.

We all want you to hang around Milne and I personally would be upset if you didnt.

Merry xmas and a happy new year mate.

Hi Milne i know the feeling it happens every were dont let it get to you , but anyway we have been into aqaponics since 2006 and have very successful systems, there have been some ups and downs but we worked it all out, and there is not to much we dont know, but some times you need some help.
i have 20 Litres of the stuff if you need it. sit back and watch the millions of dollars go up in smoke and have a great new year. will catch up soon.
Cheers jim.

Did F&F delete his/fer account? I don't see his/her profile. Sad if he/she did.

I think we can all relate to the frustration when your post is not answered the way you'd like it. In this case I understood Erich's answer. Too bad there wasn't a follow-up question.

It would be a shame to have them go. He/she has a nice system, I'm just now starting on his/her thread.

It seems many folks have come and gone over the years on this forum (like most). I guess that is normal. Nice to see the diehards are still around.


- John

I don't remember seeing your post Milne, and I would be surprised if anything has been deleted on purpose. Always enjoyed following your thread and seeing what you were up to. Hope to see you stay around. I have always advised allowing the pH to come down on it's own, and it always did, so I guess I'm not of much help. I have not been much of a contributor due to loads of other commitments at this time.

Food&Fish,

As said above by others, I enjoy reading your posts, they are always informative. I recall the post you are referring to, although as a trained scientist, I assumed the the meaning of HCl would be clear to all, especially as it seems to be raised fairly regularly on here - but obviously not. I do not know what strength HCl you can buy nor your water quality, both of which would affect how much acid you would need to add to drop the pH to 7 or thereabouts. Does this water contain fish or is only water at this stage? This would also determine how fast you add the acid, may need to avoid wild pH swings if fish are present. Personally would avoid all of the mineral acids ( HCl, Hydrochloric, HNO3 Nitric , H2PO4 Phosphoric, H2SO4 Sulphuric or battery) and go for a much more common acid in Acetic Acid, commonly known as Vinegar, unless in my lack of AP experiance there is something in Vinegar that would upset fish, which I doubt.

Woz

F&F, it would be a shame to see you go. In my work I often experience the same thing. I answer a plethora of questions, but when I have one all I hear are crickets... It is lonely on top, and you are certainly on the top of the AP world. Your system helped sell my wife on AP, and for that I will be forever grateful. No joke, I just wiped a tear from my eye. I truly hope you haven't left us.

I'm not certain if I saw your post Milne. I generally answer what I can given that I don't have unlimited time. On the surface your question sounds simple but not having tried to do this sort of pH adjustment outside of a Chemistry lab several decades ago, I'm in somewhat the same boat as you are (which makes me a little reluctant to answer).

FYI - Hydrochloric acid (HCL) used to be (and still is depending on where you get it) called Muriatic acid and that may be more familiar to you.

Here's what little I remember that might help you -

I remember that sometimes water will change pH slowly with the addition of acid because a chemical buffer is in the water. When all of this buffer is used up the pH will change rapidly as more acid is added. This makes it tricky and means you need to proceed slowly with the pH change. I think I'd add acid and wait awhile, then repeat. At the end I'd let it sit overnight and check the pH again before adding the water to your system. If you keep track of how much acid you use for a given quatity of your water the second time you need to do this may go quicker.

About the only way I'd consider changing the water pH is by adjusting the top up water each time so the change is very gradual and the fish and bacteria aren't subjected to wide pH fluctuations. My personal preference is to let the water in the system do it's natural pH drop (same as Faye). I've never tried adding acid to a system or the top up water and I'm not sure which acid to use so I can't help you with that.

Important - Re using vinegar (head down to the Considerations section)- [url]http://www.ehow.com/about_5421819_can-vinegar-used-fish-aquarium.html
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Never add water to concentrated acid, always do it the other way for safety reasons.

Cheers Milne, I really hope you decide to stay.

Too late I fear