Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi all.

I've been keeping a close eye on my water usage (check my signature).

When the arduino setup is actually working properly (well when the Ethernet bridge wifi thing is working properly I should say, stupid thing needs to be reset all the time).

I've been going through 100L per day, so 700L per week (if you click on the sump button, it'll bring up the exact measurements, with a pretty graph of water usage, ups and downs).

I know it's been hot, well very hot around here lately, but I'm not sure if I've got an annoying leak somewhere. I've found a few, but short of digging up the pipes, pulling apart the pond liner, I'm not sure where I'm loosing it.

I've got a 1700L FT, 650L sump, with two 1100L grow beds (one gravel, one DWC), and a smaller 400L gravel GB.

Is 700L per week excessive in 35 - 44C weather?

What is the water capacity of the system? It sounds like you definately have a leak somewhere judging from the system pics. I haven't heard of a sysem going through that much water in a week unless it was a huge system.

Even with that heat it is excessive, check for leaks first. Even the smallest leak will lose a lot of water during a week. Do you have shade cloth over your system as well, prevention is the best course.

That's what I thought.

I've gone through all the grow beds carefully (and found an annoying one), but can't find anything that's wet, but it's still loosing water fast.

Annoying thing, I think it'd be below the water level of the fish tank. Around a bulk head fitting, I've got them overloaded with silkaflex, but still going through water.

I remember when I first put water in the tank, the water level started dropping quickly, I figured it was a mixture of the soil beneath settling, and I used a slurry of corn flour in the tank, and it seemed to stop dropping.

I might remove the syphons on the GB's, fill them to the full point, syphon out a few inches so all the bulkhead fittings are above water level, and give everything another hit of sealant. If I have to replace the pond liner because of a pinhole leak, it won't be a fun job.

With pond liner in your ponds and growbeds I am guessing a pinhole leak

I don't suppose there is any super good way to find it?

When I was filling it the first time, I noticed the water drop (by a lot more than I am loosing now), I drained it all, unstapled it all, looked through every inch and couldn't find a thing wrong.

I ended up using corn flour, and made the water cloudy, but it seemed to stop draining.

It's possible it is just evaporation/transpiration... I know of systems that lose up to 30% per week here in Perth in the peak of summer, and 20-25% is very common. Tomatoes seem to be a common denominator in the systems that are losing large volumes. I've also found that systems with the commonly recommended max GB water level 25mm below the surface of the gravel have a much higher evaporation rate than those with lower flood levels.

I always ran my systems at 50mm, but was always mindful that it was possible I was needlessly sacrificing bio-filtration capacity. So in my IBC system I started with the water level at 25mm and within days it was obvious I was getting massive amounts of evaporation, even though there were no plants in the system at that point... and it was May. I cut the standpipe and dropped the water level to 40mm below the surface, the evaporation rate more than halved, so I've left it there.

Cheers.

That might be an easier thing to test. I've got the water level coming up to almost the top of the GB.

And I've got lots of tomatoes. I like tomatoes.

I'll give it a go. Anything to avoid pulling the whole thing apart.

You seem to be losing about what I am losing in water each week, now that I have stopped the overflow problem I had, but I have ~6000litres of water in my system, with 8 GBs, one of which is out in the sun with 3 giant tomato plants, and there are another 5 large tomato plants in the GH. It's not been as hot here though- mostly 30-37C in the past 2 weeks, and it will be mid-high 30s for the next week.

Well today I went through a massive amount of water. The most yet. About 300L in one day.

I've lowered the level of the water, and it seemed to make it worse

Counting it up, all my tommy plants are getting quite large, I've got almost 20 - 30 of them in there. It was a really hot day today, up to 42C.

I might find myself a syringe, fill it with milk, and squirt it in different areas of the pond, see if I can find a leak.

Well I found my hole.

I thought I had a bit of fiberglass cloth that blew in there, and I didn't pay enough attention to it.

I went to pull it out:



Seems I have something growing into my fish tank. I think it's the grape vine next to the GB.

Does anybody have any suggestions at all? Because I'm at a loss of how to fix it. If I silicon over the hole, it'll just grow straight back through.

Any suggestions?

bugger.