Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Digging made sense here as the climate is just almost warm enough for tropical fish so long as the tank has the ground to help with temps. Also, we have sand. I was able to dig that pit all myself with only a few days of actual digging (probably only two really.) And I'm a relatively small woman (though with my plodding endurance I can get a lot done.)

I doubt I would have been that keen to dig if we were in rocky clay territory.

I'm now thinking that when we build the big house, we will have to add a natural swimming pool, I mean pond.

damn thats a mighty fine effort for a lady. i'm all the more impressed. hate to sound sexist.

My yard has a big sign on it that says "Welcome to rocky clay territory!" It was a huge effort to dig a hole for the mailbox, and even now it's still a half-assed mailbox installation.

Main benefit I see in rocky clay is that well, rocks and gravel are available near by! Oh, and there might be a better chance of your lot having some slope so digging might not be as necessary for other reasons. Gotta find good and bad sides to everything, that way it all balances out in the end!

I may have to do something like you have done. My soil is clay has a lot of rock and gravel in it. A huge chore to dig in, but even after renting a tractor it might be cheaper than tanks. Looking good

Liner is pretty good price for the volume it can contain. And it may help you with temps? Do you have any idea what kind of temp your ground tends to maintain? Look into geo-exchange heating/cooling sites since the average ground temp is quite important to horrizontal heat exchanger loops.

My underground tank was 42°F after a couple nights if 23°. From what I understand once you get below 6 feet in the ground (deeper for colder climates) you get a temp equal to your average yearly temp. However the amount of heat you can extract from the ground is only about 14.4 BTU per square foot. Soil is not a great conductor of heat. Wet soil conduct heat better.

Busy day. Took the other half to the airport and ran errands on the way home. Then it was time to do a little more work in the yard.

Managed to move sand around and grade more space for pallets and grow beds. Pulled out the plants that were near the deep end of pond/tank (moved a few, harvested some, and pulled what was no longer productive.)

Did a bunch of clean up and re-arranging which is lucky since I got a call to work 4 shifts in the next 3 days. We hope this starts the true busy season as cash is lacking. If things go as hoped, I will likely barely have time to take samples and do tests.

Anyway, here are the test results for today.

pH 7.0 (oh boy, I had not thought I'd need to worry about pH getting too low with my water.)

Ammonia 0ppm woo hoo!!!! that part of the cycling is doing nicely

Nitrite Darn it, I'm not sure how to read this color. Probably still 5 or above though the shade looks more like .5 or 1 the saturation is more like 2 but the darkness of the purple probably means 5 or above.

Nitrate still around 5 ppm.


Well, the Ammonia being back down to 0 makes me want to run out and dose again but should I wait a day or two to see if the Nitrite starts coming down? Remember there are no fish to hurt in any way at this point. All just plants, water, gravel and pee.

I have taken a few more pictures but as my computer is in the middle of a big defrag I don't want to upload any files right now. Hopefully I can post them tomorrow evening.

I'd wait a day and test again TCL

Here are some more pics.

Some critters were checking out the area around the pond/tank

And here is what I got done yesterday.
For at least the next several days I don't expect to do anything more than test and perhaps dose the barrel ponics system if needed. The pond/tank has a small pump in it for some aeration but no beds hooked up yet.

Ok, tested again today.
pH 7.0
Ammonia 0
Nitrite still that dark color I can't really read as it doesn't look like the 5 ppm and not like any others so I diluted by ten and re-tested. That looked like .5 so times ten equals 5 ppm so now I know the card isn't really that accurate compared to the color of the liquid and now I know the saturated purple is 5ppm or more.
Nitrate still 5 ish.

I guess I'll wait a couple more days before dosing again, anything else I can do to help the nitrite cycling?

I've asked some questions about what to use to keep the pH good but I'm going to wait and see what the pH does before I use anything. As the Ammonia cycle started working the pH did quickly drop from 7.8 down to 7.0 but for all I know the natural buffering capacity of my water might be good enough to keep it there. If it does manage to drop more I'll add the egg shells.

Nice system TC!
I'll be waiting for next updates. The pallets make it nice, flat and cheap.
What do you think the animals were? Cats...

Most prints were probably cats but some I'm not sure of.

I'm back, well at least for today.
On 2/6/2008
I had to add water as pump was sucking air!
Test reasults ph 8
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 2
That is all since it was about 3 am when I got home from work. (so I guess technically the date should be 2/7 but as I had not been to sleep yet it was still the day before in my mind and same with the next test)

2/7/08 (I'm very tired since it was after 1am this time, technically 2/8 like note above)
I only tested for Nitrite which was down to 0

2/8/2008 around noon (day off to recover before going back tomorrow)
pH 7.4
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5 or a bit higher.

After that test I added 1/2 a bottle of aged urine from 1/19, or about 250 mL. I will let that be in the system for a bit to mix and re-test a little later today.

Some of the broccoli seeds have germinated.

The big pond tank seems fine just sitting with a little pump running in it. I still need to get grow beds and gravel for that one set up. Then I will look into some fish.