Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Potassium bicarb is available through wine hobby suppliers. It is used to raise pH of wine. eBay often has it. I use 2 teaspoons a day in addition to having some shell in the system. It actually has a buffering effect, it seems. If I miss a day or two of dosing, I'm still OK. Now Calcium hydroxide--that'll give some nasty pH swings.

So, Here are results from yesterday and today.
2/18/2008
9:30 pm
pH 6.5
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5-10

added dose of 400 mL

1/19/2008
7:45 pm
pH 6.5
Ammonia between 0-.25
Nitrite between 0-.25
Nitrate 5-10

I'm still planning on getting some more shell into the system but haven't had a chance to get any yet. However, the system still seems to be ramping up it's ability to process more Ammonia and Nitrite despite the slightly low pH.

I'm going to wait till morning before I dose again but the levels were low enough that I almost dumped in another bottle tonight.

The lettuce is doing great!! This is really good as I had shut down the indoor Hydroponic lettuce system last month to save a bit on the electric bill and this lettuce is getting ready for harvest just in time. I had several nice leaves on my sandwich today at lunch! Taste just as good if not better than the hydro lettuce and are still cleaner and easier to harvest than soil grown lettuce.

DOH! I KNOW low ph=acid. Just a slip of the mind. Sorry for sowing any confusion.

Janet wrote: "potassium bicarbonate (available at wine hobby stores for buffering pH of wine)". Doesn't Florida have a thriving wine industry? Just kidding... Let's see... online: Amazon, some others. How much do you want? Here is 1 lb for $7: http://www.midwestsupplies.com/products ... rodID=7315

I think I can get over to pebble junction today and get a few bucket fulls of washed shell. I an really curious to compare the weight of a bucket of the 1/2" brown river rock to the washed shell as I'm hoping the shell is a lot lighter for the same volume.

Hey TC, have you thought about connecting like 30 bottles into a kind of cascade (like a champagne fountain except with pee)? You could pour a sample into the top and that would like displace down the line to the bottom, providing a continuous dosing. That way you wouldn't have to label them or otherwise mess with many bottles of aging pee.

Dave, I'm not sure I quite follow?
I think part of the process of being able to age the pee needs to be in a sealed container so I'm not sure how to do that in a cascade. Anything open to air is likely to be an odor issue. (In addition the odor getting to the air indicates loss of ammonia that would otherwise be going into the system.)

I have wondered if an automatic dosing bottle would be worth attempting so that 400-500 mL could be administered over a day instead of being dumped in all at once.

Ran test this morning
2/20/2008 9:30 am
pH 6.5
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10

So I dosed 400 mL

The containers could be sealed from the air, adding more pee to the top one would push liquid gold out each one to the next in series. I think that could happen even if they were air tight.

To dose you could use a venturi but instead of having the air pipe outside, just plunge it in the fertiliser, if the hole is small enough it will slowly dose the flowing water.
It is done for dosing chemicals in water so i don't see why it wouldn't work.

Amacafish,
That sounds like a pretty logical solution. As I think about it, some of the injectors are little more than venturi type contraptions anyway.

Dave,
I'm still not quite sure how to ensure that the older urine is what is pushed out of a bottle and the newer stuff stays for aging. I expect that a fair bit of mixing could occur or that the new stuff might have a tendency to head for the drain to the next bottle and short circuit the aging method.

It really isn't such a big deal to pee in a bottle once or twice a day. If started a couple weeks in advance of starting a system, one should always have an aged sample ready.

I got 5 buckets of shell!!!! 180 lb
I should be able to replace the contents of the top bed over the flush tank with shell and still have some to run a few bucket pH experiments.

The nozzle from an empty test kit bottle (ammonia,nitrite, nitrate test) is an option. They usually deliver 0.1ml per drip, and fit an 8mm bore pipe.
Hook the pipe up to a large container via an inline tap.

Yesterday after dosing I did have to add some water so I could take some water for the media pH testing.

2/20/2008 1:50 pm
pH 7.5
Ammonia 1
Nitrite 1
Nitrate 10-20

In the afternoon I added a bag of washed shell into the flush tank.

2/21/2008 9:45 am
pH 7.2
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5-10
Yay, got to 0 in 24 hours (though a couple gallons of water change happened there)

So dosed again 400 mL at 10 am

How about a liquid chlorine dosing pump from swiming pools they are adjustable from a few drops to a decent squirt [ i will try to find mine and photograph today] if interested

Could try a peristaltic pump, use them in marine setups. Not sure about the availability second hand.