Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Great, we are Ok up at Katunga Northern Vic., but the dirt garden at Heathcote Central Vic., is desperate for a drop.

[quote="RupertofOZ"]Alex can you explain your PVC "loop" siphon for me... I'm having trouble visualizing it from the pictures....

Hi Rupe,
I took the siphon from the inside of the tank to the outside to photograph it for you.
The arrow indicates the bottom of the suction pipe that sits very close to the bottom on the inside of the tank. Put some very coarse gravel around the bottom of the suction pipe.
I have now removed the 120mm pipe I had protecting the siphon from the gravel. The gravel now completly covers the siphon and when the water rises above the top of the elbows about 30cm below the gravel away it goes.
DO NOT GLUE THE FITTINGS UNTIL YOU HAVE EVERYTHING WORKING AS YOU REQUIRE IT TO. You can cut small bits from the pipes until you have correct levels. You can set the loop in the best position before you glue it.
It will suck some air until you glue it. This siphon is returning water from the GBs via the orginal fill point for the stock troughs. You can in fact have the exit point any where below the bottom of the loop through to the bottom or the side of the tank.
The other pic shows the siphon from the FT to the sump and runs 24/7 the arrow indicates the area where a 10mm hole will be drilled to break this siphon should the power or pump fail. Corrently the water level only goes down 50mm so the hole will be around 100mm from the top water level.
The yabbie is one of about 100 we now have in the sump there are about fifteen about this size.
Alex

PS Rupe,
The GB siphon slips onto a male fitting and IS NOT GLUED TO THIS FITTING so that it can be removed to clean, silicon is used here. The pipe which goes down into the FT from the drain point is also siliconed.

Thanks Alex, about how I thought you must have it.... just didn't seem that the level at the top of the siphon matched the flood level of the growbed....

Guess that's purely due to the rate of inflow discussed on the previous page....

By the way...... Nice yabbie....

A point of interest. I used Citric Acid to bring the ph down from 7.4 to 6.8, a 25ml dose then an hour later 75mls was required to drop the PH in approx 2500lts of water.

As per Wikipedia

Citric acid is a weak organic acid. It is a natural preservative and is also used to add an acidic, or sour, taste to foods and soft drinks. In biochemistry, it is important as an intermediate in the citric acid cycle and therefore occurs in the metabolism of almost all living things. It also serves as an environmentally benign cleaning agent and acts as an antioxidant.

Citric acid exists in a variety of fruits and vegetables, most notably citrus fruits. Lemons and limes have particularly high concentrations of the acid; it can comprise as much as 8% of the dry weight of these fruits (1.44 and 1.38 grams per ounce of the juices, respectively[1]).
Also acts as a water softener.

It can also dechlorinate water! Sodium Citrate is good for dechlorinating because it has a higher pH.

Well a productive weekend.
Fitted two taps to control the flooding in the GB's and this has been successful.
Veges seem to be recovering from their every half hour flooding with only a few cos drowned. Broad Beans sown five days ago are coming up.

The GB, FTank area is 8 x 8 mts, set on an existing concrete floor complete with a drain running down the centre with a West wall and the old milking area on the North side. On Saturday we built a New Acrilic roof over the GB area, woven hot house cloth on the East wall and gal iron south wall.
We now have an area where we can experiment and see what fish and veg we can grow over winter, recording the water and hot house temps.
With room to put in at least another 3 square Mts of GB's.

The PH is around 7.4. I brought it down to 6.5 with Citric acid and within hours it is back to 7.4. We are going to let it go for this week and see what happens. I have a feeling that it will settle at 7.4 and thats that.

With all that concrete I think you wont have mcuh luck getting the PH down to 6.5

Awesome looking system too

Hi Outbackoz,
all the tanks we are using would be at least thirty or forty years old so I doubt that there would be much leaching from them. I feel that the gravel may be the major influence on the PH. We should have a better idea this coming weekend when I will also try another brand of test kit.
Can I buy a test kit to cover all the required tests to help with good AP management.
Alex

Joel, Earthbound sells them in his shop.

Can get them here.... seems to be a special on at the moment $47.45.... shipped

http://www.theaquariumshop.com.au/shope ... r+Test+Kit

Or from Joel .... sorry mate

Some time ago I purchased at a clearing sale a fish tank along with a box of goodies. I dug this out this morning and found a ph test kit. I completed a test with it and it indicated that the PH was 7. The chart with this kit goes up to 7.8
The new one that I brought three weeks ago has been showing colour above the 7.4 which is the highest shown. How do I know which test kit is correct?

What temp range would I have to provide SPs to take them through to next spring?
Would 7.4 PH be ok if I was able to keep it at that?
Can I buy SPs in Euroa?

Will put up some pics showing the new roof and walls later. I have to unload the camera and do some sorting.

Have changed my pump times. By slowing down the siphon from the FT to the sump I now
have the following, Pump runs for 4 mins, Gbs drain in 8 mins, FT to sump now takes 50mins to bring water in sump up to float switch on which makes it 1hr from pump off to pump on.

7.4 would be fine, sounds like you have some good calcium carbonate buffering there. thats what i'd expect to see in systems that have shell grit incorporated in them, a buffering effect over hours to bring PH back up to around 7.2 - 7.4

Hehe! Good question!

I just asked such a question in another topic.

Alexmac , digital PH meters are accurate and cheap.
Ebay has many around $25.