Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Just had a cartoon flashback of something pulling the plant from under the surface.

LOL yea that can be fun, sounds like what I was doing last weekend, cleaning up water

Water = 8lbs per gallon

I would probably have about 3 gallons of water when full on the fill cycle, with the added weight of the rocks probably around 30lbs total.

I will have to wait until next spring to do a flood and drain type, I plan to use what I have now over the winter indoors

I took cuttings of tomato, basil, cilantro, and jalapeno from our garden the other night. I made the cut, then brought them indoors, made a new cleaner cut under running water, then dipped the cut in rooting hormone, then planted, then sprayed the leaves with water, then covered them with a clear plastic to keep the plants in a high humidity environment. Last time I tried to make cuttings I didnt know they needed to be in a humid environment to retain the water while the roots begin to grow, the last batch died. The new batch is doing awesome so far, I swear the tomato is already starting to grow, if it ever stopped

Its going great, I will have to post some pics of the set up

For now I need to search the site to find what the proper Ammonia, PH, and nitrite levels should be.

Yes, do lots o reading for learning.

Once a system is properly cycled, ammonia and nitrite should hang around 0
pH is more complicated depending on your source water, your media and what you can to to hold a stead pH in a suitable range. AP bacteria will generally cause pH to drop eventually but if you use a media that buffers too high, that can be a problem for plants. If your source water is really high pH, you might want to be careful when adding it into the system as pH bouncing is hard on everything.

Plants would like a pH lower than 7 mostly. Bacteria likes a pH higher than 7 mostly. AP is always a balancing act. The most important part is you don't want to change pH suddenly, if pH adjustment is needed then do it gradually and slowly.

Here are a few pics of my small indoor system

In the pic of the plants from top to bottom; Grape Tomato, Basil, Cilantro and Jalapeno.

I planted seeds for early girl tomatoes, new Zealand spinach, black radish, and blue swiss chard for fun