Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

The heck with water, you could get thousands of watts out of that roof!! What is that ....9/12 pitch? The gutters look great, away from the foundation too. I like it.

With that beautiful lot and rich soil you could cache your rainwater and use it in a low cost hoop style green house garden.

Not sure what Amquel is, but tap water (until you become master over your system) is the safest hedge. ...and go buy those tilapia. Keep them indoors for fun.

Also I see you are on a hillcrest.....best spot for a wind turbine;)

ok...that's enough development of your property in my mind for today . ha

I'm using AmQuel+, "the plus sign means its better(tm)"!

http://www.novalek.com/kpd80.htm

The current plan is to add one Rubbermaid tubful per day (15 gallons). I will add it gradually until the fish tub is overflowing, at which point it will be flushing out the water a little per day. I don't have anything to lower pH, so I'll check the tap water pH as I go and hopefully it will be in the low 7's.

Still got me flummoxed. Where did the oyster shell come from, was it washed then bleached or just washed?

Washed and bleached? I don't know, I just put it in the tank. The bag says crushed shells and has an oyster shell and some chickens on it. Was I supposed to rinse the stuff first??

good question dave, I was wondering that too re washing shell grit first.

Nice place you've got there

Captain's log 2006.10.1:
Yesterday I was going to build my new rectangular grow bed for the basement, out of plywood and styrofoam, but first I messed around with siphons. Suffice it to say I didn't get any other stuff done. The siphon looks kind of like EKB's bent elbows picture. I realized that this pump will not change the water level fast enough to use a siphon to drain the grow bed. It will however work fast enough for a header tank to fill the grow bed. I am still trying to work out the sizings. The pump I have is 60 watts ~320 GPH, max head 11 ft. I did the gravel per water test and it looks like I need 1/2 the amount of water to fill a volume of the gravel I have.

The fish were still lethargic sitting on the bottom this morning. Yesterday while messing around on the siphon I found a venturi fitting that came with something. It fit my 1/2" pump tubing, so I put the new pump outside with the venturi. The fish have perked up a lot. The pH is still >7.6 after adding 15 gallons of 7.0 tap water over the last couple of days. The water level is now topping the tank, so I will be swapping out 15 gallons each day in the next week until the fish look alive again. Either the DO was too low or the high pH hurt their respiration and the additional DO is bandaging the problem. I was using gravity return only, no bubblers or venturis. The pump cycled 15 minutes of each hour; you've seen the volume of water coming out, it's pretty strong, but maybe not enough aeration anyway?

p.s. There is a little current now and they like to swim in it.
p.p.s. Go Spot! I'm rooting for you!

they're looking good, from what I've read here, most of the fish like to have a current to swim against.

Hi Jaymie:
I just was outside adjusting the buckets so the weaker ones don't just circle around and around... I hope they can sit in them and chill tonight and enjoy the tasty oxygen! :sign11:

we're all rooting for spot Dave!

Thanks, I'll tell him that.

Agreed, get fat spot. Dave on the syphons, I went and continued playing with the one I had and it looks like its working good now. I could not get it to stop with the air line for a burp, went to a bigger air line, etc no good. Ended up using a cap with no hole drilled to stop the syphon I drilled two small holes about 2 inches from the bottom of the 1 1/2 inch pcv pipe. This allows the air draw as the water level goes down and burps the syphon. If you want exact measurements and flow rate of the fill just yell. cheers to healthy fish.

Dave, is it the start of the drain or breaking the siphon at the end you are having problems with?

Shells from a bag - my bad, I presumed you got em from the ocean we're surrounded by it here. I'd hope they're cleaned but maybe not.

I'm quite sure your problems come from having only the 15 minutes return (aeration) time. This is something that's flummoxed me in design ever since discovering the auto siphon, how to get beds running on continuous ebb and flow AND oxygenate 24/7...