Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Oh .. I am on a roll! Fibreglass matting?

WARNING WARNING!!!!! Beware shells! They are great to use in such a manner that if the pH is staying too high, you can remove some. I have used shells mixed with river rock through out my system and guess what. pH never gets below 7.6 This is just a wee bit higher than would be best. About the only thing I can say good about it. I need not worry too much about pH bouncing when I do water changes or add water since my system pH never gets low.

If I could do it all again. I would use the river rocks on their own in the grow beds and have bags of the shells to place in the system as needed. I find that a normally acidic media mixed with the shells does not mean that the system pH will be balanced lower, it just means that the shells may dissolve faster still keeping the pH at 7.6. This is what I found with my wood chip experiment.

Yes use shells but only in an easily controllable manner.

When I say shells I'm talking about washed sea shells

I have plans to trial cocoa shells (mulch) from Hershey, they produce megatons of the stuff.

http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/cocoamulch.asp

Hey... if you replace your water with milk.... you'd have a really big bowl of cereal....

Just read the link DD.... if the stuff is "potentially" harmful to pets....

Then I'd be wary of the possible affect on fish.... try it in isolation with some sacrificial goldfish perhaps....

Yep, would try it out before buying the bulk stuff...