Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi there melbattus,

I guess it depends on what is wrong with your water? Is it salt content or calcium that is the problem?

The good thing about aquaponics is that you use very little water as there are no run offs. Do you water your garden with the water? I guess if your plants are doing ok being watered with the bore water, then all you'd need to check out is whether fish will survive in it. Have you ever tried to keep a goldfish or similar in the water?

The gravel I use is a round pea gravel, very common in W.A., and cheap to buy from garden soil suppliers, but there are many options as to what type of gravel you use and river gravel would be fine.

the calicum is the problem and i had simease fighting fish for a while they did ok but not great in the bore water would filtering the water help?? we water our garedn wth the bore water the plants dont thrive they do do better when it rains (which hasnt been since b4 xmas) i was just wondering would Zeolite be ok to you in the growing beds??
thanx Melissa

Hi Melissa,

You can put zeolite into your beds however the zeolite will only absorbe things like ammonia in the system and hold onto it. Once the zeolite is saturated, it won't absorb any more and in some instances, like if there is an influx of NaCl in your system, then this will release the ammonia from the zeolite.. So really zeolite would only be a short term fix and I'm not sure whether zeolite would absorbe any calcium at all...

I guess the best bet to find out whether your water would be able to support fish, is to take it to an aquarium shop(if you have one in your area). They generally will do water tests for nothing and let you know if you'll have problems with fish in the long term.

There are a few ways to extract calcium from your water, here is a link to a site that gives further information.

http://www.hardwater.org/water_treatment.html

Hope this helps a little.
Joel

Joel, if you use your tanks all year round, how often do you generally change the water? Does it depend on the number/size of fish? Rainwater would be suitable for fish water, wouldn't it?

Sue

Theoretically you don't need to change the water at all Sue. The Speraneos' in Oregon have had systems in operation for years and they don't change their water. Though if you do, rainwater would be about the best thing to do it with.