Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

hello people,
i am from a small town in the wheatbelt in wa. I'm new to aquaponics and have a system at home that consists of a 5000l fish tank and one small grow bed with 50 silver perch fingerlings. I am going to expand my system with four more grow beds very soon. The system has been running for a month so far. i really like the way ap works and would like to learn more and any advice would be appreciated.
I look farward talking to everyone soon

hello and welcome!!!!!!

Pictures, we love pictures!!!

How big is the current grow bed?

Do you have a test kit? Did you see the ammonia and nitrite spikes through cycling? What is your pH. How are the plants and fish doing?

We like details too

Welcome to the addiction and get more grow beds online asap to keep up with your fish as they grow and you feed.

Hi Wills,
The Ag college in Cunderdin are close to setting up there system too. Word is certainly spreading. Welcome and feel free to ask questions.

the grow bed is 1000mm by 500mm but i didn't get a test kit until last week so i don't know of any spikes every thing else is at zero but the ph is high i think at 8.5. the plants are growing slow but are looking good, the fish are all alive but the water went green due to being in the sun i think. i hope to get the other grow beds going in the next week or two(the sooner the better). i will post photos went i get home from the easter break

If your water is green, the high pH is probably late in the day. If you test your pH early morning, it may be much lower do to dissolved CO2 in the water from the algae stripping the O2 overnight. If you notice fish gasping at the surface early in the morning, you will need to get some extra aeration going overnight and you should probably get some heavy shade over your fish tank ASAP if you want to control the algae.

the system is consent feed so the o2 should be the same all the time i think,i'm not sure. is the algae a bad thing?

heavy algae can cause diurnal (day/night) O2 and PH fluctuations due to them changing from O2 respiration to CO2 respiration. high CO2 in the water at night can drive ph down.

so short answer is that algae is bad if its causing you these issues, if not then it should be fine.

in any case the best and easiest way to control it is to shade the tank heavily until the system finds a balance

Hi Wills from Narrogin, I have a bit of algae in old system but have covered half with a tarp and all tests are ok, I have always had ph 8 - 8.2, but growing marron and pygmy perch and they like it around the 8, water is clear as other than a bit of surface algae, Outback Ozzie in Kal has algae but doesn't seem to effect anything.
Welcome anyhow and looking forward to some Pics

Welcome to the madness Wills

good luck with your system

Welcome.
If the algae get to you after a while it can be filtered out. Most of the time if the tank is shaded it will go away once the system is cycled.

G'day Willls.
I started my system on the 1st Jan 09, and algae was a worry for me for a while. It seems that water in a new system will go green either once or twice, and dark enough not to be able to see the bottom. This goes away after a few days and you will be amazed at how clear the water becomes.

As far as stringy algae goes, I have had a fair bit of that as well, even with a shade, and the shade is very important. I was scooping it out, say a cup full every day (3000 L) and then I hooked up a double outlet air pump with an air stone on each pipe and the algae started to subside. Now there is some but not a worry at all. Previously the alge was blocking my strainer on the pump. This was necessary due to the tiny SP fingerlings I bought.