Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

My water is very murky. I have rainbow trout in there at the moment.

Should I be dumping some to clear it up?

Is it ok as it is?

Is there a way to clear it up easily?

Thanks in advance!

Has your temperature just dropped from low 20's to 15-18 deg c? If so, it is the algae from summer dying. It takes a couple of weeks to clear up, just pump as much water to the growbeds as you can.

Yeah thats exactly whats happened with the water temp.

Thanks for the info.

I've had a bugger of a time lately, we had a cold snap that killed off the summer algae, then it got hot again, and now its cold for good, so its been over a month of murky water, and overflowing growbed entry points *sigh*

I'm glad its not just me then...I want to see my trout again.

embi - soon it will be crystal clear to you

Someone suggested that those green woolies bags are really good filters, if you hang them off the end of your return pipe then you might speed up the cleansing process. I am also battling murky water, though my temps are 11 degrees and have been sub 20 for quite a while now.

Thats an interesting idea using the green bag..

Well its getting worse.... it did clear up a little but has gone bad again. I fear for the fish!

Any ideas?

water test results??
if the water is ok with the levels then the fish will be getting protein
Have you changed any water lately?

Hi embi,

did you try the bags. I've been using them for years as a pre filter for making diesel[wvo].

I started using them as a chook poo tea bag when I first set up my aquaponics system.

Several times since I have used them to filter my systems water returning to the sump.

I noticed some fine stuff was getting through my growbeds making the returned water murky.

I put the bag on the return pipe in the sump. I had to hose it clean each day as it caught heaps of crap that came from the growbeds.

After a week my systems water was clean as.

I use the Aldi bags as they are cheaper and a bit bigger than the WW green bags.

Some people prefer the extra large bags that the B store have.

God bless froggo.

I'll have a look at doing water test tomorrow.

I have been using a bag and it is gathering a lot of junk. I haven't been cleaning it out though so will give that a go too.

I haven't changed water but have added water...

Thanks for your help guys.

I'm still struggling with dark water also. Alot of suspended solids - I don't think they ever get a chance to settle anywhere, even in my growbeds. So what i've done is re-done the piping so that it ditches the water at the OTHER end of the growbeds (no holes in the pipes either) such that the water has to go through the entire length of the growbed before flowing back to the tank. I have a greenbag on the return, but it hasn't contributed greatly. The white polycotton stuff does a real great job of filtering stuff out, but it gets clogged up quickly. Apparently you can rinse it a couple of times before it gets too clogged to work. I'll let you know if this scheme can keep up.

decided to do a water change.... took out a good half of the water and cleaned as much of the tank as I could... Here's hoping that works.

Mines still really dark - it seems to colour back up pretty quickly after a water change. I'm hoping it'll work itself out