Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

tested this morning.
Ammonia still at least 2.0
Ph down again to 6.0 (or lower).
Have put in a teaspoon of brickies lime this time.
No food for 36 hours so far.

The change in pH is an indication that the bacteria colony has awakened and is processing your ammonia...

The nitrification of our ammonia will continue to move your pH.... so small additions of slaked lime while it does so will be helpful...

What's your nitrite reading... watch for a spike... even if fleeting/temporary...

will check at the end of the day when I get home.
Nitrate and nitrite readings have been 0 for months.
So it seems that if I keep adding lime very slowly the ph will eventually stabilise at a more preferable level seeing as what goes in stays in.

It will... but not before your nitrification has settled in... until then, it will continue to move the pH back...

So keep adding small amounts... just don't expect it to stabilise for a while...

got home last night, ph back to 6 or lower - put another tablespoon of lime in.
This morning Ph again 6 or lower - put another tablespoon of lime in.
Ammonia slowly going down 0.25 now - still not feeding.
nitrates & nitrites both zero.
I wonder if the yabbies will survive much longer as the fish get hungrier.

Been putting a heaped teaspoon of lime in each morning and ph keeps going back to 6 or lower by the end of the day.
Ammonia was back to 0 by saturday avo, fed a handful then and a handful sunday and ammonia shot back up to 1.

Been putting a heaped teaspoon of lime in every day for 2 weeks.
Each morning the ph is back to 6.0 or lower.
This morning ph has jumped to 7.2
Ammonia still at 1, trace of nitrate and 0.25 nitrates.
I have been feeding normally for the last week as fish seem happy.
Might stop feeding now and see what happens.

Got sick of putting lime in every morning, reckon I did it for about 3 weeks, it was back to low by the end of each day.
I ended up putting a block of natural limestone in the tank which has very slowly reaised the ph to an acceptable level.
Might be a good tip?

Good to here that it has settled down.

Did you get to eat the Silver you mentioned a month or so back?

Yeh Rick, time flys it was back in november. Wasnt that big but I wanted to try it.
From memory it was very white flesh but a different texture to most fish, a bit chewy.
Taste was good. I'll have another go soon, cant judge it by one fish.

the lime stone is a good tip, where did you get it? outside or a store?
-df

It was a broken piece of natural limestone leftover from some blocks I bought (ex quarry) to build some garden bed walls. From what I understand once the ph gets to neutral then the limestone wont raise the ph anymore. Same principal as having shell grit in the system although I had a bag of shellgrit in the whole time which didnt seem to do anything.