Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Yah, pH. 7.8 is really high, could be a bunch of nutrients being locked out.

Thanks Gemmell - haven't seen that chart before - explains much !

Yeah just too high CD, same problem with my new system, will take a good few months to drop down.

Have you got a good recipe for chili sauce or something? The old system has kilo's of mild and hot chilli's that need to be picked - they are everywhere!

Try these OBO

http://www.chillies-down-under.com/chilli-sauce-recipes.html

Ta

OK - thanks everybody - I think I'll try and lower it slowly with vinegar and see how that goes, unless somebody tells me I'd be an idiot to try that.

I have plenty of limestone pieces scattered throughout the system so I have a downside buffer, though it's far more likley that I'll err on the side of caution and have little effect.

Thought I'd put up photos of the rest of the system while I'm here;

Just let it lower itself CD, you can cause quite a bit of stress to the system if you bounce the pH around a lot. It WILL come down.

you'd be an idiot to try that had to say it, My pH goes between 6.5 to 8+ at various times and doesn't seem to effect much, more problems are posted in this forum by people trying to fix things, to me it's a natural process. check pH next week and it will be different, Marron an Pygmy Perch prefer a pH closer to 8, no one puts vinegar in dams and rivers and animals and vegetation seem to do fine, the only time I would try and change anything is if fish were sick, the best thing to do now your system has cycled is to hide the test kit until something doesn't look right, imo DON'T *frack* WITH IT

Nothin' beats honesty

OK - will leave the vinegar for pickling onions, chillies, and eggs - and putting on chips.

Thanks for feedback and advice everybody !!

Yep, ph will come down. Mine was at, I forget now but up towards 8 if not 8 and then as the fish got cruising the ph went down as low as 6 even with shell grit. I don't think SP like it as low as 6 but mine is about 6 1/2 now and thinks seem OK.

Strawberries that I planted did exactly the same as yours. Maybe a ph of 6.5 may be alright for them, perhaps I should give them another go.

Rupe has mentioned that a pH of 8 can inhibit bacterial growth. Also Ammonia is more poisonous at pH 8. So whilst 8.0 is fine for a system that is cycled, I think it's going to increase cycle times and generally make it harder to get the system going and processing the waste. Thus more risky.

If you don't have any fish in there, you can use HCl to bring it down, then add the fish. If there is fish, I'd just wait and monitor.

Unfortunately in a new gravel system, the pH is kept at 8 for a good few months. My new system has peaked at 8.4 just after startup (initial water at 7., and has slowly come back to 8, and getting lower weekly. It will end up in the low 6's

You'd struggle to find a mature system with a constant pH of 8 or so, dont think I have read of one.

Hey Rick, just keep an eye on the silvers in winter, if they start to get splotchy skin bring the pH up to around 7, and they get better really quickly. Low pH and low temps are not real good for silvers. I use dolomitic limestone.

Yea, I have used that before and it did the trick. I had to use about 5kg in the end. Some I put in the GB's was sill there the other day when replanting, so I stirred it up.

So it's possible to cycle a system at pH 8? How long does it take? (does it take longer?)

OK - Tests this morning;

Amm: 0
NO2: 0
NO3: 0
pH: 7.6
Temp: 17.2º C (10:30am)

Will check every day for the next few days, but starting to look cycled to me. Didn't do anything except add a little chelated iron as was getting yellow leaves with green veins on a few plants.

Had a moment on Thursday - not a HSM, but a WTF moment......

Looked into the FT as I was walking past to the kitchen, and saw a fish that didn't fit in with the SP. Looked again, and it was a bloody redfin - with an SP fingerling in his mouth

Now, it's not an immaculate conception as I have 8 reddies in one of the sumps under my GBs, but to get to the FT he had to swim up a submerged, vertical piece of 50mm pipe, negotiate a vertically oriented 90º elbow that is only 50% below the waterline, wiggle his way along 7+m of horizontal 50mm pipe, including another two 90º elbows, that never has a depth more ¼ full And he is at least 50mm high himself !

Have put him back in the sump and put a piece of onion bag over the end of the 50mm pipe to prevent another freak occurrence.