Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Rosemary doesn't germinate well, I think. It's also susceptible to cold (not a problem for you, obviously.) My Dad grows a huge Rosemary in a pot so he can take it in every winter and put it next to his favorite chair. It does prefer drier soils, but hey, give it a try and let us know.

I am so flattered--your first system looks a lot like my first one. It is a nice simple design, huh? The one drawback to trickle-through continuous flow is that I got dry spots in my gravel.

Rosemary does not do well in an ap system... not yet anyways - we are ALWAYS willing to be proved wrong if you are willing to do the experiments!

we must be planting two different rosemarys mines rooted with no problem in fact i had to remove some from the sysem as i planted a lot because i know its likes dry and i tought it would be hard to grow but it was soooo easy to root

It strikes well in AP - but generally stops there - in my experience.

yeh i for got to mention that it grows really slow in AP

Same here...

So I guess what we have here is a resounding.....Maybe it will work.

Ever thought of polotics? I feel strongly both ways.

politics (sp)

yes, we might try that some day, but maybe not
you can germinate it well in ap, but it needs to be transferred to a dryer environment to get good growth, same with most Thyme plants

Well I was gone for two weeks to Honduras and the fish in my tank at home had to fend for themselves. None were floating belly up but the water was green and lots of leaves in the water. I used my new test kit to test the water and the ph was 8.00 so I guess I have some work to do there.

I set up the 50 litre GB that I had set up in Honduras. I filled it with lava rock and started pumping through it to cycle the water again and to get some bacteria growth on it. I took about 400 literes of water out and replaced it and started the pump. It seems the fish are ecstatic! The DO and the movement of the water seemed to work miracles. They are really hapy now.

Now I just have to wait for the rocks to grow bacteria so I can plant some veggies. I am going to begin working on two 2400 litre growbeds. I will have to go to the volcano again and get more lava I guess.

The rosemary experiment will have to wait a while I guess. I may try just floating some lettuce to see if that will work, The tilapia will probably eat the roots.

By the way, What IS the big deal with autosiphons? I have set up three systems now and hhave never had problems getting them to work. I know I am not smarter than you guys because I learned it from you.

I think that if you're smart enough/lucky enough to be able to precisely mimic a working model, it goes well. When you try to do strange stuff like angle the descent oddly or attach two siphons together, then things get hard. My biggest problems were actually getting the silicon to stick, and realizing that trapped air was a bad thing. Simple in hindsight, huh? My second autosiphon went together like a charm, and my third will be easier yet.

Well that might be true because I simply run out of the bottom of th GB about 8 inches to a 90 degree out 1 foot and a 45 degree angle into the water. Simplicity.

Well, I am on day three of the current setup and have a few questions.

1. The fish tank is 2200 liters ( a little over 600 Gallons)
PH= 7.8
alkalinity 300
hardness 300
nitrite 3.0
nitrate 30

Ph is down from 7.8 but alkalinity went from 180 to 300 in a day (did 25% water change yesterday). Hardness has remained the same...very hard. Nitrite stayed constant, and nitrate went down to 30 from 40.

I am raising tilpia so I think the ph is in range but I hear you can lower it with hydrochloric or muriatic acid. how much do you use per liter?

Also, I assume the hardness can be lowered by adding some salt. Can anyone give me an idea how much?

My pump is a 20 lpm and is running constant and running over lavarock. my growbed at present is only about 100 liters but then i only have about 45 fingerlings at present. I am working on increasing its size. There are no plants in the system yet.

Any ideas?