Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Certainly is BD, it is stressful when you have a problem and you get 100 different solutions but as mentioned more deaths caused by *frack* ing with things, as a few have found, I agree with salting but as a last resort and I haven't done it, but seems to work for others, and water changes but again I only nearly did it, left one more day and things started to correct, fish will let you know if you need to panic, but I would cut the feed for a day or so until things go down to almost 0

Just a breif update folks,

Have top dressed the first bay which is only lettuce, stones always under the water algae build up,with expanded clay mainly to stop the algae.
disturbed the bell siphon that I was going to fix after we cycled,no need to now fixed it up.
Have put 3 about 30 litres bags of charcoal in the grow bed at the moment seems to be keeping the water crystal clear but we'll see over the coming weeks.

Good news,

Water tests today
Ambient 16.3
Fish Tank temp 13.1
Ammonia 0,has been since Tuesday
Nitrites still 5
Nitrates way up 50,have been 40 plus since Tuesday

Trout have decided stuff it we are going to eat now and we don't give a flying toss about things any more.Slightly ramping up the feeding.Keepping lid on tank now.Left lid off last weekend and one jumped out and is in the bin.Rest are as happy as.

I'm thinking I'll put some bright yellow tulips in with purple duch iris and purple agapanthas,If anyone has experience in growing bulbs and the like in a cold water AP system ,I would be interested to hear what you have to say about this.

Cheers.

Hi everyone,

To put my last post it into English 1 out of 3 bays has lettuce in it.the level of the cottage pebbles is lower,and I am always having abut 25 mm or a bit more of water constantly on top of them,consequently I am now getting a lot of algae in this bay.I bought a bag of expanded clay and covered the stones and algae now water is about 50mm under the top of the clay.

I have planted 7 yellow tulip bulbs in this bay to try and help eat up the nitrates I am now producing will plant dutch iris and agis in the other bays along with growing my current veges soon.

Cheers.

Feeding fish twice a day now.

Water temps 13.3
Ambient temp 12.7
Ammonia very slight trace 0+
Nitrites 5
Nitrates 50
pH 7.8

Fish are happy.

Cheers

Nitrite a bit high but seems to be coming along, mine got to 5 before but that nitrite test is a bit tricky to read, if fish are happy then let it be I think it will drop quickly, nitrate is not a problem but get the plants sucking it up, I think by tomorrow nitrite will be down heaps

Cheers for that Nocky.What are your thoughts about tulips?give them a go?

Bigdaddy is up to his normal tricks again Left the lid off the trout tank after feeding last night This morning another trout jumped ship and on the ground
Needless to say I remembered to put the lid on tonight after feeding.I'm down to 18 healthy trout now.(2 in the bin)

Will test water and post tomorrow I hope the nitrites come down they've been like that for about 2 weeks now.

Cheers.

Tulips don't taste that nice BD, but have a friend that grows flowers in AP and they look ok, the colour chart isn't the best to read on Rites I doubt they would be at 5 for 2 weeks, or you must have some pretty solid fish, I made a poly pipe frame around my tank and have bird netting on it, pellets go through for feeding and fish stay in, have a look at the end of my thread or one page back

Now that your siphon is working... and you're flooding & draining... watch your nitrites fall rapidly...

Ha ha ha ha, Nocky I haven't tried to eat tulips yet.

Yeah,I saw you had some sort of net covering your tanks and thought,and still think,I will do that soon.Where did you get your netting from?

Thanks Rupe, I didn't realize that running the grow bed constantly flooded would slow down the nitrites doing their stuff.I found what caused the bell to jam open The break tube I fitted to the bell,was jamming on the shroud.Took of the tube last night and duct taped the holes up,came around the trout tank this morning to fix up the bell and it had cut the water off beautifully,then started a couple of minutes later.It is doing a complete flood and drain cycle every 12 mins now.Adjusted the flood height of the water in the grow bed this morning by adjusting the length on the stand pipe,now it's much better,not completely happy with it still,it will do for a couple of weeks.

Water tests for today

Ambient 10.5
Fish tank 9.5
Ammonia 0 + slight trace.
Nitrites 5 If anything slightly down but really nothing.
Nitrates 50
pH 7.8.

Fish are feeding twice a day will increase it to 3 times a day tomorrow if the ammonia tests are still 0.Fish are happy.

Cheers.

BD nursery's or garden shops sellit, it's bird net for fruit tree's, cheap as chips

Thanks Nocky,I'll get onto that netting this week.

Water tests for today,
Ambient a fresh 11.6 and not a cloud in the sky,
Fish tank temp 9.3
Ammonia definitely 0
Nitrates down 10
Nitrites steady higher than 1 not 2 lower than 5
pH7.8

Will ramp up the feeding to three times a day now,fish still look happy I can see their teeth when they laugh at me.

Cheers.

Here are some photos taken today

Cheers.

And some more,Sorry it's upside down or something.

Cheers.

Looking good bigdaddy.

Looks good BD, as mentioned the Rates are not a problem, Ammonia is great, just need to get the Rites down, but all seems to be evening out
What's the dark blue one?