Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Had some mixed results in my AP world today. Started off with a dead Yabbie in my sump that his mates were chomping away on. Removed it from the sump and dropped it onto the ground. Convinced myself I saw it move and it was still half alive. Had no legs half a tale and generally looked chewed up. Felt sorry for it and made sure it was dead before getting rid of it. Fish still hiding in the bottom corner and not feeding. My dog however thought the fish food was great and ate half the bucket when I wasn't looking. Ahhh

Moved over to my grow beds and found some tiny beans starting up. Tomato and capsicum are flowering. Pity everything else is going to seed without getting to harvest anything. Don't know what I did wrong there? How and when do I collect the seeds?

Upgraded my venturi to Pete's design, looks better and works unbelievable. Thanks Pete. Also added a breather pipe to the drainage pipe from the grow beds. Seams to have helped empty the pipe faster and stopped the last grow bed from flooding. Time will tell.

Did a water test and getting some high results. I have 25 silver perch @ about 5cm in the fish tank and as of today 9 yabbies in the sump. Fish aren't feeding so only putting half a teaspoon or less in to see if they will eat. I remove uneaten food later each day. PH 8.2, Ammonia 2, Nitrite 2, Nitrate 5 should I be worried?

More pics

more pics

Very probably, what's your water temperature??...

Your system obviously hasn't cycled... stop feeding immediately....

I'd also suggest salting to mitigate against the nitrite level... 1ppt... that's 1kg of salt per 1000L,,,

Water temp I think was around 16 degrees during the day. Will add the little salt I have prob bout 250g for the 1500L of water and monitor how it goes. Will get more salt Monday.

If you haven't added the salt yet... hold off... swap 500L of water out... then salt...

And retest your ammonia.... at those temps & pH values, you're toxic...

Either that, or use a couple of mils of hydrochloric acid to bring your pH back... preferably to around 7.6-7.8...

do not feed any more

when did you get fish??

Hello Hillsy,
Just saw the pic of the tomato, as a rule I remove the 45 degree shoot below the flowers in your photo. By removing this growth the plant puts energy in to producing fruit rather than foliage. I also remove foliage below the flowers for the same reason. Continue to remove the 45 degree shoots as they appear.

+1 on the HCL acid.

I thought I was growing dwarf trees for munchkins in Lilliput Land - 'til I reasoned with my water of 8.4-8.6 pH to a more far more AP friendly 7.0.

It took nearly 250mL of HCL doses over a 2 week period to slowly get on top of the buffering capability of my tap water.

Once I unlocked the power of nutrients, growth was instantaneous!

... And as an added bonus of the lower pH, fish can handle higher levels of total ammonia - as kindly illustrated by Rupe.

I put aside a bucket for the purpose of mixing/diluting HCL and marked it 'DO NOT USE' so the acid water mix wasn't used for another purpose. I would mix anywhere between 10-30mL of HCL with 5L of my FT water in the bucket, then stir and let sit in a safe place. I then added doses of 1L of the mix at a time straight into the FT. Test your system pH before application of HCL and 2 hours later, then again 24 hours later. Your pH will drop on dosing and this will be reflected in the test 2 hours after the dose. If you test again 24 hours later and the pH is back to (or nearly) where you started, then you have something buffering your system and experiencing a 'bounce'. If it stays low/er, then all is good. Just be sure to drop it only a few pH points at a time - ie. 8.2 down to 7.8-8.0, then try again in 24 hours. Too much and too quick of a pH swing will knock the fish for six!

Your chosen pH baseline will depend on what you want to achieve (ie. - lower pH for strawberries, or certain types of fish etc), but 7.0 should be a good neutral goal for a healthy and balanced AP system at this point. The pH will drop as the system matures, but it is easier (and safer!) to bump the pH up than it is to drop it down!

I used 'Diggers HCL' from Bunnings - good as gold!

Good luck mate!


BTx

Plants be looking good!

Stop feeding them fish for a few days, maybe change a bit of water, all will be well

Did approx 500l water change and added juice of two lemons this morning. Bunnings didn't have any HCL so will a try fish type place tomorrow. Got the PH down to 8.0 this afternoon. water temp approx 18 degrees, ammonia 1, Nitrate 5, Nitrite 2. Using tap water PH around 7.8. Fish still seem fine, still hiding in the bottom corner behind the tank outlet but no deaths. Will try some more lemon juice tomorrow morning and monitor how it goes in the afternoon. Worried maybe the clay in the gravel will keep the PH high?

how long has the system been cycled?
the Nitrogen cycle tends to drop your ph when its cycled up.

regards
Matt

Hey Hillsy,

my system has had a high PH For approx 6 weeks now, it started coming down then imoved it all and stirred things up, noticing this week that its dropping again, and it seems to be cycling pretty well with my ammo droping as well.

Mantis has explained to me that his system was the same now he struggles to keep it up. i would relax and let nature take its cause, if your adding tap water with chlorine or chloramine in it you will be killing bacteria right off,

iv done water changes like 80% with a tank water that has a PH of 6.5-7 and the next day it was 8.5+

today was the first time iv seen it down to 7.5'ish and to be honest the only thing iv done differntly over the last week or 2.n is leave the system alone and let nature do it oh and added 10 2cm Comets