Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

From what I've read (and I'm very new to this) autosiphons, bell or Affnan, are generally used in constant pump systems. Don't want to call them constant flood, because thats something different. The majority of people using timers for flood and drain don't bother with the siphons, they just use weep holes at the base of the standpipes to allow the growbeds to slow drain between flood cycles. You had asked about the need for the breathers and I was just trying to explain their use in my previous post.

I use affnan siphons in a timed flood and drain system.... for me, I like the beds to fill quickly and to drain quickly..... I believe this draws much more oxygen down into the GB media

My new GH has been up and running for 13 months now and has worked perfectly from day one...

but that's just me...

JT

Thanks I just read Affnans blog site after your comment. I understand now why the need for those type of siphons. I just use the timed flood and drain system so I did not think about the constant flow types. That is an interesting read. Looks as if he spent lots of time researching the siphon.

Here is a pic of the fish that I found floating by the nose. We have decided it is Fungus. I posted a note in the Fish Problems area but there is no one on to answer questions so far. I put in all the salt I have Probably more than 5 pounds to try to help but not sure that is the answer. Help..........Can get more tomorrow I think. I will have to wait a couple of hours for the salt to melt so see it it comes up. I have a hydrometer for salt concentrate on my thermometer. I put in a couple of lbs of salt before and it did not seem to affect the water. Probably too many gallons. 1100 is a lot. Is there a formula for how much salt to add for a change?

Well something good and bad today. Still losing fish, I keep on finding more catfish and a few minnows floated today. Blue Gills are doing fine.
I finally got to talk to the Pond Stocking Fish lady today. She talked a while about how they transported the fish in salted water because they have so many in the tanks that they scratch each other up when in confined space. Now I understand why they got the fungus in the first place. Too many in the tank and no salt.Their vet was going to give me some of their antibiotics until he realized how small a tank I had (1100 gallon small) and he thought it was for an aquarium not for eating fish. All his stuff was poison to people and plants. I did a lot more reading on salt calculations and found the formula in a post. The writer missed the point that he had found the formula in all his descriptions. I read a lot of posts looking for an easy solution to the problem of how much salt to get the 0.3% figure. It boils down to the simple statement that is

2.4 lbs of salt to a 100 gallons of water = 0.3% .

How Cool is that? So I needed to have 26lbs of salt to make it 0.3% but no it did not move the hydrometer. I know it works cause I checked in the bucket I was mixing the salt and water in to desolve it before I poured it in to the tank. I finally got mad and kept on putting more in and more till I had put in 40lbs and still no movement on the meter. While taking a break I decided to do the calc to find the volume of the tank.
Pi times R squared times the depth, right? 10 foot diameter 28" deep, so r squared is 25.
3.14 times 25 =78 times 28 =2200 and I thought I had a 1100 gallon tank all this time. So the calc says 57lbs of salt not 26. You know I already put in about 25 day before yesterday. I finished putting more in to make 60lbs for today and the float is only at 1.01 not 1.03 like it should be. I decided to wait a bit before I go put in another 10 lbs. I don't want to overshoot the 1.03 mark. I don't want to kill the strawberries too. I think someone is eating my salt. Oh well time to check on the salt reading again.

This is not suppose to be driving me crazy is it?

Hi Don, just looking back a page and noticed your strwberries, from what ive herd they dont like salt at all, dident know if you new.. has to happen but, for the fishies sake

1100 gal is around 5000L so you would need 15KG or 33lb of salt to get to 3ppt

Some of my posts are on the Fish Problem thread. What is killing my fish?

I also found my tank is 2200 gallons not 1100 as I was told. So it takes a lot more salt to change its salinity. I put in about 70lbs yesterday and I will check it in a few minutes but it was still around 1.01 when I went to bed last night. At least now I know why I could not get the salt to move the hydrometer reading at first. On the good side it is a 2200 gallon tank not 1100.

I cannot just save the strawberries because that system needs treating also as the same water goes through there too.

2200 gallons.... that's a 10000L tank... you'd need 30kg of salt to raise salinity to 3ppt...

Or in your terms... 66lbs of salt....

I think you need to buy an ATC Salinity Refractrometer... or recalibrate your hydrometer...

Something like this... http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Salinity-Refract ... 3a651f32d0

1ppt is equvilant to 1kg of salt per 1000L... or ... 2.2lb per 264 gallons

Correction... using US gallons.. rather than UK gallons...

2200 gallons.... that's a 8330L tank... you'd need 25kg of salt to raise salinity to 3ppt...

Or in your terms... 55lbs of salt....

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1ppt is equvilant to 1kg of salt per 1000L... or ... 2.2lb per 264 gallons

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Ok I agree something is wrong in Denmark. I have now put in 120 lbs of salt in the tank which is also circulating through the 22 half barrels with pea gravel and the 70 feet of 4" pipe all of which drains fairly empty every time it floods. The tank is almost running over from all the rain we have had lately. After putting in a bag or so of salt I checked and rechecked what I was doing. It just does not compute. I checked the size of the tank and it is Not 1100 gallons after all. That was on the label when I purchased the tank in the first place so I expected it to be 1100. If I put the hydrometer in fresh water it reads 1.00 or even a bit low. If I slowly add salt it starts floating and with about a 1/4 cup it gets over 1.03 so it does work and when I mix a quart of salt in a 3 gallon bucket it floats clear out of range. I think it works. Next time I go to town I will take it and test against the saltwater tank in the store where I got it. It is just unreasonable that it will not change in the tank with so much salt in there. In the future I will find a source of pure salt that is trust worthy. This salt is made for a Chlorine Generator but says it is pure salt. I'm not so sure I believe it now.

But the main problem is that I did not get the salt content up fast enough to save the catfish. Every last one of them is out now. Probably 1/2 of the minnows are also gone. 5 or 6 of the blue gills are gone also. I wonder if 80 or 90 1-2 inch fish can generate enough ammonia to maintain the grow beds.

BTW Before the strawberries kick off they will give me two ripe berries tonight. How about that sports fans.

Well I must admit I made a duzzy mistake this time. The hydrometer I was using is set up to measure something else. It is for salinity but not in the range for aquariums. So I really did get lots of salt in the tank. The reading is 1.012 now and the desired reading is to be 1.003 so it is way too much. I did a 30% water change already and it came down to 1.010. In the morning I will do another 30% change to try to further reduce the salt content. The fish guy at the store where I got the new indicator said that if I had any disease in the tank I would not now. Hopefully I did not kill the bio logicals in the tank and have to start over cycling the tank. The water is still green and I can see the bottom a little. The tomatoes and strawberries look droopy but maybe they will recover when the salt gets reduced. The green peppers seem to have been hit the worst. They are really droopy. Hope I can save them. We will see tomorrow.

OOOOPs, that amount of salt will kill catfish but dunno about the others

Aerate as much as possible... and pump continuously (if you're not already) for a couple of days... shade your tank to kill off the algae...

No feeding....