Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Good news I went to put the screen back and removed the top and I saw about 25 or so fish in the tank so all is not lost. Good thing cause they are sold out of bait fish which He called minnows. Awful big minnows though.
Water test
Ph 7.6 or 8 close
am 0.25 maybee a little more
Rite 0
rate 5
salt still going down 1.002
temp about 60oF
I bought lumber for a form to pour a concrete pad to put the Gb on. It is sinking in the mud. I wish I had a south side hill slope. I am on the north side at the bottom of a 100 foot tall hill covered in tall trees, around 75 feet high.

What time zone are you in for Australia? I am at -6 Central USA

Green water, eh. Could be algae or just lots of pollen from those trees you have on your property. Pollen - What does the top of your gravel look like? Does it have a film of yellow/green on top?
Algae - Do you have a way of covering the drainage gutters or converting over to drain pipe? The sun shining on the water may cause algae to grow. Dunno man, just taking a guess or two.

Oh my mistake. I know it is alge. Just surprised it grows so fast even with the tank shaded mostly. probably need a real shade that covers the tank better but I was concerned that the tank would need to cycle again after all that has happened to it recently. It may be ok.

Don I replaced my metal screen with 55 gallon bbl cut to fit heigh wise. I used a skill saw and cut slices adout 1" apart and 7" long about 2/3 from bottom up. Also cut about 10 cuts in the bottom.
Works like a charm will filter anything larger than about1/16 inch. The worst part was using pocket knife to clean all little plastic bits off each cut. Jerrry

one of these : http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/shop. ... gory_id=16 without the float ring

Freeboy my pump would not fit the pot because it has a float switch on the side of it.

I think Jerry might have a good idea also Cut slots in a blue barrel and put the pump in it. However I wonder if it sucks up the stuff in the bottom of the tank to put it in the Grow beds.

Jerry have you tried stiring up the bottom stuff and see if it goes to the bed thru your new strainer?

I might check Walmart for a small trash can also. With the same treatment it should work also. Just needs to keep the fish out and let the trash though. Since I have been recycling a large portion of the flow from my pump it creates a whirlpool effect and pulls all the stuff on the bottom to the middle where the pump is. I did not do a good job of getting the bottom flat. I should have tried to get it lower in the middle. I would do that if I had the opportunity to do it over again.

Here is a pic of the pump I am using. The outlet is 1 1/2" and has 4500 gallons per hour at 3 feet head. I set the float switch so the switch will cut off as high as I could set it and trimmed off the excess switch rod to remove any interference at the bottom.

I am going to check on several ideas I have to see if I can find something that will work well in my situation for a better screen.

Here is a pic of the strawberry we ate before the salt and storm killed the plants.

Also Today I poured a concrete slab to put the new set of Grow Beds on. Will try to get a pic tomorrow. The first Beds are sinking in the mud. I will finish the new stands and transfer the barrels to the new stand and put the res on the old stand when I get a pad built for them.

Us civilised folk on the east side of the country are +10. Over in the west they are in a zone of their own

Plus 8 over here in the west...

Bit of a different pump there Don, does the float switch work magnetically?

So you have a couple of time zones in Oz. I'm not familiar with that part of the world and I am not sure where civilization starts and stops or with who. I used to say for a joke I was rude crude and socially unacceptable and then I met some who truely was so had to stop that.

As for the switch on the pump I don't really know but I think it is magnetic. It has a cord that you plug into the power and then plug the pump in the back of that plug and it stops the pump when the weight falls to the bottom of its stroke. If you can see the little button on the bottom it is a rubber washer that you slide up and down the shaft to set the level you want to maintain for low level. I pushed it all the way up and trimmed off the excess so it would not get caught on anything. Should give me about 8 to 10 inches of water in the bottom if anything bad happens. For me I have two pumps so I put in a triple plug adapter behind the switch plug and put both pumps on the back of the switch so it cuts both pumps when the water gets low. It has already worked once.

I have a question. Which makes more difference when it comes to clearing the water, More O2 in the water or pumping more water through the Grow beds. My water is nearly clear in the morning and green by nightfall. Alge sure does grow fast in the water.

I would think more pumping through the growbeds would help Don

I have reset my timer to 15 on 15 off during the day and 15 on 45 off after 9Pm hoping it would help clear up the water. I am wondering if the reason is the lack of plants in the beds. Right now the plants are starting to recover from the Salt fiasco and I hope they start to get back to growing well and eating the Nutes.

I poured a concrete slab to put my GB's on. The rack is sinking in the mud so I decided to fix that permanently with concrete. Today is the second day so I should be able to set my second set of racks on it in another day or so.