Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I just found a pH reading of 6 ! (or less, that's as far as I can read)

last reading I have a record of was pH6.4 on the 11th of july

I posted these results on the 21st, but didnt add them to my database for some reason.

pH 6.4
nitrites 0
ammonia 0
nitrates 40-80

Perhaps I stuffed up the pH test somehow.

According to my BYAP magazine pH vrs trace elements chart, phosphorus tapers of at 6.4, and takes a dive at 6

But as TC said potassium tapers off at 6, as do sulphur and even nitrogen

If I dilute the test, can I test for lower than pH6 ie can I extend the range of the test to see if I'm really at 5.8 or something. My test doesnt go lower than 6. API freshwater master test kit.

I added some eggshells in the path of the inlet water until I can find my bag of shell grit that's still buried in a house moving box somewhere in the shed.

Does a pH of 6 or less, change anyone's opinion on my plant problem?

There doesnt seem to be any change since adding the seasol 4 days ago.

this is the pic from 4 days ago but they look the same.

try the lime to raise it but go easy in such a small system. I had nothing but bad things with Ph of 6 or lower

The nitrification process must have picked up a bit with the warmer FT temps and the extra feeding. There's shell grit in the system, but obviously not enough.

The system is over a year old now and I thought it had settled.

do you have any wood ashes you could soak and use to increase pH without increasing calcium? It would add potassium while raising pH.

Careful, soaking wood ashes and straining is how they make old fashion Lye so beware that a little may go a long way.

Man, that sounds way too complex for me. Cant I just add some product from my hardware?

And no, I moved from the total normal wood ash rich environment of the country, to some kind of concrete artificial environ where the bird song is really the sound of sirens. And that's not the good kind of sirens that lure you to your death by being dashed against the rocks, but the bad kind, the kind that are either responding to your impending death, or attempting to shoot whoever is attempting to shoot you.

but ...

in spite of what ever it was I've just been talking about, I did some writing down of numbers today. And as usual, it reveals some slightly interesting stuff.

Well if your hardware store carries KOH or old fashion potash lye you could use that, just be careful handling/using it.

Or perhaps you could find some potassium bicarbonate. Wait, over there don't they sell that in the garden section? Around here you usually have to buy it from beer/wine making supply places which are less common.

that's a graph of the temp over a 12 hour period from 11 am to 11 pm in my little glass house

Remember I'm in the southern hemisphere, so I'm in winter in what you might describe as a Mediterranean climate.

The bits that I find interesting are...

The lag 'tween the concrete and the water (caused I think by the fact that the peak temp is caused by

1. radiant heat by the hothouse roof being in the sun longer than the concrete floor,

2. the fact that inside (solid lines) the hothouse is much more even, and less up and down than outside (dotted lines).

3. that it seems that the hotter stuff is the quicker it looses heat, and the colder it gets the less it looses heat. I get the feeling that everything is going to even out as far as how much heat loss there is, the colder it gets. Hot = crazy, cold = stable.

4. thick stuff like concrete, and water, seems much more stable than does air, and water in thin tubes.

5. I cant remember what 5 was.

6. I think my solar collector is working. The peak water temperature ses to coincide witht the point at which the top of the hothouse temps (inside air, and solar) meet the water temp, and that is later than the peak concrete temp. This tells me that my heater is working, because the water temp would otherwise peak when the hothouse temp peaked. The solar collector seems to manage to scrape heat out of the hothouse until the last minute when the hothouse cools to the same temp as the water, and becomes a drain rather than a gain.

I'm a bit lost. What's wrong with calcium? I thought that's what I needed to add in the form of shell grit.

Calcium is needed to a point but if you have way too much calcium it can lock up the potassium and leave you with potassium deficiency even if there is plenty of potassium being added to the system and seeing as you were having trouble finding your shell grit anyway...

oh ok..

mmm

I can already see a ph change from my egg shells if I take some sample water directly from the siphon outlet. (it's now back on the scale, but still not really above Ph 6.1 (but I'm now confident it isnt pH5 or anything like that)

But, does the fact that the egg shells have changed the pH indicate that there isn't too much calcium in play?

No, it just means the water is acidic enough to dissolve the egg shells which is actually mobilizing more calcium into your water. It is the low pH which dissolves the calcium carbonate.

Just keep adding the seaweed for now I guess and perhaps you can get some potassium bicarbonate to use when your egg shells run out.

How did you add the seasol, into the media or foliar feed? You might want to try a light foliar feeding if you didn't do it this way the first time.

into the incoming water to the grow bed

So I should dilute some and spray? If so what concentration?

thanks for the input

OK cool thanks

again

This would be so much more difficult without you people.

ahh that would be eco rose

ecoproducts
www.dawsonsgardenworld.com.au/ecoproducts.htm - CachedEco Rose, is a safe product based on food grade potassium bicarbonate. ... For best results use Eco Rose in combination with Eco Oil®. ...