Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

PS: Thanks Faye for the advice on good old-fashioned hot soapy water followed by bleach rinse... the IBCs cleaned out beautifully!

So our well company came and tested our water (free!) today, and I got the following readings:

7-8 gpg water hardness reading
0.8 PPM Iron
7.5 PH
0.2 ppm manganese
174 ppm total disolved solids

Can anyone advise if my water source levels above will require any sort of alteration? What is the proper/desired iron content to start with?

Any input is greatly appreciated... great thanks to all!

Iron is good, typically folks have to add iron to their water using Maxicrop to help the plants have enough of it. 7.5 pH is nice to have too.

Great Water.. Wish I had your water source..

Keep us Posted..

Juergen

Great! Next step is to start putting in the pipes... pictures to follow soon!

iron in your well water could be a problem for the fish, the iron can cause irritation to the gills, especially if you notice "rust" stains around your well water.. i found this info on a different forum and was looking for it but couldn't find it..i'll try later

I see the deck is the typical decking with spaces that let the rain water run out. Hopefully that galvanized roofing is installed where water can't leak through and works as you designed to just run off the end. I would highly recommend putting insulation in the fish tank room ceiling under the galvanized roofing material under the deck. Since hot air rises, make it thick. The thicker the better.
Nice job on the lattice work. Never seen full sized sheets of it used like that before. Looks good.

And +1 on the water source being at PH 7.5 Great way to start out.
Good luck and keep us posted.

Thanks Keith, look forward to more info about the iron if you can find it.

And thanks for the kind words Mr. Bill... the lattice work was my idea to make it look nice in an attempt to keep the wife happy We have had some good rain since I installed the roof, and there are very few places where it leaks, and luckily for the most part the rain does drain down and off the ends of the panels. I do plan to calk/fill the spaces where the leaks are from, and my thought for roof insulation was a roll of reflective insulation I picked up at the hardware store:


I like this since seems pretty water proof since it is all made of plastic, and if anything leaks through it will no absorb into the insulation.

Does this seem like it will be enough to keep the heat loss down? It says R-factor is between 3.7 and 17 depending on how you use it/where it is installed.

Good stuff that..
Make sure you Tape it up with the Foil Tape..

Juergen

It's probably R-3.7 when used by itself and up to R-17 when used in conjuction with the typical fiberglass batts. Would suggest installing rafters of some sort in that ceiling space and filling it with the fiberglass batts, then stapling this foil to the rafters for your finished ceiling. May look kinda funky, but the reflective gives you a way to diffuse your light, especially good if you decided to grow plants in there.
Downside to that is cost of rafters, insulation, and installation. A one time cost which is easily recouped over heat savings in the long run.
Another downside is there may be a leak in the galvanised roofing that would not be apparent until the insulation started to sag. Bummer.
Weigh your options, but my opinion is that the more insulation the better especially up there in the cold country.

+1 on filling the ceiling space with fiberglass under the reflective sheet.

Sooo... further water testing revealed "somewhat elevated" levels of arsenic at 15 PPB (parts per billion)... since this was described by the guy trying to sell me a $2,000++ filter, I wanted to check with the collective brilliance of BYAP to see what everyone thinks.

Thoughts?

"somewhat elevated" levels of arsenic at 15 PPB (parts per billion)... since this was described by the guy trying to sell me a $2,000++ filter, [/quote]
I wonder what is an acceptable level of arsenic??? I remember being told once " if eating almonds keep it to around 7 a day." They apparently contain traces of arsenic!

Have a read at this site. Personally I wouldn't worry about it. Compare it to eating fresh veggies from your own system vs veggies that have been grown 8 states away with who knows what type of fertilzer, and pesticides and such. That much less to worry about.
/rant)

http://www.eco-usa.net/toxics/chemicals/arsenic.shtml

http://water.epa.gov/lawsregs/rulesregs ... /index.cfm

looks like 10 PPB to be the EPA level set.