Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Well i guess iv learned somthing else today Dont Stress out so much....

my trout are swimming eagerly at the top everytime i open the lid they start jumping around......

might let them wait it out tonight and resume feeding tomorrow morning after another quick test.

I added shell grit and never looked back... PH always between 6.8 when loaded heavily and 7.4 when not so heavy.
It only $5-10 for a 5 KG bag from the local produce store.

Regards
Matt

I'm wondering if anyone has used a piece of coral (from the beach) and just left it in their water?
If it's a stupid question forgive me I'm new...

I only ask because when we dug our pond in (concrete unsealed), which I'm using at the moment for AP, I put shells and coral in the bottom and rounded stones from Tasmania....
because it looked pretty

The pond has been self sustaining for the last 2 years, (after I left it alone that is ).
No pumps or filters and went from 6 fish (Rosi barbs) to about 200! The only time we have issues is in the height of summer before the wet, the heat, so I shade to pond at this time and remove the cover for the rest of the year.

I occasionally throw bread to them, but they feed off the lilly plant and the other tank style plant under the water, which grows like a mongrel and needs to be thinned every now and then.

I'm unfamiliar with Ph and other tests for the water, so what did it do if anything?

Ta

I probably wouldn't rely on anyone else's figures as there may be other factors involved.

You could get a 10 litre bucket of tank water add lime until it moves 0.2 ph units.
multiple that by 100 and that's your grams of lime/1000 litres.
However when you go to add that to your tank add only half to begin with. (just in case)

As EB has said, and also proven low ph system operate perfectly well.
The fish seem to be able to tolerate far more than we give them credit for.
They handle low or high ph's very well as long as the changes are gradual, so system ph is not
that critical with reference to fish.

However, what about the plants. I am under the impression that plants have a relatively narrow
ph range where they are capable of adsorbing all the nutrients. From the charts I've seen if
I had to choose between high or low ph, low would be preferable to high ph but the ideal is
between 6-7.

cheers Lou

mines 7 I check it every 2-3 weeks

Must be honest I dont check any of my levels much anymore. Maybe once a month or if I add or remove plants or fish.

Out of interest checked my PH with my BYAP digital PH meter and it was at a stunning 6.9, and from memory has been at that for some time. IMO PH is best left alone, seems to settle after time.

O.K.all very well with a low PH but I am having trouble with a high PH up around 8.4 for the last 3 days & have put in a small amount of acid but dont want to upset the goldfish, any ideas as to how much acid would bring it down to 7 in a 1000lt tank.

Hi facetor

You must never drop your PH by more than .2 at a time, the swing will kill the fish at anything much greater. Usually messing with it and trying to keep it down will only see it rise back up again, unless you are having problems I would wait and see how it goes for a while as it will eventually start dropping as your system matures. A friend of mine has had a PH of 8.2 for a very long time and his system flourishes.

+1

If you feel the need to lower your pH... then, as above... do it slowly and incrementally....

Your system water is probably highly carbonate buffered... so adding small amounts of acid will probably only see the pH bounce back again... untill the buffer is exhausted...

Adding more source water... through top ups... will just add more carbonate buffer....

So treat your top up water... and over time, with nitrification... the pH will drop...

Now that sounded a lot more inteligent than my post. thanks rupe

I keep hearing that my ph is going to drop after cycling. I have a system that's been running for 8 months and plants and fish going great, but my ph is still high around 7.8.
I don't do anything to lower it but I am still waiting for the ph to drop and then have to add a buffer.

it'll happen soon.. my system was at 7.6 to 7.8 ph for 8 months.. i got busy and stopped testing for a couple months, but when i did at about month 10 or 11.. the ph had dropped to 6.0

Well, i am glad you guys brought this up, my system(fish-less cycling atm) has been fighting. It wants to stay at PH 8.2 but yesterday when i came out it was at 8.0. So hopefully it wants to start going down now. I am going to stop messing with PH and let it be.

Thanks for the info guys.

Thanks Keith.
I will keep testing every few days and see when it happens.
Would hate the system to go to far too quick the other way and kill all the bacteria.
I did really think it would happen quicker than 10 or 11 months but hey we are working with nature and it chooses it's own pace.