Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Makes a huge difference just to see the fish swimming
I got some comets today, too and some minnows to go with them.
Woohoo!

I know!! They are really quick, darting around. It's a shame to have to exclude light, I'd love to be able to watch them more...

pH is back to 7.6 today, not sure if that is because of covering the tank and excluding light or whether the algae just haven't photosynthesized overnight.

I am keen to start the next one; I'm wondering if there is a way to have more than one FT in the system like Bullwinkle suggested...I guess this is my issue: the main tank is the only one that would actually be turning over 1200L per hour...if I had another 1000L tank connected to with 2 x 500L GBs, the return water per hour would be divided between them all...so the 2nd FT may only be turning over 400L per hour...is this correct? Hmm...

It seems like you would eventually create such a large "loop" of different chambers that a significant enough amount of head would build up (or drop down?) that the airlift is no longer circulating 1200 lph. Just a little bit of head difference makes a big flow difference.

I also had crazy algae. it only took a week to clear after covering the tank. My pH went to 8.8.

I suspect you either need to book so time on your local universitie's super-computer to work it out, or just try it, and if it doesn't work, divert one of your air hoses to boost the second FT flow (although I suspect that there is some law against that in physics. ie I dont think it will matter where that air is as far as water flow goes, but it might as far as O2 goes) or add some extra air buy buying another pump. At least if you have to buy another pump you can turn off that light

If they are inline, I don't think its just a case of dividing the flow by the number of containers.

If you make a river out of them I think you will only lose 20%* of your flow for each additional system.




*Observed reality may not reflect implied reality in an way what-so-ever. Numbers used are picked freely out of thin air and may bounce if any attempt is made to convert them into hard currency.**

**read that bit again

You are really taking a stand against maths arn't you BW ?

I'm really struggling with this MIT electronics course and maths has become my nemesis

I breath a huge sigh of relief when I see something like an "a" or an "x" in an equation. Most of the other stuff looks like it's written in Alien.

My first port of call is an online translator to check if its accidentally been written in Russian or something.

An equals sign, but with three lines. What will they think of next

If they are inline, I don't think its just a case of dividing the flow by the number of containers.

If you make a river out of them I think you will only lose 20%* of your flow for each additional system.




*Observed reality may not reflect implied reality in an way what-so-ever. Numbers used are picked freely out of thin air and may bounce if any attempt is made to convert them into hard currency.**

**read that bit again[/quote]



Water temp up to 24 degrees today. pH seems to be back at 7.6.
Ammonia & everything else unchanged, zip. 4 days of 15 fish in a 1000L FT, not sure how long until I can expect some action!!
Getting twitchy to start another system, but doing some wicking beds first. Also need to ratproof the polytunnel- caught a big healthy rat last night.

Free protein!

can you grind it into fishmeal ?

Do you have any pictures of the air lift you used or any of the plumbing and so forth?

Thanks,
Greebe

Hi, Greebe. Yep, I really need to post some more photos...

An update on the system:
Temperatures here have been fairly high- mid 20degreesC, water temps have been anywhere from 14-18 degrees.

Fish are very happy, always hungry. We still have 15 comets. Some are getting noticeably bigger. I really like them, and I am thinking that I may keep them in this system. The polytunnel just gets too hot for trout, so I plan to do another system with the FT outside and the GBs inside...not sure if the GBs inside will heat up the water too much...

pH remains 7.8. That is higher than I would like, but it has been consistent for a couple of weeks now.

The FT is wrapped in a movers' blanket, so no more problems with algae.

Cycling- it is starting to get me down. There have been 15 comets in the system since 15.3.12, exactly three weeks ago.
Ammonia today was between .25 and .5, closer to .25. Nitrite is 0, nitrate is a bit above 0 but not orange enough for 5.
There was a small spike a couple of weeks ago where ammonia rose to .5, but nitrite and nitrate have been 0 the whole time...

I assumed I would see small consistent increases by now...The bright aqua reading of the nitrite is bugging me, which is funny, since in coming months, I am sure it will relieve me!!

I am impatient because I really wanted to get some trout happening before winter and cycle another system while temperatures are a bit warmer, but I need to know this will work, first!

Plants are slowly growing, but they are definitely wanting more nutrients than they are getting. The parsley keeps getting new green leaves which then turn yellow with purplish edges after a few days...

I've been giving a capful of seasol once per week. I also add about 10litres of water to the system twice a week to keep levels up.


Everything working really well electrically.

Off the topic of aquaponics, we got a DC freezer!! It worked brilliantly for 24 hours then stopped. Looks like we drained the batteries, so we have some figuring out to do...lucky we didn't have it full of trout!!

Putting the fishtank outside wont get you outside temps if the grow beds are inside. You will see some kind of average, but it will cool your glasshouse air temperature.

The growbeds act as a heat pump like a reverse cycle air conditioner and will shift heat very quickly.

People try things like not running pumps during the time they dont want the heat exchange, but I found that the growbeds heat or cool so much during the off time that when you turn the pump back on, there is a massive exchange and you haven't really gained anything. It might also be a bit of a shock to the fish.

Do you know what kind of winter temperatures you can expect in your glasshouse?

Maybe you can grow barramundi all year.

I was seeing sunny day temperatures of 33c in my growhouse on 12c max days last winter.

you might find this graph of my temperatures interesting/useful/colourful/irritating viewtopic.php?f=18&t=7290&start=375#p287048

and this graph showing the fish tank temp growing more stable over the first few days of having a grow house
viewtopic.php?f=18&t=7290&start=420#p288754

Hey, Bullwinkle!

I guess I had a kind of hopeful/deluded idea that being constantly flooded, the heat pump may not occur as it does when air enters the system such as in F & D.

Now I wonder if I should be thinking of doing the system outdoors but caged- everything has to be caged down here or else be ravaged by possums...That would mean growing caulis and the like, but it might also mean the trout wouldn't eat anything and I'd have to supplement the plant nutrition side of things..

I have the space for another system exactly like the one we have in our polytunnel, and I like having the growing space that is kind of protected from frost. I don't really mind whether an outdoor FT cools down the polytunnel a bit. The polytunnel is more for frost and possum protection than to create a warm place for plants. And to let me start planting a few weeks earlier/later into cool seasons.

My FT temperatures for the past 2 weeks INSIDE the polytunnel have been between 15-19 degrees C, this with the polytunnel air temps getting to over 30 degrees C...might be OK for trout, and we still have months of cold weather ahead of us. I'm just guessing, but I don't think the water temps will get above that again until November. Hmm...

Not sure what to expect for winter, but air temps already drop to under 10 degrees overnight inside the polytunnel, so I'm thinking it's going to get COLD.


Love your graphs.