Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Really great work on the system in it's entirety. From pump to drains, fish to growbed media, a very solid system.
I know you don't post the readings, but I've been wondering if you test your water on a consistant basis? If someone cleans out the growing plants to make room for new, would it not have an effect on the Nitrites, Nitrates, and such. Would the balance not be upset enough to cause fish issues? There are no established plants with a good root system to clean the water. Not to mention the remaining roots that are now destined for worm food would be rotting away. Do any of the abovementioned issues have a significant impact on the ecosystem?

What is the bushy plant in the back of the picture?

(sigh) Alright, I mis-spoke on that phrase. Reckon I should have stated that if you remove most of the plants in the growbed, would it cause a significant impact, or would the bacteria find it's balance right away.

I don't test my water but probably will in the new larger system. Just wondered about his system since it is larger than mine, if he ever had issues.

Incidently, what are those big bushy, healthy looking plants at the end of the growbed?

I think there may have been some sort of miscommunication. I really did just want to know what the plant was.

As far as filtration issues from removing most of the plants, I don't think there would be too much of a problem. Residual roots aren't going to decay over night, plus all the gravel and bacteria are still present for the nitrogen cycle to continue. There just aren't as many plants left to remove the nitrates, which aren't horribly toxic to the fish anyway. In short, ammonia and nitrites are still being converted.

Hopefully JT will answer what that plant is because I'm interested too. Right now I'm guessing some sort of pepper but hard to tell, maybe there is a lemon tree there.

No my thread but........... till JT has a chance to answer.
As to pulling all the plants at once and water quality. I know if I go really stirring up all the beds at the same time as I harvest them all, it might cause a little bit of a spike in ammonia or nitrite just because of stirring up the bacteria and disturbing them but it usually clears in a day. A bit of a nitrate spike because of loss of mature plants to use them up is usually not a big issue if you are good about re-planting quickly. Now the above answer is really more for the full 2:1 grow bed to fish tank ratio systems with lots of filtration to handle the load from the fish tank. If you only have a 1:1 or less grow bed than fish tank, you really do need to be more careful when you go disturbing things across all your grow beds.

thanks for all the interest.. I've been watching to see what everyone was saying...

I test weekly (not weakly ) so I can keep an eye on everything... as TC says sometimes there is a little spike, but usually not much...

I usually have new plants ready to go in.... so there isn't any problems.... there...

jt

Thanks for the reply JT. That black hab is wicked. How old is it?

hey thanks

I planted it first week in december 2011

jT

When people start mistaking pepper plants for TREES!!! You know you are doing something right!

thanks....

I have been clipping it back for the last two months.. if I hadn't it would have been twice as big......

Picked a few habs today.... they were getting so heavy, they were starting to break the branches..

I have see chocolate habs in the dirt before and they were about half the size overall I never thought these would get
so large and have so many habs on it..

after picking a few habs.... I can see that there are about as many new ones coming along...



also took a pic of the NFT pipes... all the plants have new leaves and are starting to show the roots reaching down to the water....



one of the last two surviving toms left over from the recent conversion to new plants...

its still going strong....

Nice looking chillies JT. Do the chocolate habaneros actually have a "chocolate" or other flavour or is it just the colour? I 2nd harvested my dirt chillies last week and will do 3rd harvest at the end of this week, then a few plants will have to be ripped out, so looking to replace with something, and something exotic like chocolate habaneros might be the ticket?!

BTW: I don't see your NFT anti-capsize system?

hey bunson...

no any chocolate species.. such as habaneros, bell peppers, etc... is because of the color... but they do have a sweeter taste....

I like all of the chocolate type veggies... just to be different

the chocolate habs... seem to do great in AP or dirt..... I still have a couple hundred green ones on the ap plant.... they will be turning soon..... at the moment, Im dehydrating a lot of them... takes 3 dehydrators....

I also have a dehydrator, but it's noisy and makes odd smells from time to time so I often dry my large harvests of chillis in the oven, 75C with fan for about 3-4 hours is usually sufficient. Then, powder some, flake some, leave some whole. I can fit a lot more into the oven than the dehydrator. I also freeze a lot of my chillies. I've tried smoking some of them (no, not in a bong!) but I cannot get the heat and smoke just right, yet, but I've plenty of chillies coming through to practice on!

If you're looking to do more, checkout ChiiliDude's site : http://www.chillies-down-under.com/ for inspiration.


Scott

Ouch......

Man one of those habs would be enough chilli for me to last a year...