Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Thanks Rupert. I will look into the shells it seems easier to add in a bag or stocking etc. and come back than to add a powder a bit at a time. But in the mean time I have this lime so do you use it the same way as ph up? ( Adding a little at a time and then coming back in an hour to see until you have your level) or does it work more slowly?

I'm just scared I will put too much in. Any suggestions you have on the best way to get the lime in would be greatly appreciated.

As for the plants I am pretty much at capacity. Guess it's time for another grow bed.

Thanks

Barry

Personally I never add anything directly to the FT. I dilute Seasol (seaweed extract) and keep some available for ready use, and buy clean shell grit.

Add "some" of your lime to a bucket of water (1-2 tablespoons in 10L) mix well and allow to dissolve. Test the pH of the solution. You could do some maths to compute how much of pH whatever to add to however much volume of your FT at pH something else; or you can now add "some" of the solution, wait 15 minutes, then test to see if you need to add more. How much of the top up solution you add is going to depend on the pH of that solution and how long you have and how far you have to move the pH. Having patience and adding small amounts is safer than trying to make large changes in short time. If you accidentally add too much lime to the top up water you can easily discard it without doing any damage to the system, but if you accidentally add too much directly to the FT this cannot be undone.

But still, as this is a new system which has barely cycled, I'd not be fiddling with the pH except to add some shell grit as a pH buffer material and let the system find its own natural pH level with that buffer in the system. If you fiddle too much with things then it will take longer for the system to stabilise if it ever gets the opportunity to stabilise without a crash caused by too much interference. Like you (and most "AP noobs") I used to be fascinated to try and control the system pH, but eventually I learned that "less is more", the less you fiddle with things the more productive and stable the system is.

For example: here's my system pH since inception:



Scott

Are you sure that Flamingo isn't pissing into your tank when you are not looking;-)

Back again now with another problem. The ph problem has stabilized it is holding steady at 6.4 I buffered it up with some potassium bicarbonate ( more to introduce potassium into the mix) The plants have been growing wild I have some squash that have the biggest leaves I have ever seen and a little powdery mildew. I is actually pretty crowded and I was in the process of planning another grow bed since the nitrate was at a constant 80ppm and I had no more room. Well that isn't a problem anymore because my nitrates have dropped to 0ppm
The last time I had checked (which was about a week from this writing) nitrate was a little less than 40ppm.
I have halted feeding. But I am not sure what to do next. Do I just feed a little at a time and basically do a re- cycle?
Thank you in advance

Current readings

ph 6.6
Ammonia 1ppm
nitrite .5
nitrate trace ( In all fairness it was a darker yellow than the 0 indicator but definitely not orange)

How much are you feeding your fish? How many fish do you have? Species and weight? What are you feeding them? What is your pumping regime?

If the nitrates are at zero then normally you can keep feeding, but as you still have ammonia and nitrites available, wait a little bit first and then go lightly.

Eventually, you'll discover the amount of nitrate is "controlled" by the amount of quality feed that is eaten by the fish, but there is a "long" delay as the feed has to be excreted as ammonia and then converted to nitrites before being converted again to nitrates. You might find your system performs better if you do a few smaller feeds during the day instead of one or two bigger feeds in the morning and/or evening.


Scott

Hey Bunson,

I have 50 tilapia in almost 400 gallon tank. Feeding them a zeigler pelleted feed. I am doing one big feeding in the day. But I could space it out. I have been feeding using the 5 minute rule. But I feel like I have been under feeding most of the time for initial worry about the high nitrates 80 ppm. But it has worked out to about 4-5 handfuls. As for the pumping we have it on timed flood and drain which I am not crazy about. it runs every 1 -2 hours for a 5min flood. To be perfectly honest I am not sure when and how it works it was built by the Chief Hydroponist and he explained once briefly.
But I think that is it, and also it only runs 8 or 12 times in a 24 hour period.
Sorry I wish this part was clearer but I can ask again.

I don't think you're exposing the bacteria in the GBs to enough oxygenated water with that pumping regime. To kick things off (settle things down) I'd switch to continuous pumping for a day or two, then modify the pumping routine to being on at least once per hour and that on duration being about 15-30 mins. The "aim" (very-general rule of thumb) is to pump the volume of water in the system through the filtration media about once per hour or so, but you also want to balance this with the need to have the water moving sedately and slowly through that media, in contact for 10-15 minutes to allow the nitrification process to work.

I'd also space out the feeding across the day; keeping the total daily amount about the same, again starting the new feeding routine only after the nitrites have dropped to zero. It's better to underfeed than overfeed; it's very hard to starve a fish to death, but give them too much food a couple of times in a row and they will die very quickly. Once you have the new routine working, you might discover that "things" work better, allowing you to slowly increase the feeding (but you still have to balance the feed input with the nitrate output).

I'm not really a fan of "handfuls" of feed as they can vary, I prefer to use a scoop with a known size; I know one scoop holds 20g of feed and every scoop will be similar.


Scott