Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

You guys are showing your age!!!

Well I test a large sample of my media and it doesn't look good. Found several rocks giving off bubbles. Wasnt pouring off but they had small stream of bubbles They slowed up after a few minutes. So I guess it's a full change out.
On the bright side the little lady gets a rock garden.

Bugger!!!! My thoughts exactly in the gravel for the garden. It will go nicely around my bulky. Looks like I'll be bringing up some expanded clay for us both, sharpie!

Yes please bro. I think it would take five bags to fill my bed(300mm x ibc). Looks like my two boys will be busy moving rocks this weekend.

I haven't built an IBC system myself, but I've been told that a standard IBC filled to 300mm takes over 300L of gravel, some say it's actually closer to 350L. Others on here with IBC systems should be able to confirm the volume required... and preferably in bags required, not litres figured out on a calculator, because...

...if you're buying Hydroton/Hydrogran (if you can still find those brands) you'll find the bags aren't quite 50L, no matter what it says on the bag. I sell grow beds that the manufacturer states are 340L, so when I sold the first one I sold the customer 6 bags of Hydroton, or 300L according to the manufacturer, so it should've filled the 340L GB to just short of the lip... it didn't. The guy came back and bought a seventh bag, which still didn't fill it to the brim???... So I took the inside measurements of the GB's and calculated the full capacity to 342L, so the GB manufacturer was spot on... it was the bags of Hydroton that were short of their declared volume.

These are just a couple of points to bear in mind if you're transporting bags of Hydroton to Karratha... Years ago I think Poinciana nursery in the L.I.A. used to stock bags of expanded clay, but I've been told by a number of people that you can't get it anywhere in town now... so you'll need to get your figures right, even get an extra bag if in doubt... otherwise those one or two extra bags you'll need will be the most expensive clay on the planet if you have to get them sent up by Centurion, Nexus, etc.

I expect the problem with buying bagged media has to do with the fact that they sell by volume but they probably do the bagging by weight. So if they did their initial volume weight measurement/calibration with a really dry sample of media but then are bagging slightly moist media during production/filling the bags, they will be under filling the bags since the moisture makes the media heavier.

Oh, and back to the pH issues with the water or media.
Now it is likely that if you have lots of fizzing from media in vinegar, then the media is going to keep your pH from ever really coming down.

However, don't let the tap water fool you. If you measure the pH of the tap water right out of the faucet, it may be giving you a false low pH reading. Bubble that same water overnight and then check the pH again and see what you get. At my old house the water out of the tap would measure 7. But if I let the CO2 escape overnight, the pH would come up between 8-8.2. See, dissolved CO2 trapped in the water (water coming out of a tank and pipe system or out of a well usually has CO2 trapped in it) will act as a weak acid but when it escapes the real pH of your water is going to show up.

Mr Damage had good advice about not making acid adjustments in a system with fish in it. If the system is newly started up and not really cycling yet, then you could use acid to counteract the carbonates in the tap water but it could take several days of dosing and aerating to actually get the pH down to between 6.8-7.2 and not bounce back up. You don't want to get any lower than that when getting ready to cycle up since as cycling up happens, the bacteria will use up a certain amount of the carbonates.

Really hard water can be an issue for a system since constantly having to adjust the top up water before using it is not really a perfect solution. I try to collect as much rain water as I can and I try to only use my well water when I need calcium carbonate and use the rain water otherwise. If you don't get enough rain, an RO filter might be necessary.

Well, I was watching the idiot box last night after testing the gravel and that little voice that you here sometimes was saying "I'm not totally convinced yet about these rocks". So I adjusted ph in the tank and retested this morning. Sas normal the ph bounce back but not as much. Interesting I say. Perhaps I have approached the acid loading to maintain the ph.
So today I will lower a tad more and see if it holds, if so I'll leave it and start cycling with nh3.

it's worth a try, I mean what do you have to loose, a few days maybe and you might avoid having to swap out all the gravel. Some gravel can have dust on it that contains too much lime but after that gets neutralized things can settle down. Of course, if your gravel fizzes and fizzes in the vinegar, then you probably should swap it out.

Yes I'm quite happy to go a few more day and see if it settles. All very interesting really. More fun then boiler samples etc.

At this point of time I like to thank all that have helped me with solving my ph issue. Hopefully it was just my inexperience, in saying that i don't think it has been a waste of time but would benifit anyone who is starting out from scratch with their own system.

Cheers

Don't forget sharpie that when I took some of that rock home from your place, I tested the rocks myself too. I found that the rocks fizzled the same amount in vinegar as it did with Tap water!

Perhaps it has a high porosity. Who knows man. The ph is holding well. I added more karratha water to the system and the ph went up, which was expected. Adjusted again to see if it holds. I reckon it will slip a bit as it did before. Ph should be around 8.0 by morning. I'll then leave it to cycle up with the higher ph.

you'll be fine mate don't worry about it. my gravel has some white rocks in it that were definitely alkaline and fizzed and dissolved in vinegar but over time as my system cycled my ph still went down from over 8 to around 7.6 and I'd imagine over time would go down lower.

Worst case scenario you'll have to top up your gravel in a year if some dissolves

Hi tcshad, yeah a bit more relaxed now. Haven't adjusted water, just watching and testing. Added some filter pads from a mates aquarium the otherday so that will kick start him off. Added some seasol and ordered some fish as well

Cheers.

Try to get a source of ammonia in there - seasol doesn't have any.

If you get some urea(lawn fertiliser) and disolve it, it will turn into ammonia and kick start your cycling before fish get there... disolve it in some hot water(urea disolving in water is endothermic so it will cool the water down quite a bit) and then dilute into your system a little at a time. Test every hour and then if needed, add a little more. You don't want to be running high ammonia when the fish get there. But you do want the bacteria to be growing by then.