Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Smart use of existing pipes and space, EB and also wasted sunlight

great idea - now lets see them towers!!!

I am finding dry spots in the towers despite good flow - a couple of plants wilted on me!

I am thinking pearlite or those expensive clay balls may be a better option for tower systems as they are absorbent.

mine is wet through... but remember I have a dedicated pump and the tower is only 1 meter in total length...

Mine is flowing real well .. but somehow .. not all the stones are getting wet!

DoH!

Whats the story regards perlite .. porous hydroponic clay balls also .. are they worth the money?

I like them, alot

light, huge surface area for the bac. I think they'd suit the towers really well

have you thought that your tubes are not exactly upright, check it because if it is then all of your medium should be getting wet. If you cannot get it straight then try and tilt it slightly forward, the water should not flow out and the roots will be getting wet.

Hi, My pvc tower with VB’s strawberries planted is going well, The strawberries are showing new growth new flowers and even some new small fruit.

VB gave me some English spinach plants that I poked into a few of the pockets in the pvc tower beside the strawberries, and I really did not expect them to survive....I have taken one of them out every other day to inspect it's root system and in spite of this bad treatment (it is all for science) the English spinach is actually showing new root growth. Very fine roots coming out from the main single root of the transplanted plant. Almost all of the leaves on these English Spinach plants died, but there is new growth coming out of the centre of the plants now.

The gravel I have used is river gravel and very course... It is working very well, all areas in the tower have plenty of water flow. Some black ants have taken up residence, or at least they are always running around in the tower... I don’t know what that means or how they climb up in there with all the water flowing down the tower, but they are there.

The water in my fish tank has become very clear since I have stopped feeding native pellets. The last 5 days I have given the Jade only Duck weed. I hope my Duck Weed farm can keep up !!!
The water has also dropped in ph to about 6.6 Anyone any ideas on what has caused that ???????

Muz, i'd say just the natural downward ph shift due to bacterial action. Remember i mentioned it and why i thought of addition of sea shells wuld keep it buffered?

Its more noticeable in a smaller water volume. Its a good think in the sense that its telling you that everything is working well! You might want to look into buffering your system a little though, IMHO you don't want it going much lower that this

Steve

Thanks Steve, must go down to the Gold Coast for a drive and pick up some shells....I will search back to find the threads where this was discussed before. Looks like my little system might be purring along just fine.
Need that big fish tank very soon.....need to get the mouldings finished so I can pop one or two out.
It is all getting a bit exciting, to actually have a mini system that is working fine......now for a big one...
Muzza....

AAre you sure all of your tower is wet inside... the ant thing worries me as I get them in my pot plants, but only in ones which have dried up or have dry "pockets" inside... just wondering...

And you guys have those ants that drive round in Holdens doing the fingers out the window.

I could tell you some stuff make you say - "stupid bloody Kiwi" involving your wildlife. Most everything is harmless here

THat is nothing, here the mozzies have tatoos, wear bandanas and pull, the sheets back so as be ba able to bite you at night (AND thay have a union!!!)

i was sitting at work waiting as always and did some quick sums on the volume of towers systems.

thus for different size pipes and heights the volumes are as such;

90mm pipe - 1m 25L
1.2m 30L
1.5m 38L
1.8m 45L

100mm pipe - 1m 31L
1.2m 37L
1.5m 47L
1.8m 56L


150mm pipi - 1m 70L
1.2m 84L
1.5m 105L
1.8m 127L

I find this interesting as to equal the volume of a 500l growbed you only need five 1.5m high 150mm pipes and this could easily be fit into any back yard. any way thought this would help or at least would be interesting to the towers people.

oops, a bit garbled there... wine does that