Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Get some brickies lime... and bring the pH back to 6.4-6.6....

I got some on the weekend Rupert... Eco rose is a tad to expensive to bring it up with that alone..
I think the higher pH reading I got on Friday must have been some residue in the GB as the next morning it was down to 5.6 again when I tested it..
Last night after 2 doses of lime over the weekend it came up to 5.9..
About to do another now... Thanks for the reminder Rupert...

pH of 5.9 still... Shall add another Tbsp tomorrow & see how we go...

Load the beds up with shell grit and the ph should buffer up to 7ish. It might take a few days but if you have shell grit in the water flow (this depends on your setup), it will happen. I find a sock of shell grit under the growbed returns to the sump works, but burying lots in the growbeds cant hurt

I have bags of grit under the inflows to the GB's so will give it one more dose of lime tomorrow then leave it until the weekend..
Thanks Mantis..

It can take a while for the acid to chew up the shell grit and buffer. The more flow over the shell grit the better

Bit slack on the up dates but the pH has sorted itself out.. Is sitting between 6.5-6.8 so am happy with that for now.. I do need to make up some better shell grit bags though.. Job for the holidays maybe..

The last clip on the system was about 2 weeks ago..



Not much has happened since then but will be posting another soon..

Fed the jades their first BSFL yesterday..



Was a bit worried they were getting snobby over food as I have laid off the feed.. The nitrates have been climbing a bit since I cleaned the beds a while back.. Ammonia & nitrites started to climb as well but settled withing 48 hours after I stopped feeding them pellets.. Think it is all under control now but will do a test fin the next clip..


All the best for the new year all...

Good see its all going well Bob, hope you and the family have a great New year, cheers

Thanks Bear, same to you & yours..

Ohai! You are the bitsouttheback facebook people, yes? I just started following you the other day :-)

That's us charlandsarah
The avatar gives it away methinks
Have a good one

Hows the fishies going guys

Hi there Charlie..
The fish are going well thanks
Did an update clip a few weeks ago from when it was a tad hot but forgot to post...



Got a few more plants in to suck up the nitrates but it could do with more I think..
Fish have a few months before they will be ready to harvest..

Am trying to work out how we can fit a larger tank into the system so we can farm about 100 fish a year... Thinking a 4000l tank would be a good investment... Will need to move a few wicking beds to fit them in though not to mention saving up some dosh...

Thanks Rob, Both myself and Mrs Charlie always sit down together to watch your updates. We really enjoy your garden and depth of information.

I see your CF bed isnt coming along too well and I can offer some assistance with your constant flooded bed as I experienced similar issues when I first switched from flood and drain a year or so ago. You will notice that the far plants behind the standpipe and around the perimiter are suffering.. this is because the flow from the outlet is tracking from where the water enters... through the media....and to the standpipe basically in a straight line. There is a good chance there are 'dead' zones throughout the bed.

If you get some time, make up a distribution pipe that will run the circumference of the CF grow bed. You could use some retic pipe to experiment. Pop some holes in it spaced evenly around the pipe so your water entering the bed is coming from all outer area's and can flow to your standpipe. This will ensure a good change over of water through the bed and get a better coverage.

Its also possible that the flow is a little too slow but we can revisit that later.

What do you think?

Thanks Mr & Mrs Charlie

I think what you said about the dead zones makes perfect sense Charlie.. I was contemplating changing it to flood & drain but might rethink that now.. I think I need a larger pump as the flow from the FT is maxed out with the 2500lph pump in there at the moment but will play around with some pipe work & see how I go... Will try something out today if I get time & report back..
I am thinking of adding a swirl filter as well so might go to the larger sensen 3500lph... That should help with the flow rates as well but need a few cheques to come in first..

Thanks for the help