Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello all. After living for 55 of my 72 years in the southern Gulf coast of the USA I recently moved to the Arizona desert to be nearer my children and Grandchildren.

I have always had a garden in the back yard and where I moved from there was ample rainfall. Mostly the problem was to keep unwanted weeds out. Now, after one growing season in Arizona I have begun to see that desert gardening is a little different. Where I came from you could grow things in full sun for instance and in Arizona the bright sun tends to destroy everything.So I hope to start a system that will use a lot less irrigation and put it in the shade.

Here is my plan. The house that I bought has a hot tub in the back yard. I suspect that the pump is shot as the GFCI trips when engaged. I contemplate turning it into a fish tank. I also have a 190 liter stock tank that I could use as a sump. Also have 4 grow towers.

My tentative plan would be to gravity feed grow beds from the FT/hot tub and gravity feed from there to the sump/stock tank. From there I would like to pump to the towers and back to the hot tub. I would like to have fill and drain grow beds and the towers would drain to the sump.

The main problem I see is adjusting the gravity flow from the hot tub and the pump return to maintain a fairly constant level in the FT.

Pretty tentative so far and looking for as much info as I can gather.

OxBeaux

Welcome OxBeaux,

Look into running Constant Flood. This will take care of the fluctuations, add water volume as a temperature buffer, eliminate the timer for the growbeds, and make expanding the system easier because you won't need a larger sump to hold all the additional water.

Cheers

Scotty,

Thanks for the suggestion. I've been thinking about it and may take your suggestion. Maybe do CF on the grow beds draining into the sump where the water is pumped over the towers and back to the FT. That would also keep the fish solids out of the towers.

What do you think?

OxBeaux

Sounds spot on to me

Quick update.

I hung my four Zip grow towers over a 50G/190Ltr stock tank last week. After running the water for two days without incident, I planted one tower with Lettuce and proceeded with a fish-less cycling. first day the Ph was 8.0 so I used a small amount of hydrochloric acid to bring it down to 7.5.

At this point I added 2ml pure ammonia and over the next 2 days raised the ammonia level to .5 PPm. I also added API quick start and some locally obtained gravel. I cut the ammonia add in half and on the third day nitrites appeared.Today the ammonia read .25 with Nitrites at .25 and Nitrates at 5PPM. PH is now 7.0.

Surely I have done something wrong. Can cycling go that fast? Or am I miss reading the Data.

What do I do now?

OxBeaux

PS. Can't figure out how to upload pictures.

Photos, go to full editor not quick reply, Ensure your photos have been reduced to max 800 x 600

Down the bottom left hand side is a heading upload attachments, hit choose file button, choose your file from your PC then hit add file button and follow on from there.

Hot weather will shorten time required for bacteria, stay away from so call additives and just use fish emulsion and seaweed extract. Cheers

PS there is also a Preview button to check your post and photos before final posting.

I keep a large container of fish emulsion and kelp. Pretty much all I ever use.

This is what I have so far. If you look very closely on the left edge you can just make out the hot tub I intend to make into a FT..

Good see you worked out the photo posting, always easier to give suggestions when we can see what is set up. Good luck.

I really like the look of those towers Oxbeaux. What have you got planted in them?

They're Nate Storeys towers aren't they?

As far as the cycling - Proceed with caution at this point. Early on you can get some fluctuations so I'd give it some additional time and don't stock to the maximum when you start putting fish in (this is pretty much standard on a new system).



Sounds good to me OxBeaux
You may find that a separate pump on a timer works best for the towers. TCLynx system uses this type of tower so you might find something useful on one of her threads.

Faye, That's lettuce in the towers.

And for Scotty: I'm not in a real hurry. It's really against my nature but I'm trying to stay patient.

I am starting to think that I may need two pumps in the system. One for the grow bed/ hot tub and a separate pump on the towers. I have a neighbor who has a solar company and I may put this whole thing on solar power once I get it up and running.

These are Nate Storeys towers. I have only planted this one for now. Don't know what will happen at this point as we have a freeze warning for the next couple of days. I've been living in the desert for two years now and this is the first cold weather we have had. I assume it will slow the cycling down. But we should be back to 70 Degrees F. next week.

I have seen TCLynx's site. Lots of good information.

Thanks all for the knowledge and encouragement.

OxBeaux

Tested again today. PH is holding at about 7, Ammonia .5, nitrites.25, and Nitrates have climbed to about 7.

I think I'm going in the right direction. I am correct in assuming that I should continue adding a half dose of ammonia until ammonia and nitrites fall close to zero with rising nitrates, aren't I ?

Thanks for all the comments.

OxBeaux

I am so jealous your system is cycling up so quick, we are still waiting to see nitrites