Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Yep. To somewhere around 7.2 - 7.4 or so which is a good place to be anyway.

Totally agree Charlie but the limestone and shells have been in for over a year!!

why has it taken this long for the pH to come up or has it something to do with the trout?

The conversion from ammonia to nitrates is acidifying, hence the need to add hydrated lime. You have just removed a huge ammonia source from your system and now the buffer is able to exceed your bacteria activities.

Thanks Ryan. I was surprised by the impact as the Silvers are smashing the food ATM but no way as much as the trout.
Thanks for the help

I suppose that growing as fast as the trout does would be very energy intensive. I know that towards the end of my trout season they were starting to make a mess. Had to get extra pumps to keep the solids moving.

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A quick update on the system.
The silvers are growing great guns and can eat over 1kg of food a week. But the nitrates are coming up quickly - 600ppm so I have reduced feeding to about 0.5kg per week.

plant growth is awesome with the capsicums taking over and the tomato plant swallowing the grow bed.

Lettuces have been nothing short of spectacular with 2 large bags each week. Have got into a system now with the lettuces and they haven't disappointed.

Removing the shade cloth off the roof of the greenhouse improved growth significantly. The overhead foggers keep the heat down a little but the heat only really affects the capsicums that are touching the roof! As you can see it has not stopped them growing

and some more photos

12 months ago the outside grow beds looked like this

It's been a good year Marc....

Kickin butt as usual Marc

1kg/week Look out fat fishies

Not as fat as yours Charlie

At least it will help get them through the winter.

Got to be careful with feeding as much as they will eat unless I go for grow beds number 6 and 7 to get rid of the nitrates or maybe a DWC.

Looks great Marc.

That corn looks brilliant mate. Mine didnt show anything like that kind of promise!

I reckon my 20 odd silvers would be getting through near 1/2 KG of food a week atm. Hungry buggers they are...

Thanks Ryan.
The corn could do better if I had had the shade off from the beginning. Next year I won’t use shade at all.

Half a kilo for 30 SP - I guess mine aren’t the pigs I thought they were! Do you know what your nitrates are? I have 5 beds that are packed with vegies as well as cucumbers, rockmelon and pumpkins that grow out of the beds yet at 1kg per week of food my nitrates were going up not down.
We dont seem to see nitrate levels reported in established systems. Once it gets above the scale on the test kits it a bit more work to get an accurate test, but some leves would be useful to know.

I will do a test for you, but if i am above the scale i just go 'Sweet, thats plenty of them' and leave it at that

It is not uncommon for mine to go a day or two without food though. If we are away or something like that.