Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Covington / Maple Valley / Black Diamond area

Search : cycling. You can cycle without fish by seeding with ammonia, or you can add some fish and they will provide the ammonia. Each method has it's own merits.

It's very hard to get a decent swirl going in a square cornered tank, so you're better off deciding where the inlet will be in the FT and not changing this, then observe where the waste accumulates with this flow and adjust the (SLO/pump) pickup to collect the waste from the locale(s).

thanks bunson! so my fish are ordered, and waiting to be picked up, so what do i need to do to make the 300 gallons of tap water safe for the fish? im sure its got chlorine and fluoride in it.

If only chlorine... just fill your system and pump continuously and aerate for 24 hours, the chlorine will "boil off" (off-gas). If you've got chloromine in your water (check with your local agency) then you'll have to neutralise that with ascorbic acid (or something else) (there's heaps already posted on safely dealing with chloromine).

Don't worry about flouride.

You have seen The Aquaponics FAQ threads? - well worth the time and covers probably all you need to know.

The siting of your FT inlet and (if you have it) air supply can move your wastes pretty much where you want it. And a SLO can extend across the bottom to ensure maximum pick up. Don't make it too big - the idea is to force a maximum of suction and sometimes a large pipe is less effeective. Paul from earthangroup.com.au advises not going too large on SLO's - he mentioned a 4000L tank being cleaned by a 40mm SLO. (that's ~1000gal and ~1.5 inch SLO)

Also, don't make too many holes/slots - start with a few and watch the outflow, add some more and check again - add less holes each time and stop as soon as you notice a drop in flow.

I'll probably get RoO on my case again but I use Seachem Prime - I don't think it does much about fluoride but I have 35 SP's and 10 catfish in an IBC that are powering along on water treated with Prime. At one capful per 200L I've done about 4000L so far and not even 1/4 way through the bottle yet.

all that would be superb info, if a newbie could understand all the lingo

Luckily... there's a lingo translator available on the forum..... well hundreds actually...

Just ask away RobD.... we're all here to help...

SNAG! ok so the pump i have is a little too powerful and its filling the FT faster then the outlet can gravity drain out and its got a 2" drain. getting another pump at this date isn't an option im broke lol, so should I take my water inlet and split it, and divert some of the water back into the sump tank to slow down the FT fill? seems my only option right now.

Yup, that is exactly what you should do. There is no such thing as too much pump, just more opportunity to aerate!

Just got the parts, it worked great finally I can move on!

now, time to wash...YUCK i may have to start drinking early today

well that sucked. ok beds are full of clean lava rock, now i just need to get my pipes timed and timer set and im DONE





ITS BEER :30 !!

You will need a media gard to keep the media away from the standpipe and the stand pipe can then be cut lower than the surface of the clay

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i didnt worry about it because using lava rock its large and doesnt seem to plug it at all.

You will need a media gard or you can't cut you stand pipe lower then the surface of the media. You need to do this so you can control your water hight. You need to be able to run your pump full time if you need to without a media gard you can't.

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i have no media guard, standpipe is cut 2.5" lower then the top rim, and im running 3 minutes on 55 off and working fine. a media guard stops media from plugging it, it doesn't stop it from working.