Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Well nearly got there but things just didnt work the way i wanted. Late start didnt help but then visitors drifted in and out all day and then when i went to the landscape supplies for my river pebbles they were out of them and by this stage all the other stores were closed
When i got back from my unsuccessful shopping trip a mate had turned up with 2kg of fresh king prawns , so we cracked the bourbon and shit all got done after that.
I did manage to get the syphons made and installed, plumbed in the pump and return line, SLO plumbed in and ready to go. All i need to do is hook the pump up, fit an end cap i dont seem to have, and fill the GB's with media.
Will have to wait until during the week to do this though.

So i got a little bit done during the week and started on the green house today also. Have had the AP system running but need to make a few little adjustments tomorrow but expect to have it operating properly by tomorrow arvo.

You've been busy mate...

You can tell by the goat track he's cut in the grass around the system hahhahahah

Nice work!

Nearly there, looking good.
What type of media are u using?

Thanks guys, yes been busy, all running smoothly now, planted out some this arvo and will plant some more tomorrow.
I ended up using 16mm Byron Bay Pebbles, mind you i reckon maybe 20% tops would be 16mm, the rest would be between 5 and 16mm.

smaller the better in my opinion - for planting into.

My first water test, 1 pic is of the water colour, not sure if this effects the results of the test or not???

PH:8.2
Ammonia: 0.25
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0

Looks about right for a first water test. The cloudy water probably isn't affecting your test reading much.
Now when you get more brown water, that can sometimes make reading some of the tests more difficult.

Actually just to clarify i did fill the first half of each bed with 20mm blue metal drainage gravel.

Well I've been layed up in bed last couple days with an infection, knocked me rotten and so didnt get to re-test water until today, i did add a cap full of PH down (phosphoric acid) before i fell ill which brought the Ph down to 6 so have counter acted with half a cap full of Ph up (potassium hydroxide) and will re-test tomorrow.

Thats all a bit like drinking booze, smoking some dope, having a snort, maybe chucking some downers before bed.

I'd be leaving it to let it sort itself out naturally.

if there is no fish in yet then the pH up and down probably didn't do any major damage. But as you start to cycle up, you are probably better off not messing with the pH too much using the acid and only using the pH up when your pH has dropped low AND you are seeing signs of potassium deficiency. More than half of the time you should probably be using a calcium product to buffer or bring pH back up. Or if you have calcium rich hard water, topping up might be enough to keep the pH and calcium levels up most of the time.

During initial system cycle up and higher pH between 7.2-7.9 is fine and starting out even with a pH of 8 or so it usually fine since the bacteria tend to like the higher pH. But if you are cycling up with fish, keep in mind that high ammonia at a high pH is far more toxic to fish.
The nitrogen cycle will bring the pH down naturally eventually.

Well just doing the waiting game impatiently, not sure how long Jades will be available for so hoping for a speedy cycling nothing changed on the test results other than maybe Amonia dropping??
In the mean time moving forward with stage 2 and the greenhouse although the greenhouse is proving more challenging than i wanted, well thats the price of using what materials you have instead of what you need lol.
Heres a couple pics of the young bloke helping out.

Looking good if i do say so myself.

I love that light coloured media.

p.s. your really going nuts with this thing.... love it!