Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Plan to move some outside tomorrow. Maybe bring them indoors for the first few chilly nights. How do I keep them from drying out? Picture a 2 inches on a side block of rockwool with a tiny plant sticking out. Will spraying water a few times a day do?

'Nother question for TC... one of your earlier posts from March 2011 you said: "So I got it all hooked together today and dosed the system with ammonia to 4ppm." For my 110 gallon setup, I have been adding 150ml. of ammonia, which gives me about .25 PPM. Sometimes I double the amount and get .5 PPM. Should I really be using that much ammonia? Will that kill my plants that I'm trying to get started before I bring in the fish?

Dosing of ammonia is to get your bio-filter bacteria established. The bio-filter bacteria need to eat the ammonia and convert it into nitrite and then a new bacteria needs to convert the nitrite into nitrate which is what your plants want as their form of nitrogen to use. The MOST important part of an AP system is the bio-filtration, without that you won't be able to keep your fish alive and your plants won't have nutrients to use and without the bio-filtration you might as well skip the fish and go read up about doing traditional hydroponics.

I have dosed systems to 4 ppm of ammonia before but I don't actually recommend that high. I would say dosing to between 1-2 ppm is enough and then wait till you see the ammonia drop before dosing again. If the nitrite is really high when the ammonia drops, wait till it drops too before you dose again. Once both ammonia and nitrite drop down to close to .25 or even 0 before dosing again and then see how long it takes for both ammonia and nitrite to drop to 0. Once you can dose ammonia to 1-2 ppm and have both ammonia and nitrite back down to 0 in 24 hours your system is very well cycled up. If you are only dosing the ammonia to 1-2 ppm, I don't think it should be that harmful to your plants but I have personally only dosed a system with plants in media beds. I don't know how much more harmful ammonia might be to plants in a system where roots are dangling in a tube.

I do not know if spraying with water a few times a day is enough to keep the seeding from drying out, that will depend on how hot/dry it is and how fast the rock wool drys out.
My seedlings are all in trays that I place in beds that flood just enough over the gravel that it bottom waters the seedlings and they get flooded about once every 2 hours.

More pictures and questions!

I have about 25 plants (of a full house of 76) plants started as shown in the photos. I am waiting for the bacteria in my bio-filter to mature. At this time, 600 ml. of ammonia will provide about 2ppm of ammonia. In 24 hours the ammonia is gone, but the Nitrites are up to 2ppm. In 36 hours the nitrites are at zero.

I still need to wait, right?????

you are that close to cycled as to not be concerned...

If the question is can you add fish.... then I'd say yes... just monitor your feeding and ammonia/nitrite levels....

If you get a ammonia level.. back off your feed a little... if you have nitrites... just salt to 1ppt...

Right you are almost cycled. You could stop dosing and add fish as soon as the nitrite drops if you wish. OR You could keep dosing a few more times (probably all it would take.)

You are almost there, so close it probably doesn't make much difference one way or the other.

(general chatter)

I added a fountain pump that sits in a 5 gallon home depot bucket on a stack of bricks, just below the water level in the two barrels. The fountain pump pushes water in some 1/2 inch drip tubing about 5 feet strait up to a "T-splitter, then to two more "T-splitters", so 4 drip tubing’s squirt down the 4 vertical grow tubes. I used 1/4 inch poly-rope for the fish juice to cling to on the way down each vertical grow tube.

I kept the horizontal grow circuit level, so as the fish juice enters from the four 4 inch diameter T-fittings, it runs towards each end where I have a 1 inch diameter exit hole over each 55 gallon barrel (fish tank). I have a permanent syphon that sucks water (and poo) from the bottom of each barrel, lofts it over the barrel lip and down into a homemade swirl filter. The swirl filter has an exit through a bulkhead fitting (seal) that waterfalls into the homedepot bucket with the fountain pump I mentioned. I have 3 gallons or so of clay hydro-corn in this bucket, to provide a home for the beneficial bacteria.

So far, I have been "fishless cycling" using household ammonia. I have 30 or 40 plants with some success, some failures. I am waiting till I can dose the ammonia to 2 ppm and have it clean within 24 hours. When I have achieved this milestone, AND I have 70-75 plants, I plan to buy 18 bluegill. (4:1 ratio)

I was trying to be CHEAP by using two syphons to get the fish juice from the barrels into the swirl filter without buying FOUR more bulkhead fittings. I REGRET THIS! As cool as this syphon action is, it is unreliable! For some reason, every 22 days exactly, I loose my syphon action. The only way I know to restart the syphon is to flush water through the syphon with a garden hose to expel the trapped air. I think that each time I do this the chlorine that I introduce kills enough bacteria to prevent my bacteria from becoming established enough!

What is the magic trick to getting NFT systems to work?

I baby my plant starts till I can see some significant roots protruding from the bottom. Then I insert the starts into the NFT tube. Some of them seem to be growing pretty good, but about 1/3 of the plants that I transplant seem to dry up and die!

I have 3 inch diameter holes on a vertical axis drilled into my horizontal 4 inch diameter NFT circuit. The Netti pots fit kind of a loose into these holes. Do I need tape of some kind to seal this juncture and keep the humid air from leaking out?

I have been spraying 'fish tank' water on the newly transplanted plants several times a day, with hopes for the root system to grow towards, and into the nearby fish juice stream. Note that I do not have fish yet, but I've been dry cycling using household ammonia since July or so. Nitrates-80ppm and PH~7.2

I should be starting a REAL JOB in about 10 days, so I need to get this toy working. I will not be able to tend to this thing throughout the day anymore! I will be only able to spend a few minutes around 5am and 5pm.

Pick up a RAYON mop. Cut off its strings, and use said strings to wick up the water. Have the string rest against the roots of your seedling.

Here is the trick I used to let the NFT moisture wick up to the new seedlings even if the net pot did not touch the water.
http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=2640&p=183096&hilit=TCLynx+wicks+net+pots#p183096

Should work with whatever type of net pot you have and you can just set your rock wool or plug on the rayon wick to keep it moist.

Thanks for the mop idea, it works! I also found out why you specified rayon, cotton is cheap, but it doesn't work!

QUESTION: I decided to make a major change to my plumbing and replace my siphons with a pipe that penetrates the barrels using a "Uniseal". The uniseal is very tight over the PVC pipe, and the seal manufacturer recommends a little soap on the pipe to help lubricate it as I push the pipe through. I don't want to use soap for fear of poisoning the fish. Can you recommend a lubricant for this purpose that will not poison my fish?

Grinder to make the end tap-ed. then cut grooves about 1/2 inch. then add coconut oil or olive oil. Fits in like a prostitute on heat.

Or spit.

Prostitute on spit? Hmmm....

Spray the pipe end with a silicone spray .. before insertion..

Tclynx has a great suggestion in using a T piece on the end of the pipe so you have something easier to grip while pushing the pipe through the uniseal.

I haven't used that method yet but will when I redo the 90mm pipes.

I found the smaller pipes easy to push through. Anything that was tuff I boiled the kettle, placed the pipe in the hot water to soften it and then pushed through the uniseal.

Also make sure you have used the correct size holesaw.