Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Thank you ccBear. If I’m going to add another IBC I will just be tempted to use it as an additional FT and to go with a bigger system.
I think I will try a 210 litre barrel first, but with an air stone added like you suggested to get rid of the chlorine faster. I will see how it works out and maybe add another barrel or two.

Yea adding the air to the top up, chlorine removal barrel or barrels is a good idea!!!!
You could even do something like have two barrels hooked together with a valve so that you can add new water to one and aerate it with the tap closed so the other barrel with already bubbled water can still be used to keep the system topped up.

While it is usually safe to top up small amounts of water at a time even without dealing with the chlorine first, if you suspect that your water supply is dangerously or heavily chlorinated, it is good to have a plan for how to deal with it and you should do what YOU feel comfortable with, not what some one else on the internet says to do, your own research and reasoning are worth far more than one stranger's opinion.

Hopefully you can get those water tests done to check on that bore water. (tip if you take some water from the bore and bubble it for a day and check the pH again, you may find that it might have a higher pH than you realized, it is at least worth a look-see in addition to getting the lab testing done.) Tip, Carbon filters can do a lot to remove metals and bad taste from the water so if the bore water tests out as being safe for drinking (no bacteria or nasty pesticides or major pollutants in it) then a carbon filter might be all you need before using it for the system.

I'm going to follow your advice get some of the well/borehole water into a spare barrel, will then do a pH test before aeration and then after 3 days of aeration or so. It seems that the well/borehole water is not affecting any of the plants in our garden or vegetable garden so far. Nor does it leave any water stains on glass or painted surfaces.
Tomorrow I’m taking a sample of the water to a lab to get tested for the basic metals, heavy metals, pH etc. Hopefully I will have the results in about 7 to 10 days’ time.

Lack of staining from the bore water may or may not have much bearing on anything but appearance. I've lived in places where our well water had so much iron in it that there were rust stains in all toilets, sinks and tubs but having the iron in the water was actually a good thing for most plant and health purposes.

Other kinds of stains like white scale is usually just mineral deposits like from hard water which is mainly likely if the water has a lot of calcium carbonate but that would usually mean high pH (where I live now the aquifer is limestone so the water is hard and keeps my system pH high if I can't collect enough rain water.)

If your bore water tests come back as safe, it might be handy to alternate or mix the tap water and bore water for use in your system to help regulate the pH and minerals in the system. I try to do that with my well water and rain water when I have enough available.

This morning I’ve hit the first mayor stumble block to utilise our well/borehole water for our AP system. What I lacked to mention yesterday, is that the aquifer of our well/borehole is apparently in a coal field. I didn’t mention it because I had no solid evidence of proofing it even to myself.

My girlfriend mentioned to me when we installed the new pump 2 years ago in the well/borehole, that in the past the pumped water had a bad odour (smells like boiled eggs) when they were using it for irrigation purposes about 20-30 years ago. Her father also discovered coal dust in the old pump that used to be in the well/borehole. We couldn’t detect any obvious odour when we started to use the water 2 years ago so we figured that it is gone.

This morning I took some time to get a store bought water bottle filled up with the well/borehole water. As I was rinsing the bottle out with the pump running I smelled the bottle opening with some of the pumped water in it after I’ve shook it for a minute or so. The odour of boiled eggs was overwhelming. If I was not using a new bottle I would have thought something was wrong with bottle.

I got the lady at the lab to smell the water and she said that it is sulphur. A common occurrence when your well/borehole’s aquifer is located in a coal field. That might also explain the low pH. She suggested that I must get the water thoroughly tested after I explained to her that I want the use the water for our AP system and even domestic purposes possible. The test is quite expensive but I’m willing to get a piece of mind about the well/borehole water’s quality.
Now I’m going to have to wait for about 10 days to get the test results back but I think that using our well/borehole water for our AP system is out of the door and even using it for our ordinary vegetable garden irrigation.

Don't let the smell of sulfur sink your spirits yet, wait for the test.
The sulfur smell doesn't automatically mean bad things and sulfur is one of the most abundant elements around. Actually here in Florida USA there are people who will try to convince you that if you hold your nose, the sulfur smelling water actually tastes sweet.

but anyway, get the good testing done to find out. There may be some methods of filtration that might take care of the problem depending on what the testing finds in the water.

Yeah you are right TC I’m jumping to conclusion much too soon. Luckily I can still use our tap water for our AP system but I would prefer rather to use the well/borehole water if it tests ok.

Today I’ve decided to do a pH test on the gravel I’m intending to use in our GBs. The high pH reading of my barrel system's water was in my head the whole day and I was trying to figure out what the cause may be for the increase in the barrel’s pH.
viewtopic.php?f=18&t=18959

I took two water samples from our tap water and the one sample bottle I filled with the gravel. I started with the high range pH test first, starting with the sample bottle without gavel and got a pH reading of 8.2. I immediately thought that I’ve mixed up the test tubes and tested the other test tube. AGAIN 8.2.
Very confused I decided to do a low pH test with another sample and the pH was above the low pH test’s highest reading. I poured water directly from the tap into another test tube and tested it. Again 8.2!

For good measure I tested another sample with an ordinary aquarium test kit and also got a reading higher than what the test kit can measure which is 7.4.

I’ve been topping up the barrel’s water with tap water that stood for 2-3 days the past 10 days or so. I made the mistake not to log the date and amount of water that I’ve added in my diary, where I keep log of test results, temperature readings and weather conditions. But the biggest mistake I’ve made is not to test the tap water regularly.

Our tap water’s high pH is definitely going to affect our bigger system’s cycling and high pH means that Ammonia will get more toxic at higher pH and temperature if I understand the TAN table correctly?

Yep, tap water is indeed one of the most common causes of high pH. Often times they actually elevate the pH of the water so that the chlorine will work better and will be less likely to corrode metal pipes.

Bad for AP though. in the short term you might look into adjusting the pH of your water in the aeration barrels before you use it in the system.

Okay so far I’ve read that people use vinegar, lemon juice and even HCL to bring down a system’s pH. That last one seems odd to use in an AP system.
What about beer? I’m only joking!
But apparently beer does have a pH between 3.7 - 4.1. Don't know what the alcohol will do though?
And I will rather drink it then to pour it into our AP system.
Maybe I must mix the tap water with our well/borehole water once I have the test results of the well/borehole water?

I’ve done a pH test on our well/borehole water this morning before heading off to work. I used both the pH low and pH high tests. I got a reading of 6.0 on the low test kit, the colour was a bit off so I thought it might be less than what the test kit can measure.

So a few minutes ago I phoned the lab to hear how my test result are coming along and if there is anything that is out of the ordinary so far. The lab confirmed that our well/borehole water has a pH of 5.77.



I'm waiting to see the results on paper now.

System design update:

I've decide to go with a x2 110mm PVC pipes as a manifolds distributing water from the FT into the GBs which will have holes in the top to put in smaller plants (strawberries etc.) The flow into each GB will be controlled with valves (they are not on the model yet). In the case of an emergency if something goes wrong with a GB’s stand pipes etc. I can turn off the water supply to that GB and do the necessary repairs or even remove the GB if I have to while the rest of the system can still function. Each GB’s stand pipe will be connected to a pipe running below the GBs into the ST. I’m also planning to connect the x2 100mm PVC manifolds directly to the ST with valves to control the flow if needed.

Two barrels outside the GH (thanks to ccBear and TCLynx) will act as storage and mixing tanks wherein the one barrel I can aerate fresh water either from our tap water or our well/borehole water or a combination of the two to get the pH right etc. Water will then be transferred (still have to sort out the mechanics. I’m thinking T-barrel?) from the mixing barrel to the storage barrel that will be connected with a small float valve to the ST barrels.
Hopefully the IBC frame will have its final coat of paint on tomorrow. Will then have to finish the paving as the base for the FT and get all the PVC C-clamps fitted on the GH frame for the GH cloth/plastic sheeting.

I've received the first part of the test results of our well/borehole water:

pH 5.77
PO4: 0.07 mg/l
SO4: 5.02 mg/l
NO3: 0.30mg/l
NH4: 0.18 mg/l
Cl : 17.41mg/l

I’ve checked the World Health Organization’s drinking water standards and all the elements tested so far are within acceptable parameters. I’ve contacted the lab about the high Cl count and they said that they will run the test again on the Cl.

Don't know if these levels will be acceptable for an AP system though. Any thoughts anybody?

Build update:

Yesterday we had an early start. I’ve managed to almost complete the pad for the FT when I ran out of paving bricks. It is actually fly ash cement bricks I’m using as paving bricks, which makes things a bit more difficult when packing these bricks because you end up with a lot of gaps because not all these bricks are exactly the same size. But I feel I’m doing my bit for Mother Nature, by utilising the by-product of coal powered power stations, and it is dirt cheap.

Luckily, I’ve used some of the bricks we had to construct a temporary pad for one of the open top barrels that was the temporary home for some blue tilapia. Lizette’s brother collected them yesterday so I have more than enough to finish the pad for the FT.

A good idea or solution on paper is usually not so good idea or solution in reality. That I rediscovered when I placed the GB barrels inside the GH frame to get more or less a feeling of how things are going to look in reality. As planned in google sketchup, I’ve set out the perimeter for the excavation which will house the x4 open top 210litre barrels inside the GH. I want to use them as a combined ST. The excavation measured 1.8m x 1.8m and I immediately noticed that I’m going to compromise the stability of the support frame for the GBs on either side. The soil here is extremely soft and sandy thus why the effort I’ve put in preparing the road bed for the FT pad.
So I made the decision to place the ST outside the GH. There again, I couldn’t use the 2x2 barrel configuration because I will then either compromise the foundation of our car port’s support foundation or the precast concrete perimeter wall’s foundation between us and our neighbour.
I ended up placing the barrels all in line. I’m going to use x2 40mm PVC pipe manifolds to connect these barrels together.

Lizette gave the FT frame another coat of paint while I was struggling with getting the ST issue problem sorted. We have moved the FT frame underneath our carport so she could get out of the sun. We had a very hot day here yesterday, abnormally hot for spring time. Our thermometer showed temperatures of 32°C-33°C in the shade.


I've struggled in the heat excavating the “Trench” for the ST barrels. Luckily the soil was soft and sandy like I mentioned before.