Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

That is a lot of tomatoes!

Are you cutting off the suckers? Or just letting them go crazy?

Whenever a tomato shows signs of color change , slightly blushing i cut it off and let them ripe up inside..

suckers = lateral branches

Howdy,

I would like to implement an IBC into my system for a fingerling tank / OR as a grading tank, OR as alternate species tank..

What would be the best way? I'm thinking i may have to add a pump to my fishtank (small capacity) to pump into the IBC, then a SLO from the IBC back into the other fishtank..

? Ideas? OR just make another single IBC system for the purpose..

I would probably recommend a separate single IBC system (if you don't already have a second system) so that you could use it for quarantine of new fish before putting them into the main system.

i have a single ibc system already as well..

Well then for every new tank you add to a system, you really need to make sure you increase the filtration on the system as well. I don't really like the idea of pumping from one fish tank to the other and letting it drain back to the fish tank again since it could well mean you wind up increasing the fish load without making sure the filtration is accounted for. I would want to send the water either through filtration (more grow beds) before or after the new tank or maybe even both.
However, I don't know your space or system layout really so I don't know what options you really have. (I usually don't have time to watch many videos online.) diagrams and pictures are much quicker for me to deal with .

Hi TC

I'm only running about 70 fish currently with 5 IBC grow beds (cut deeper than normal 400mm) 2000 litres of filtration give or take - as well as a radial flow filter. By my count thats 2000/20 = 100 fish

I'm also going to add a blue drum bio filter to take some load off the system (to allow greater fish stocking)

Its a CHOP1 / CHIFTPIST design

The BYAP recommendations is to only stock about 20-25 fish per 500 liters of grow bed if you are growing them out to about 500 grams each. Do looks like your current stocking is fine.
As long as you don't go nuts and adding another 100 fish into the new tank rather than just another 20-30 fish you should be ok.

Should I be worried my nitrates and nitrites are 0 with 0.25 ammonia in my 70-80 fish 5 bed system? Does that mean add more fish? :-)

Ph was mid to high 7's - system 14 months old


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You want your ammonia to be 0 ppm and you want your Nitrites to be 0 ppm
Doesn't much matter what your Nitrates are as long as your plants are doing well.
If your plants are showing signs of Nitrogen deficiency, then you need to make sure your pH is good and that your filtration/circulation can keep your Ammonia levels at 0 before you go adding more fish.