Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Damn that shroud has got some drilling in it. My first one was like that but as i had to make a further 7 of them i opted for the angle grinder for them.

544 if my memory serves me correct.


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Columnmn, I thought about it, but that us my access to the sump pump. Have thought about more grow beds but I'll see how this setup goes first.


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Well, it's been 4 days since we planted some seeds and transplanted the seedlings. The good news is that we saw our first lettuce seeds sprout after two days, and today one of our tomato seeds has decided to emerge from the clay while our cucumbers sprouted and grew a good 10-15mm between 7am and 5pm.

A few more photo's below

A few more

Nice ics, great to see things getting going. Are you testing your water?

Regards, Martin.

Martin, I have been testing, although I didn't get a chance today yet. Ammonia was somewhere between
.5 and 1ppm yesterday. I'm about to grab some water and test again for today.

Ics


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Cool. Hope the cycling is going smoothly.

Couldn't help myself. It's only after 11pm and thought I'd test the water before I went to bed.

the readings that I took fell somewhere between the two colours, hence the 'x - y' format.

PH: 7.6
Ammonia: .05 - .1 ppm
Nitrates: 0 - .25 ppm
Nitrites: 0

ICS

Water Test results after 11 days. PH seems to be rising. We have added some chelated iron as well as season and charlie carp. Plants seem to be doing okay. Beans and capsicum do have yellowing in the leaves but the beans are getting bigger by the day so I figure that it isn't detrimental.

Thoughts…

ICS

looking good ICS...

AP strawberries are awesome!

Is ther a reason you measure your tank temps at 6pm?

I agree, system and pics look great

Charlie,

6pm is when I'm home from work and also the tank has been out of direct sunlight for about an hour. If nothing else it's just a consistent time of day. I'm looking at making an insulated lid as well, hopefully I can get less variation in the water temp.

ICS

Hi all,

I've been pretty busy with work so I haven't had time to update my progress. Currently I'm in Week 4 of the cycling process and just concluded todays water tests. It looks like I may have completed cycling today.

pH: 6.0
Ammonia: .25ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 5ppm

I started with about 20 feeder fish and just last week introduced a 4 bristlenose catfish to help with the algae. I've probably got about 12 feeders left and 3 bristlenose cats. I only counted 3 that went belly up in the tank, the rest found their way through the SLO (good news it now works) and into the growbed pipework.

We have been growing veges during the cycling process. A rundown of what and how it has coped.

Strawberries: Awesome
Beans: Started off well and then the High pH stunted their activity. In saying that we have a few beans ready to harvest at the moment.
Cucumber: Planted as seeds and they have been growing really well. Now flowers or fruit yet but I'm hoping it won't be long.
Tomato: Slow growth
Lettuce: Out of control
Capsicum: Transplanted from the vege garden. Like the beans, they were hit by the high pH but are now recovering.
Corn: Started off really strong from seeds and has slowed a little although still growing.

Now I just need to get my act together about what sort of fish I want to introduce into the tank. My kids have grown attached to 'Splashy' the white and orange feeder goldfish, the rest are brown. I'd like something fast growing that we will be able to eat and replenish easily. Temperatures as you can see from my attached data have maintained an average of about 24 degrees, and that is without a insulated cover. 26 degrees is the highest tank temp I have recorded and they have been on 29-31 degree days. I started trialling some cardboard over the top on non-windy, non-rainy days. I don't have any sufficient data but it looks as though I may be able to reduce the water temp if I make up a proper insulated lid.

ICS

So ics, how's the system travelling?