Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

That will be fine and safe to use,checking your ph is still very important.

So, any little green things popping up yet? And how are your fish doing?

Sorry, haven't updated here in a while. I had 1 small sprout come up but wilted very quickly and died. I'm pretty sure the system just wasn't ready for it yet. Of the 10 fish I put in about a month ago, all have died. I think they were getting beat around pretty good by the water draining out of the grow bed. Haven't had a chance to get any testing kits yet since it was Chinese New Year and the only fish shop was closed for 2 weeks. I have some more in depth updates on my blog. Hope to give a better update on here soon.

Sorry to hear about the crash on the system. Are you going to try the fishless cycling? And don't be to discouraged about the feeder fish, my experience had been that those fish are almost guaranteed to die, no matter how perfect the system. There does need to be an eddy area for the fish to sleep in/ rest in. With out a small area of slow moving water the fish will die of exhaustion eventually. For our koi tank we have a rock cave at one end for them to sleep in. It's just two very big rocks with a piece of red slate laid across the top. The fish love it. Here's a top view.

Is it okay to just use ordinary red bricks to make a cave like that? I have some laying around on the roof. Or would left over large diameter pvc pipes also work for that? I posted a quick update here http://taiwanaquaponics.blogspot.tw/ , but hope to provide you guys with one on the forums soon.

I'm not certain about the red bricks, sometimes theres nasty stuff used in making them and other times it's just fine, kind of a gamble. The pvc pipe sounds like a good idea, lots of people use it to create "hides" for their fish. Same effect as the cave, just not as pretty to look at. Try to position it so it creates a slow spot where the water stays calm pretty much 24/7. Smaller/younger fish especially seem to benefit from it. I like seeing your system evolving, seems like your making good progress toward a useful system. I hope those lettuces work out for you.

Sorry it took so long, but here is an update of the system. This is what it looks like now:



I replaced the old fish tank with the new orange one. The old FT was about 85L and the new one is about 160 L. I also used some starter trays to try and block algae growth. I bought two cheap lettuces to check and see if the system is working yet. I checked them this morning and it looks like they have already grown some more leaves in the past 2 days.

I finally got around to buying a pH kit, however it looks like a pretty crappy one. The measurements are not very specific. The test shows my pH is between 6.9 and 7.5 (there is no reference point between those 2). It seems like everything is going well for now. I put some old pieces of big pvc in the fish tank for fish to use as cover, but haven't bought any new fish yet. just using the dead ones in the tank for ammonia right now. I still haven't been able to find any other test kits for things like NH3, NO2 or NO3.

Thanks for all the help from everybody, hope the system is ready to go here soon

I finally got around to making some big changes to my system. This is what it looks like now:



You can see that I have added a lot of stuff. The first was the addition of a bamboo trellis I made by weaving some pieces of bamboo together. I am not sure how sturdy it is, but it is holding up for now and will hopefully be strong enough to hold up my peas and beans.

The second addition was a second grow bed. As of now I have not decided to use it as a floating raft system or a media bed. I am thinking of a media bed since it gets its water directly from the FT. I have not had a chance to try and find the expanded clay yet, so for now it is just empty.



The biggest addition is the new fish tank. This is a 260L tank (filled to about 220L). I think it was meant to be a water storage tank, but it seems to work well as a big FT as well. I built a solid lifting overflow out of larger diameter pvc with a T at the top to prevent full siphoning. I also built a spray bar with holes drilled in opposite directions on each end to aerate the water and to give it a swirl which will help to get the fish waste collected at the bottom center. It seems to be doing very well because I can see the fish poo slowly rising when I look down the middle. I had 5 tilapia in there, but they all died suddenly after about a week and a half. (http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=21060)

The SLO flows out of the FT and down to the 2 GB's. There is a reduce and a T to split the flow in two. The 2 GB's are connected to use the same drain. This was a huge pain in the ass because I had to lie on my back and put everything together. I also had the pallet blocking the route I wanted the pipes to take and had to get a little creative. After I was finished, I had to take it apart and glue it back together because it was leaking. But it is running very smoothly now. Both GB's flow into the old FT which will now be converted into a floating raft area. The water is then pumped from the floating raft bed into the FT.

Those are all the big updates for now. The next step is to build the floating raft system and get some media for the second grow bed.

After a lot of help from my wife and searching online, I was finally able to find a master test kit online. This is what I got:



It was $1,420 with shipping. I ordered it from someone on RuTen.com. It showed up 2 days later at my local 7-11 and I was able to pay them cash. I love Taiwan's 7-11's they are so convenient!

I was finally able to get an accurate picture of my water quality as before I only had a really shitty pH test and Nitrite kit available. Here are the results:



I will start with the ammonia. The NH3 levels look to be between 0.0 and 0.25 ppm. I think this is an acceptable range. I know there must be at least some ammonia in the system since I can see fish poop. The next is the nitrite level. The NO2 level looks like it is at 0.0 ppm. I think this is what I want to see. Next are the nitrates. The NO3 level looks to be at 5.0 ppm. It is the second from the top, so I think that is still pretty good. The last is the pH test. My old pH test only measured from 6.0-7.5 so I didn't really know what it was. This test shows my pH is about 8.2! That is very high. I did the gravel and vinegar test when I got my gravel and it didn't bubble, but I must not have looked hard enough for bubbles, or I missed one kind of rock when I scooped a sample out for the test. I tested the tap water and it is high too, but only at around 7.6.

Does this shed any new light on why my fish died? I have heard that tilapia shouldn't have a problem with a pH that high, but will that impact the amount of ammonia that they can handle? Do you think this high pH will have an impact on my pants? Right now I have some lettuce, beans and peas growing.

I was also able to track down some expanded clay online, and it looks like it is pretty cheap. I think I will order some for GB 2 and if my plants in GB1 die I will take that gravel out and replace with expanded clay as well.