Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Great looking buck Leah


But back to topic

Woke up this morning and main pump wasn't pumping. Of course me being the ignorant SOB I am, I built my system with a pump in fish tank that goes to the GBs. I made it to were it leaves 4-6" of remaining water in bottom of FT if this were to happen so luckily no fish were lost. But still dont understand why pump shut off

as soon as I lifted pump out of sump tank to check it, and it broke the surface, and kind of purged it started working again like nothing ever happened

any ideas?

Sounds like something got caught on or under the impeller. Used to see this with my Rio pump on occasion.

One other possibillity about the pump is that the head height is just a bit too high and/or the pump is worn, and when you lifted it out of the water you helped it get started by reducing head height and now it may just be struggling along managing to pump… although I think what Scotty said is most likely

Well pump hasnt failed since, so hopefully thats all it was.

Question for those with experience. The first time I was spraying on maxicrop I didn't dilute the solution enough and burnt a few leaves. Everything is going okay with that, but I did accidentally get it on some of the toms. Wells now the toms are starting to ripen are they still okay to eat?

East,

Love this thread. You've got yourself a born n bred fellow Texan follower. My 308 would love some of that hog action too. Just got done with a 165gr sierra game king load running 2833 fps. Should be one heck of a slayer.

I wouldn't worry about the Maxicrop residue. Rinse off with water and enjoy.

Very nice! I havent got into making my own loads yet but want to. Right now I have been running blackhill 178s and receiving some decent groups







It wasn't really residue, I mean it actually burned it. I stopped soon as a realized want I had done

Guess I could always trim it off

Yeah you can eat the tomatoes, maxicrop isn't dangerous, just cut out any spoiled parts of the tomato.

10-4. Thank you

I will admit something my out door garden is whipping my AP gardens azz.

Shouldn't it be the other way around? Or is my system to new?

Depends.. my system was the other way around.. I have found that keeping the nutrients high enough for all my plants in AP is hard.. but I figure once I figure out the balancing act of nutrients in/out it may be more consistent. Also I am sticking mostly to growing greens like lettuce, bok choi and celery as it grows very well and requires less nutrients that the fruiting stuff.

Although a lot of people say a new system does not do as well in the first year or so.. but you also have strawberries I saw.. are your Nitrates still down or have they bounced back and remained up?

the nitrates stay in between 0-5, I have removed the strawberry towers, but put a few plants in the grow beds. They arent flowering yet, but I have cukes in the towers flowering.

I have noticed an improvement since adding maxicrop to the grow beds, I am getting more toms per cluster of flowers

also, the aphids are back, like always. They are horrible around here

not being able to maintain a stable LB population, I have ordered more

But in the meantime as anyone heard of spraying them with soapy water? i.e. Dawn Dish Soap

any idea how this would work in an AP setup?

the amount getting into the beds would be minimal, mainly just on leaves, but still some might drip down

Are the ant's bringing in the aphids?

Hiya East, Soap isn't recommended in ap and neither are white oils. Steeping tomato leaves, chilli/pepper and garlic mixes all seem to work on aphids and other pests.
No comment on the plant growth as I'm having the same issues.

Man is that what it is? LOL, I saw little black ants eating the aphids and thought, I wont put any poison down around the outside.

Skeggley, thanks for the advice, I will wait till LBs arrive

Here is an update on other forum I copied and pasted here