Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Haha, yes more acurate. I was going for the 'Im a really bad parent' angle.

Im starting to think there won't be enough sun where the grow bed is going. Hopefully enough for lettuce and asian greens. Will find out when its in place and up and running.

Just priced some styrofoam for the floating raft. 1200 x 1200 sheets are $55. Will need 2 sheets.
Thinking of getting a 100 micron polypropylene filter bag from work to put inline after the media barrel to catch any solids before the raft.

How often will the filter bag require cleaning Rob? Just curious.

Regards, Martin.

I honestly wouldn't have a clue. If it blocks up too soon, I will make it easy enough to swap to shade cloth or similar

Cool.

Here is a pic of my growbed now. Pak choi is growing nicely, peas are starting to show some good growth. Some kale are still a nice dark green and there is 1 that is a bit pale. Same as Brussels. Dark green new growth, yellowish old growth.
Broccolini seedlings have been in for a couple weeks and haven't really grown at all.

Have had to reassess where the new grow bed is going. I originally planned to put it behind the system now, up against the fence. I don't know if it will get enough sun there.
I will probably put it up against the house as in the pic and will get plenty of sun. Maybe too much in summer!!


Still a lot to do to get it up and running.

I am having trouble keeping ammonia at zero. It hovers up to 1ppm fairly regularly. Nitrites are zero. Nitrates are about 160.
I have moved the pump again to where most of the food scrap and poo accumulates so will see if that helps.

Definitely go for the sunnier spot if you can. I have two systems one of which is fairly shaded the other in almost full sun. The sunny system way out performs the shady system. Enough light is very important for healthy plant growth


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Done a bit more on the new beds.
Made a frame for the blue barrels to sit on. The one on the left will be filled with media and run constant flood.
This will flow into the top of the second blue barrel that will have a finer filter/bio balls (still deciding) and will flow into the floating raft bed.
The plumbing in the picture is temporary to make sure it will work. So far so good.

Just need to line the bed and buy a pump to test the whole lot out.

Ammonia is down to 0.5 this afternoon. From reading, I don't think it is too much of an issue if it rises up to 1ppm every now and then at the lower ph I have (6.4)
Somebody please correct me if this is wrong.
Nitrites have constantly been zero.

At a low pH ammonia is definitely less toxic but it is also dependent on temperature. I have attached the popular chart for this.



As you can see the second column is for pH6.4 with the temperature running down the left hand side, the warmer it is the less ammonia is needed to become toxic to your fish. As it is winter in your area I assume your temps are in the low range.

What is strange is that when I see ammonia spikes on the forum people are always advised to do a water change but I never see someone advise that the pH of the system should be brought down to reduce the toxicity levels.

Regards, Martin.

Yea thanks Martin. That's the chart I was looking at. And seeing as it's frickin cold here at the moment, I should be fine.
I'll just keep a close eye on it.

Looking good Rob nice work hope all works well

Thanks Rod. Can't wait to get it finished. Planted a few seeds to get started for the raft.
Pak Choi
Mixed Italian Lettuces (not sure exactly what varieties)
Mizuna
Butterhead lettuce
Kale Tuscan Black
Tatsoi

Can't seem to find my basil seeds. Might need to grab another packet.

Attempting to put the liner in today. As long as the young guy isn't too much of a pain.
Not too easy for 1 person to unfold and it's not in the easiest place to work with.



What are people's thoughts on water turnover in the bed? I will aim to turn it over once per hour, so roughly 1000L an hour.