Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Then came the selecting and moving of the tanks to the community garden, the best part of 1km away. A really hot day, but I had the easy job of driving the car while the other guys walked (I had the aircon going)
Then came the digging. Oh so much digging. Thankfully I usually had at least one other guy helping with that part


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Finally they were both in and the pump circulating the stinky, stagnant pond water. The pond is topped up with the overflow from the solar bore pump after it's filled the 40,000 litre tank up the top, but with the retic going and a few cloudy days the pond wasn't getting any, so no water movement.

Then came the overflow, after having to drain one tank to disconnect them and put a T piece in at the bottom.
This go's to an already existing drain pipe from the old pond and go's to water the orchard.


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I decided on using old fridges that I had degassed for me for my GB's, but while I waited for them I made a little GB out of a tub that was lying around and put some lettuce in there to get a head start on the cycling.


Finally the fridges arrived and I put them where they would roughly go. I also added a makeshift filter, a half barrel with some bricks, a 9litre bucket with holes drilled in it and some filter wool to try and clean up the water a little.


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The system was put on hold for a few weeks while exams were underway and I went overseas for a week. Before I went away the ammonia (from me putting in urea and urine) was 4ppm and a pH of 7.6
After 10 days it had cycled with a NH3 of 3ppm NO2 of 1ppm NO3 of about 3ppm and a pH of 7.4 duckweed was going nuts and had covered the whole tank.


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Skip forward a few weeks and the rest of the fridges arrived and were put into where they would eventually end up.

Then comes the fun part. Paving and leveling.



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8/7 NH3 6ppm NO2 1ppm NO3 4ppm pH 7.4 and seems to be steadily dropping.
I hadn't added any extra ammonia and was wondering where it came from.
Did a water change the next day 9/7 with rain water of about 600litres (15%) and the NH3 came down to 5ppm NO2 still 1ppm NO3 2ppm.
Jump in ammonia was due to these little fellas I suspect.

Wednesday, finished off paving and started washing gravel, my least favourite part of setting up an AP system.




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Tested water again yesterday NH3 approx 0.1ppm NO2 approx 0.6 NO3 5ppm pH had dropped to 6 (or lower). Tested rain water and it was also 6, as was the bore water.
Think that was the reason why my duckweed has started to die off a little. That and lack of NH3.
I added a little urea to it to get some more NH3 in there.

This is progress so far. Beds aren't plumbed up yet, but that will happen in the next week.


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Went and bought some garden lime from bunnings this arvo to try and raise the pH a little. Then discovered 2 big bags of hydrated lime here, one open. Planning on putting that in to bring it up.
Tested some in 5litres of water and it looks like it may need a fair bit.
Will start off with 1 heaped tablespoon per 1000litres and see how that go's, although from my tests it suggests I'll need a lot more than that.
Also discovered a place to get all of my PVC pipe and fittings from a hell of a lot cheaper than Bunnings or Masters. Paid $12.20 for a 6m length of 40mm PVC irrigation pipe. The others wanted around $17 for 3m. An 186% markup on what I could get it for, let alone what they get it for.


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Ended up putting in an extra 2 tablespoons as hadn't seen any change after about an hour of constant cycling.
I think it's severely inhibiting the nitrate conversion.


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Make that another 4 tablespoons, so 8 tablespoons all up.
Found a really good website which explains a lot about the conditions the bacteria like and the cycling system.
http://www.fishtanksandponds.co.uk/aqua ... teria.html


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Hey Jono, where did. You get all your pipe from in the end?


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A place called fusion plastics in Bibra Lake. You will want to speak to David.


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Brilliant - thanks for that :-)


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Where did you source all the fridges Jono

Tamala park waste recovery. They're $50 each for the general public, but that's degassed, the compressor and all oil dealt with and they will also fill up the holes (well most if them anyway).
Just tell them that you don't want a drain hole tho as the ones they do won't be sufficient (a piece of conduit siliconed in).


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