Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Again cookie not a good test,muriatic acid is used to clean concrete which it does very well,the acid used on tile grout will dissolve it away,even bathroom cleaners with maybe 2% if used neat will damage tile grout.Vinegar is the best test for checking limestone.

Looks great colum! Can't wait to see it finished.

Hiya Colum, when you did the vinegar test did you put the sample in a glass of vinegar or put the vinegar on the sample?

I just tried both. The vinegar didn't react on either.

I tried the diluted muriatic on the sandstone, and no reaction, but the cement fizzed like crazy. I'm happy that it's safe

umm... its ok.. we got to do what we got to do...

I just realized that I have not been following your thread. I am now.

You've been missing out on so much important stuff Ron!

Well since Ron showed some interest, I thought I should do a mini update.

My lettuce is looking nice.


I planted some brussels sprouts, but I realised I don't really like brussels sprouts. They grew well though:


My snow peas are coming up well:



And still more celery than I can eat:


I planted this probably 6 months ago. It looked exactly like this, and still looks like this:


The tomatoes in my system were getting black spots on the leaves, all of them. I figured it was either black spot disease, or something else.


And I've got my plans to plant out more soon. So I ripped them all up to start again soon:



The lettuce will be going soon too, but I figured I could it eat it, rather than just make room for tomatoes.

Probably cold weather with your toms?

I think so. I did some googling and it looked like black spot disease. Usually says to trim the infected leaves, but it was all over the plants, so I figured would be better to pull them and start again. I've got plenty of plants going in, don't want them getting infected.

They were getting quite long though. And plenty of fruit on there.

In those net pots is that the horticube media I split with you?

Yup. I'm doing a test, some with the instructions you send, some with the seeds plonked into the holes and into the bed.

Neither have sprouted yet though.

I've finally had a water test that didn't result in 0's.



It must have been from me ripping up all my tomato plants. I'm going to have to research safe nitrite levels.

How much salt are you currently running?

About 3ppt. I need a salt meter, I'm still leaking a little and topping up, so I'm not 100%.